RON HALEY
FLEUR D'LIS FOUR POINT
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Ron Haley is looked up to by other cuemakers as a cuethier who takes his time, makes great cues with extreme precision, and consistently takes traditional designs and makes them something special. This cue is a good example.
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Getting a nice Ron Haley cue feels like winning the lottery. He makes a very limited number of cues each year and has something like a ten year waiting list. But what makes them more difficult to obtain is that when people get them, they seldom let go of them. I was fortunate to buy this one, not just because it's a Haley, but because it's one of the prettiest I've seen.
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Like most Haleys, it's a traditional design - a four point maple birdseye nose with rosewood points and butt sleeve. It has beautiful stylized Fleur D'Lis inlays of ivory into the points, accentuated with silver bars and ivory dots.
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| The yellow, orange, red and black veneers give this cue some "pop" and really add to its overall appearance. As usual with his cues, the inlays and veneers are done with complete precision. His cues are always clean, classy and sophisticated.
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Ron's cues don't just look great, they play great. That's a big part of why they're in such demand. They have an old-school, solid hit that isn't easy to find anymore. I test-hit this cue, and was almost shocked at how good it hit.
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He wraps this in beautifu brown elephant hide, with a perfect thickness, and it appears to be seamless at first glance. You have to search under a good light to find the seam, which is almost invisible.
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| I love the way he designed the butt sleeve on this cue. Again, it's very traditional, but the large ivory boxes with the classy inlays and the silver ring just above the white Hoppe-style ring all go together perfectly. Again, note the attention to detail on the Hoppe ring - he puts black construction paper above and below the ivory ring to give it a nice, crisp look.
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When you look at a cue like this one, what initially hits you is its beauty. But when you look more closely you realize that a lot of subtle little things have been done that contribute to that wonderful first impression. For example, the Fleur D'Lis inlays have a distinctive look that make them stand out. It's because he uses a black acrylic around them to make them jump out at you. It's the same with the small ivory dots. And, the veneers. Each set of veneers is separated from the rosewood points by black construction paper so the two don't bleed together. Take a look at the ivory boxes in the butt. Each one is surrounded with black construction paper to clearly differentiate them from the surrounding veneer. It's these little touchs that add up to complete the overall distinctive look of the cue.
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| He built this cue with a solid stainless-steel piloted joint with a 5/16 X 10 bolt. But to appreciate this joint, you have to have it in your hands and screw it together. It's the best compression joint I've ever felt. About a 1/4 inch before it joins, it starts to tighten up, and when it finally joins completely, it has tight and solid as a joint can be. I think it a big part of the solid hit that this cue displays.
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As with almost all Haley cues, the ring pattern is his "go to" dot-dash, Morse-code type ring. This is probably the key identifier of his cues. A couple of other cuemakers have done rings similar, but he is the only one I know of to use this exact pattern, and use it consistently.
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This stick is signed, dated and numbered in three different places - on the butt bolt, just below the joint on the maple nose, and inside the joint. This one is number 203, built in 2016. It comes with his standard, custom built joint protectors. They are just black delrin, and nothing fancy, but they are custom, compression fitted to fit nice and snug.
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This cue weighs 19.4 ounces and is 58 inches long. It comes with two 13mm shafts with ivory ferrules.
It is currently not for sale.
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