TIM PRINCE
WRAPLESS MERRY WIDOW
IN PURPLEHEART AND MAPLE
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Here is another pretty stick from the shop of Tim Prince. This one is a relatively simple merry widow design, allowing the beautiful woods to take center stage - in this case, purpleheart and some stunning curly maple.
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As always with Tim's cues, however, he makes them special with his brilliant inlay work. In this case, he focused a lot of his effort into these delightful rings, fully inlaid with silver wire.
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The purpleheart is very nice - brilliant color with nice, sharp grain, and very uniform throughout.
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The long solid piece in the forearm as well as the piece in the butt sleeve show a subtle wavy figure that adds variety throughout the wood.
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The birdseye maple in the handle contains small eyes throughout, and shimmers with movement and light.
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Although the woods play major roles in this stick I think the rings are the real stars. And Tim uses them throughout - six times overall - so we have lots of opportunities to enjoy them. Rings like these, with this much handwork in them - usually cost $250-300 each, so six sets add lots of value to this stick.
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Below is a full length photo of the entire butt, showing how well it all comes together.
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The most important feature of any cue is how well it hits and plays. Tim's cues all have a nice sharp hit with great balance, and most important to me - feedback. You really get great feedback from the cue ball straight back to your hand on the handle, with outstanding sensitivity.
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A couple more looks at this pretty purpleheart wood ...
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A closer look at the immaculate work in the ringset. Tim is one of the top machinists in the business. Take a good look at how tight the work is, and try to imagine the tight tolerances he uses and how long it must take to do this kind of work. He has always been known for his delicate and precise work, and this is a good example of it.
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It's nice that he takes the time to add the fancy rings to the collars on the shafts. It's something a lot of cue makers don't do on cue in this price range.
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It is built with his 3/8X10 stainless steel pin in a flat-faced joint. It comes with two 13mm premium maple shafts with Sabre-T LBM ferrules and Ultraskin tips. It weighs either 18.9 or 19.5 ounces, depending on which shaft is used (15.4, 3.5, 4.0). It is 58 inches long.
This is a great-playing cue that is very eye-pleasing, by a top cue maker at a very affordable price.
PRICE: $2450 PLUS SHIPPING
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