Cleaning/Maintenance Of Cue

[Big Splash!]

A few cue oils are around the £10 mark plus postage. If your cue oil is that good than it is surely worth £20 inclusive of p&p (dependent of oil amount per vial)?

This could be your moment.

Step forward and walk the talk!

True, but those oils are made by famous cue makers. I'm just me. Thanks for the post though.

[jimmymoller]

Oh boy this forum is full of the most gullable people on the planet.

You know what secret ingredient means?

Spit.

Most of these sellers take a tin finishing oil be it linseed oil, boiled linseed, finishing oil whatever all of which do the job perfectly as the main difference is drying time. They then add their secret ingredient whatever it is it's pointless and just makes the add sound better. They then rebottle it and end up selling it at for 10 times it's cost.

[MrRottweiler]

I agree that cue care can be free so why pay for products that probably do more harm than good. A mate once told me the best way to clean a cue is a wipe with wet tissue and then a wipe with dry tissue. Pinch the cue just under the ferrule with the other hand so you don't accidentially catch the tip or get it wet. This removes all the chalk dust and other crap which leaves the cue silky smooth.

[Big Splash!]

If it's made of kiln dried ash, i.e. 99% of cues, cleaning the cue with sulfuric acid is the way to go.

[dmorley85]

Sulphuric acid? Seriously? I've been using sugar soap wipes
And then finish it off with beeswax spray, wood silk it is called) are these good or not? The sugar soap wipes seem to clean the shaft really well & then I finish it with the wood silk spray it seems to do a really good job using both of these.

[jimmymoller]

dmorley85...Take no notice of the forums resident muppet big Splash. He aint got his backside since he joined for the umpteenth time in June having been banned so often. 791 posts in 3 months and not one of them makes any sense.

Wipe your cue with a dry cotton face cloth every time you re case it. That size of cloth will fit inside a case easily. If your cue is chalk stained you may need to dampen one end of the cloth first before wiping it dry.
Every now and then which depends on how much your cues used say once a year maybe twice, go all over the cue with the finest of wire wool grade 0000. At that point you may well find a couple of dinks that you haven't noticed before to get them out take a tea towel get it really wet put your cue on the ironing board, cover it with the tea towel and press a hot iron on it like your pressing trousers. The water will then get in the wood as there's no "seal" to stop it and the heat will make the wood dink rise as it turns to steam. Depends on how deep a dink is but 5 mins of pressing will get the most of them out. Let it dry for a few mins, 0000 wire wool over the now smooth dinks and your ready to oil the cue.
Many real cue makers use Liberon finishing oil it's a blend of oils formulated to dry pretty quick (about 5 hrs) apply it all over the cue with ordinary kitchen tissue and leave it to dry. Ditch the paper as it's highly flammable now. Repeat the oiling process say 3 to 5 times over the next few days. Each time lightly wire wool it and each time it'll take a bit longer to dry until finally it's still moist after about 10 hours. It's telling you then it can take no more. I don't wire wool that last oiling I just get a yellow duster and hand polish it for 20 mins or so. The end result is you have a cue that Trevor White, Craftsman cues, Mastercraft, any of them couldn't finish better. Polish it with a yellow duster regulary and it just gets harder and shinier.

[jimmymoller]

ps don't forget to turn the iron off.

[Big Splash!]

ps don't forget to turn the iron off.

The fruit bats come out at night. LOL :biggrin-new:

[billabong]

Sulphuric acid? Seriously? I've been using sugar soap wipes
And then finish it off with beeswax spray, wood silk it is called) are these good or not? The sugar soap wipes seem to clean the shaft really well & then I finish it with the wood silk spray it seems to do a really good job using both of these.

The wink is usually an indication that it's a statement written in jest,

even thought the lines are quite fuzzy when BigSplash is posting.


Anyone else think the bold letters would be more suitable for a more accurate username ?

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[Big Splash!]

The wink is usually an indication that it's a statement written in jest,

even thought the lines are quite fuzzy when BigSplash is posting.


Anyone else think the bold letters would be more suitable for a more accurate username ?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You been on your bong again? 'Fuzzy' - fuzzy logic? :biggrin-new:

[Byrom]

I use a hand wipe - buy them in packets anywhere - they not as damp as baby wipes they dry quicker better than using a wet towel and they get all the crap out of your cue which looks very good then buff it with your cue towel.

As for oils I like the Dave Coutts oil best. The smoothest finished cue I ever felt was made by him so I bought his oil. but jimmymoller is probably right with his comments. He sounds like he knows his stuff and I do something similar if I oil mine but yeah takes time. So you can do mine next time Jim?

[jimmymoller]

Well the oiling bit is only what Trevor told me in a thread here years ago mind he used raw Linseed oil then dunno if he still does.
Dave Brown at Craftsman Cues suggested Liberon again in a thread here and I''ve used it ever since.

