MIKE DURBIN
2023 SPECIAL COLLECTION CUE
INTERNATIONAL CUE COLLECTOR SHOW
"MIDNIGHT IN BURL"
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Offered here is Mike's contribution to the 2023 ICCS Special Collection. Cues built for this collection (and auctioned at the show) were all built for the theme "Midnight In Burl." Every cue had to be predominantly ebony, with a burl of the builder's choice. Mike chose Golden Amboyna Burl, and decided to build a BIG box cue.
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This is a magnificent cue by a very good and well-known cue maker. Many top players shoot with Mike's sticks, including Shane McMinn, Jamie Barracks, David Matlock, and John Gabriel. He is also widely recognized for his contributions to the game of pool through his support of both amateur and professional players, and his construction of world-class pool arena in Sullivan, Illinois. Added to all that, he's a pretty good player himself and knows how a good cue should hit.
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The design of this cue - although it looks complex - is relatively simple. It is a Gabon ebony cue with eight long rectangular Golden Amboyna Burl boxes and a matching Golden Amboyna centerpiece. This Golden Amboyna Burl is really hard to find and adds value to this piece. (All white in the cue is "Supertusk", a specific brand of elforyn.)
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Every box is framed with a bold silver veneer with small white Juma dots at each corner, also wrapped in silver. The silver veneer is offset, showing a second, inner frame of ebony.
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In the middle of the stick is an eight inch section of golden amboyna burl, which anchors the design. It is a palindrome design, meaning the same design goes from the middle of the cue out in both directions. Whether you hold the cue joint up or joint down, it looks the same. It's a very unusual design for a box cue.
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All of the boxes have an ebony oval in the middle, inlaid with a white Fleur-de-lis design. (As a side note, Fleur-de-lis translates from French as "flower of the lily." It came to represent royaly in France, and eventually evolved to mean perfection.)
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Offset from the top and bottom of each box approximately a half inch is an inlaid spearhead of more amboyna.
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He builds in a nice ring set of more amboyna and silver - a design he calls his "Kelly" rings. (He first used this design on a cue he built for his wife, Kelly.) He uses small amboyna rectangles outlined in silver, slightly offset to make it look like each piece of amboyna is wrapped in both ebony and silver. But look closely at the silver rings. They are not solid rings, each amboyan square is outlined with short, separate pieces of silver - a much more time consuming process, but well worth the extra effort.
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On one side of the white Juma butt cap he engraves his traditional logo - his name - and on the other side, "2023 ICCS SPECIAL COLLECTION", indicating it was his entry in the Midnight In Burl collection.
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The amboyna burl is of especially good quality, nice deep burl and nice golden honey color. The ebony is also excellent quality, nice and black.
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Lots of work in this beauty.
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The burl is outstanding - consistently marked with small circles and swirls.
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An exquisite cue in all respects, and as with a lot of Durbins, a cue to be enjoyed and played, or to take a respected place in a nice collection.
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Mike loves the feel of the G10 resin pin in his cues, and feels they are instrumental in achieving the great hit all his cues seem to have. He uses it with a flat-faced wood-to-wood joint with the 3/8 X 11 pin.
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He adds a matching set of joint caps, each capped with a silver disk. The butt cap has his name, and the shaft caps are numbered "1" and "2". The butt cap has matching ring work.
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It comes with two of Mike's premium maple shafts, both about 13mm, with elforyn ferrules and Triangle tips. He consistently has an outstanding selection of properly cut and aged maple blanks. The cue is 58 inches long and weighs 20.2 ounces (16.6, 3.6, 3.6). This is an outstanding cue by a very solid cue maker.
PRICE: $7800 PLUS SHIPPING
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It also comes with a matching custom-built case by Ray Shultz of Owensboro, Kentucky, who made the case for Mike. (The case is a little tight, but does add value to the cue.)
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