I recently acquired a very old and beaten up 1970's cue. The former owner told me that he actually showed it to a couple of local cuemakers for refurbishing. Apparently, all of them turned him down. One guy even told him that its not worth spending the time fixing it anymore. I took hold of the cue and told him that i would do my best to have it back in playing condition. The first thing that i did was to contact Jackson of Viattorre cues.
Upon close scrutiny, I was given the go signal that the cue can be restored. All the dirts and grime would be scraped off and the metal parts would be restored back to its original form. Finish was to remain vintage like. I also requested that a new shaft be installed since I'd like the old shaft to be kept in its vintage condition. One problem I know the other cuemakers rejected this project was because it has a non-standard pin and insert to start with and non of them are capable of fabricating the pin for the cue and for one I remember Jack telling me that they can and do make their pins in-house. A couple of weeks later, jack called me up to tell me that the cue is done and that there was a very distinct design on the butt that we never could see when it was still in its unkept form. We were totally unaware before that the carving was actually a dragon. A very nice carving of a dragon could be seen flying from the earth to the sun above. he made the butt end very nice that it now looks like a very exquisite vintage cue. i'm pretty sure that when this was still new, it can be compared to the modern production cues which one can just get off the rack but over time, the uniqueness has put it in a class of its own. the shaft that viatorre made is also a triple-A shaft and the length was done in proportion to the weight of the butt. thus giving it the much needed balance for playability. solid hit, solid shaft and solid butt. A cue indeed that i keep in my room locked up. And if I may ask, is it possible for me to upload a picture of the cue here in this message? It would be nice if someone could help me identify this and trace the origin of this cue.
thanks viattorre
DA