SHELBY WILLIAMS
WRAPLESS SIX POINT
IN EBONY AND MAPLE
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Shelby Williams of Texas is making some of the finest pool-playing instruments in the world today. His designs are always innovative and his execution is superlative. This cue shows why. It's a six point maple cue - with three long and three short ebony points.
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There are so many things to talk about with this cue that I don't know where to begin. I'll start by mentioning the excellence of his veneer work and especially, his always appealing color choices. In this one, he chose red, orange chartreuse and white, and the combination of those colors gets a radiant result.
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The effect is enhanced considerably through his use of black paper between each layer of veneer. It makes each different level of color stand out more distinctly and vividly than they would if they were just placed right next to each other.
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The veneers end going into the sheer black ebony handle.
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He uses a fairly complicated ring pattern in this cue, and uses it well at both ends of the handle.
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It's almost easy to overlook the fact that this cue is a maple cue. And the maple is very pretty to look at - slightly stained and with lots of birdseye.
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These points are beautiful and look especially exquisite going into the nicely toned maple.
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As always, his points are very sharp, even and reach deeply into the nose of the cue.
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The inlay design in the butt sleeve is very unique and one I've never seen anywhere before. It's built from white LBM and ebony and I really don't know how to describe its shape. I'll let the picture do the talking.
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It appears that he started with one big block of ebony and then inlays several white LBM pieces into that to form the design. He alternatesd the use of three big patterns and three small patterns to form the overall design.
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The handle is built from one large piece of really nice black ebony. Good ebony like this today is getting more and more difficult to find, and definitely more expensive.
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He always has complex inlaid ring patterns in his sticks, and in this one he uses it five times - above the butt cap, at the bottom, middle and top of the handle, and at the joint.
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He uses the middle ring in the handle to give it the look of a segmented handle.
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He also builds in a nice white ring just above the black butt cap, and uses it to engrave his logo/signature. Plus, the appearance of the white ring looks good and adds balance to the whole design.
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Since he uses a black butt cap it made sense to add a black joint. Then, he uses black ring collars on the shafts so that when they're screwed on the single ring is perfectly centered in the black.
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This is a magnificently designed cue.
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It is built with his standard radial steel pin in a flat-faced joint. It comes with two of his very nice premium 13mm maple shafts with Juma ferrules and Thoroughbred medium/soft tips. It weighs 19.9 ounces (15.5, 4.0, 4.0) and is 58 inches long.
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PRICE: $5250 PLUS SHIPPING
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