Straightening vintage cues

[Whaplodedave]

My 80 year old friend retired from playing and gave me 2 cues he has had for many years .

They are Joe Davis club and champion cues

But both are warped.

Is it worth taking them to my local cue maker to get straightened / taken down.

It will roughly cost me 40 pounds each as this is what my previous cue cost.

So roughly with travel etc £100 for 2 cues that may still be slightly bent when they are done

Or should I sell the pair as spare / repair on ebay and add that to the £100 it would cost to get done and put that towards a straight vintage cue.



All advice welcome, many thanks

[Cue crafty]

No easy answer here, both cues in good condition would be worth in the region of a £100/£150 each, so if I was going to invest in them to get them straightened it would have to be because I wanted to actually use them as playing cues.

So questions I would ask myself, are they in great overall nick other than the bends and do I like the models to play with, is there an emotional connection to them, if no to these, I'd sell on as is and buy something else.

Lots of effort taking them and paying to get straightened and maybe they still won't be great.

[j6uk]

I do plenty of work with vintage/reclaimed materials and it’s 60/40% ether way if the wood will move after straitened..
So, in short, save your money and leave it to someone who genuinely thinks it’s worth tinkering with.

[Whaplodedave]

Thank you both for your advice.
The champion cue is one I'd probably want to play with but until its mended I wont know .
I'm currently using a vintage riley tombstone so may lookout for another good vintage cue rather than ending up with 2 that are not that good after paying out

[j6uk]

No harm in bending it back to where you want it.
Might be surprised by the results.. Be vigorous but don’t over crank it, especially not around the splices as they can pop.

[vmax]

Take the finish off with 400/500 grit sandpaper and leave them in an outside place like a garage, shed or even in a bathroom that's used daily for showering for a couple of weeks, somewhere that's liable to damp so that they will absorb a little moisture and straighten themselves out a bit. I've done this to a few cues and it sometimes works very well as cues warp when they lose moisture so putting some back over a period of a couple of weeks is a better than the steam bending process that can be a bit severe.
Bend over your knee a bit if they don't go back absolutely straight, a litte bit over from where they were so they can over come their memory move back to straight, then give them an oil finish (four coats linseed or danish) to seal the outside of the wood.
Cues should be re-oiled annually to prevent them drying out and warping, I use 0000 grade steel wool damped in white spirit to remove the finish, dry cue immediately with a paper towell and apply your oil finish allowing each coat to dry over night and then the final coat to cure over a week.