Some good wood(work)
I had some work done to one of my classic/vintage pool cues recently. The work came out better than expected, so I thought I'd share some pictures of the job. The cue is a 1970's King James Rempe Royal Standard Customs cue. It was made by Adam Cue Company to Jim Rempe's personal specifications and only available through Aquarius Billiard Supplies in Scranton Pennsylvania.
The cue has a long interesting history of ownership. (the python skin case too) They came into my possession from the family of an old dear friend. When this 34 year old (give or take) wand came to my front door it was in tired shape. Warped shaft, dirty wrap, broken down bumper and the leather was done. Some of it was normal wear/tear but I figured the warpage came from the climate change - moist/humid to dry. I took it to Quint at Best Quality Billiards and we talked through some options. I wanted to do a complete overhaul top to bottom. He suggested being a little more sympathetic with it due to the condition of the signature on the forearm. Once it gets sanded off it's gone forever... Good point.
As the work was being done the shaft maker called to get a little more info from me. We made slight tweaks to the specs for better playability - a pro taper, Ivorene instead of an ivory ferrule and the tip. I went with an Elk Master instead of a Le Pro. Nothing that would really take away from the cue's vintage. The next pic is what is left of the original shaft. The ferrule is genuine center tusk ivory. I'm going to use it to make a pocket chalker.
The turn around time was about two weeks. New bumper, Irish linen wrap and complete shaft. The cool thing about the shaft is the use of the original collar and brass threads.The cue is a soft hitter and plays like a dream.
A little bit of the history... This cue has been in and out of Rempe's pro shop at (the now gone) Arena Billiards in Moosic Pennsylvania. I played at Arena quite a bit in the 1990's. The case is a python skin Fellini that (at one time or another) belonged to Rempe himself. Pretty cool.
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