Pool Cues, Pool Sticks and Cue Sticks

Ask any great player and they'll tell you that the most import piece of equipment that a pool player can own would is a pool cue.  The modern two-piece pool cue has been around for over a century.  The pool cue actually started as a "mace", which was an instrument that had a club-like end and the player would simply scoot, shove or hit the cueball with as they desired.  The o­ne-piece cue as we know it today when a leather tip was added at o­ne end so to decrease miscues. chalk soon followed aftwerwards and the evolution of english and spin took over the imagination of the players.  Players soon decided to travel with their own cues, since they noticed that they played better with a familiar instrument, and the two-piece cue became an overnight necessity.  About that time, cuemakers invented methods to secure the two pieces of the cue.  This spawned the invention of several modern-day joints that pool cues use today.  Several advancements have been made to enhance the pool cue and it's playing characteristics, but for the most part all cues have the same elements of construction; butt, shaft, joint, tip and ferrule. 

There are numerous brands of pool cues available in the market today.  Most of the brands fall into two basic categories; custom cues or production cues.  Custom pool cues are cues that have hand chosen materials and have an artisan construct them to the highest qualities.  They would be synonomous with a Ferrari.   Production cues usually lack a portion of the hands o­n attention that a custom cue receives, but they also lack the price tag that accompanies the more sought after custom names.  Make no mistake, a good production cue will improve a players' game.  Production cues can be synonomous with anything from a Ford Escort to a Cadillac or a Lexus. Prices range from $10 to over a $1000 in this category.  The best way to judge these cues is by the way they feel in your hand.

Pool Cues and Pool Sticks:

Action Pool Cues, Blaze Pool Cues, Cuetec Pool Cues, Hampton Ridge Pool Cues, 5280 Pool Cues, Tempest Pool Cues, Sterling> McDermott Pool Cues, Predator Pool Cues, Meucci Pool Cues, Viking Pool Cues, Joss Pool Cues, Pechauer Pool Cues, Schon>, Sierra Pool Cues, Fury Pool Cues and Mezz Pool Cues.

What most players need to do is to get away from house cues that have lousy tips and varnished shafts.  These o­ne-piece cues or bar cues are synonomous with a subway or city bus.  They'll get you top where you're going, but it won't be in style and rarely o­n time.  In a word, o­ne-piece cues offer limited playing characteristics.  The characteritic that most house cues lack is the materials of construction.  The most important of this category is the wood in the shaft.   It should be a Hard Rock Canadian Maple and not Pine or Ramin wood.  These woods are not flexible oand do not allow the cue stick to bend and apply english during the stroke.  A shaft that bends during the shot is like a loaded rubber band or spring that snaps back and releases energy into the cueball in the form of speed and spin.  So the next time you're forced to shoot with a bar cue, choose the o­ne that has a shaft made from Canadian Hard Rock Maple. 

Visit InsidePOOL for information about pool cues, cue sticks, pool sticks and billiard cues.