Which bring me onto a funny but true story all because Liberon dries pretty quickly.

Couple of months ago I oiled my favourite cue and a couple of others propped them up against the fireplace to dry. (fireplace not the fire which is never lit)

Knew I should have put them in a rack but I thought nah they'll be ready for a second coat before going to bed I'll rack them then.

Couple of hours later I stepped on the end of the one and only ever so slightly loose floorboard in the house which I've never noticed and it just happens to be in front of the fireplace and yeah you've guessed it, one cue slid to the left into another into my favourite and all three fell towards the TV. I virtually dived at the buggers to catch them but all I ended up doing was to fall onto them and all three fell on the edge of the glass topped TV stand with me landing on top of them.

How they all remained in one piece I don't know but I got the dinks out of two of them no problem but my favourite had a hell of a gash in it. Honestly had it been a cut in an arm it would have needed stitches it was so deep.

I was gutted, I was convinced it was too deep to be steamed out. In 8 years of looking for another bit of spalted big leaf maple burl as good to get another cue made like it I'd never found any. A resplice job would be a miracle find.

Took it to Mastercraft, fingers crossed I spoke to Chris, "Can you help please, pretty pretty please?

"I'll try but I dunno how good it'll turn out that is a deep un. How on earth did you do that."

I told him, and thinking about it now he must have realised how gutted i really was.

Goes back there a week later.. "Any luck?"

Chris.. I took it home did exactly what you did with the others and got most out but didn't realise you were coming today I have not finished it yet.

Dave.. "Let's have a look" takes it off me and puts it in a vice "I'll finish it off for you"

Chris.. "want a cuppa?"

Chris and I turn towards the kettle and got a brew going.

I turned round and Dave was heating up a chisel with one of them gas bottle burners the sort that are the size of a washing up bottle. He gets it hot (not red hot but enough to give you a damn good burn) and then strokes my beloved with the flat of the chisel.

"WTF is he doing !!!!" I thought but remained speachless and frozen to the spot. It's gonna be scorched to hell surely.

Five mins later with my eyes having being diverted craftily by Chris two or three times with him saying look at this or something or other Dave says "hows that?" and undoes the vice.

It was absolutely perfect.

"I'm gobsmacked" said I "how did that not get scorched? you reheated that chisel a few times"

Smirking like a cheshire cat Dave said: "Yeah but every time Chris diverted your eyes I wet the cue with this" and he grabs hold of a soaking wet lump of tissue out of a mug he had on the bench filled with water.

Pair of bloody comedians ! It was all pre planned they even made sure I was standing just far away enough from the vice so that I could not see any water on the cue. The chisel couldn't have been that hot really as I'd have seen some steam surely but it worked a treat and they had dressed me up like a kipper!

[itsnoteasy]

Nice post Jimmy, I enjoyed that, I wouldn't have the stones to do anything like that to my playing cue. I do have a couple that are worthless I might put a few dings in them and have a wee go at getting them out.

[vmax4steve]

Soap of any kind, should not be applied to an oil finished cue. None. You will remove the cue oil if you apply soap. If you wish to keep oiling your cue, go for it!

Go pro, either use a damp cloth or a dry cloth. I don't see pros in the arenas or backstage pumping the soap dispenser and whacking it on their cues. A damp cloth will lead to smoother finish but it also removes oil. A dry cloth leaves a shinier smooth surface over time. I'm moved over to a dry cloth and got used to not having an ultra glide cue. Also ignore muppet 'cue makers' who tell you to use wire wool in addition to soap. I woudn't trust them to clean my car, they know so little.

The pros in the arena aren't cleaning their cues now are they, just getting the sweat off them while playing. The thread is about cleaning dirt off the shaft of the cue, and a little soap on a damp cloth will do that without taking off any oil. Finishing wood with oil, when done properly by applying several coats allowing for the correct drying time between coats, and buffing to a shine will give a hard dry finish that cannot be taken off by a little bit of soap on a damp cloth as the oil has penetrated the wood.

The use of 000 wire wool is recomended by Rustins for their surface cleaner, it won't raise the grain or remove any of the surface timber, it will simply prepare the wood for re-oiling by removing all dirt and grease, as I explained once a year not every time you play and get a sticky cue.

Secret own recipe cue oil especially for angel ash that can be removed with a damp cloth, hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh !!!

[jimmymoller]

I'll be honest, there's a bit of embellishment in that story, Dave used a chisel all right and he scared the whatsit out of me but they were not having me on I saw the water from the off it was not being hidden.

Makes for a better read though don't it?

Maybe big splash can learn a lesson from it... It's better to have a laugh with people than laugh at them.