TIM PRINCE
WRAPLESS COCOBOLO & MAPLE CUE
WITH ABALONE
AND MOTHER OF PEARL
"NOTCHED DIAMONDS"
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Here's another very appealing cue from Tim Prince. His work is always exceptional, and this cue is a clear demonstration of just how good it can be.
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This cue is fairly traditional in design, but still pretty complex by most standards. It has a cocobolo butt sleeve and points with a maple nose and birdseye maple handle.
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Regardless of its traditional design, this cue quickly gets complex. It has a great deal of complicated inlay work, fancy rings, intricate veneer work, and uses multiple types of materials.
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The rings, used six times throughout the cue, are made up of multiple veneers (with colors matching the veneers in the points) and small squares of resplendent abalone. The colors in the abalone sparkle make the cue look almost alive with movement.
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The notched diamonds alternate between the use of white elforyn and mother of pearl.
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To add further complexity, he uses formations of notched diamonds in the butt sleeve to build several large diamond patterns. Each large diamond consists of eight small notched diamonds, alternating between mother of pearl and white elforyn. The intricacy of this design (notice the very thin wood segments left between the diamonds) is a testament to the fine machining work done by Tim.
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Between the large diamond patterns he adds more elforyn notched diamonds and very small silver circles with a minute dot of cocobolo in the their centers.
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In the end, all of the work pays off. The butt sleeve in this cue is nothing short of dazzling.
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The final inlay work comes with more notched diamonds and silver circles in the bases of the six cocobolo points.
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Six point cues are not unusual, but they're not the norm either. What does make this one unusual is the way Tim lays the short points on top of the long points, as he often does in his designs. It's the opposite of what we're used to seeing, and as is seldom done.
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The combination of all these different elements - varied materials, squares, diamonds, circles - results in a spectacular design.
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And the cue looks great in its entirety, from butt cap to the joint, as all the elements are used throughout the entire stick.
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Tim put a lot of thought into this cue, as can be seen by all of the unique features he builds into it. Even the joint configuration is a bit unusual. He uses a very short elforyn joint, and then builds short white elforyn rings into the ring collars. When the cue is put together the two separate elforyn rings fit together to form a normal sized white joint.
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I seldom use pictures of such high magnification as the one below because they tend to show things that normally can't be seen with the naked eye. I did so this time because of the high precision in Tim's inlay work. Even under this extreme magnification it's difficult to see any flaws in the inlay work. Glue lines are virtually non-existent.
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He uses five layers of veneer to frame the points as well as to construct the rings - black, natural, orange, blue and white.
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The handle is a nice, clean piece of curly maple. For fans of wrapless cues, this is a great choice.
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It is built with his standard 3/8X10 steel pin in a flat-faced joint. It comes with two 13mm maple shafts with matching ringwork, Sabre-T LBM ferrules and Ultraskin tips. It weighs 19.4 ounces (15.6, 3.8, 3.8) and is 58 inches long.
This cue is pre-owned. Tim accepted it as a trade-in from one of his regular customers on a higher end cue of his. He totally refurbished it and it looks like (and is, for all practical purposes) a new cue. The price reflects this, and it is a bargain at this price.
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PRICE: $4200 PLUS SHIPPING
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