MIKE DURBIN
EIGHT POINT EBONY & MAPLE
WITH BRIDGED POINTS AND ABALONE INLAY
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This is a splendid cue from the Durbin shop - an elegant cue that has a lot of work in it. It's ornate, and yet looks deadly serious and ready for substantial play.
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It's an eight-pointer, four long and four short. The points are all ebony with the four long ones framed with brilliant veneer work and the short ones tipped with small arrowheads.
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This cue is loaded up with so many extras, it's hard to know where to begin a description, but how about with all the diamonds? Notched diamonds, even notched abalone diamonds, aren't particularly rare. But you don't often see this many.
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There are thirty-six notched abalone diamonds in total. Not many cuemakers want to take that job on!
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Next, count the small abalone dots - 52 in total.
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One of the reasons I mention this is that most cuemakers have some system of pricing their cues, and almost all of them add value for the number of inlays involved. For example, each diamond might add $30 to the overall cost. Each dot perhaps $10. Bridged points? Add $300-400. And so on. Thus, you can see why a stick with this many diamonds and dots can start to get expensive pretty quickly.
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As you would expect, rings add to the cost. The more complex the rings, the more they cost. Rings like the ones in this cue are pretty complex, so not only do they add value, they add considerably to the elegance of the cue.
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When you see this cue in person and take all the individual features in all at once, it's an incredible cue.
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This stick features an ebony butt sleeve, ebony points and a birdseye maple nose. It was built 10-12 years ago, and I recently purchased it out of a private collection where it was test-hit only. Mike repolished it for me and I'm able to offer it for sale now in "new" condition.
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One of the other great features of this stick is the bridging of the points. As you can clearly appreciate in the picture below, all the veneers are bridged across from point to point. This takes a lot of extra work on the part of the cuemaker, and always adds significantly to the overall appeal of the stick.
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The veneers are beautiful. He uses a thin layer of pale yellow on both sides of a bold and wide blue veneer. The color really stands out against the ebony.
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I like the way he veneered the long points in blue, and let the shorter ebony points stand on their own against the maple background with the addition of some small ebony arrowheads.
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Mike built it with a white LBM butt cap and signed it under the finish on the butt.
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He wrapped the handle with a supple black elephant leather that looks rich and lush, and feels excellent in your hand. He added a white joint, and built it with a 3/8 X 11 G-10 pin. It comes with two of Mike's specially selected Premium maple shafts with LBM ferrules and LePro tips. Each shaft measures about 12.8mm.
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Finally, he finishes this superb build by adding a set of matching joint protectors from maple and white LBM. Each is engraved on the top. this is an exceptional cue from a great cuemaker. Lots of top players are playing with his sticks, and cues like this one show why.
PRICE: $4800 PLUS SHIPPING
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