It seems like often the best things in my life come to me unexpectedly. When I was in college the local music shop had a bass guitar that I loved. I would go and visit it and sit to play it several times a week for months. While saving up my money to take it home. One day, as expected, I went in and it was gone, to another home no doubt. Years went by when my then girlfriend were out one night at a local watering hole that happened to be featuring a live band. Low and beh

This is part four of Kim Walker’s pool cue “How It’s Made” series—read parts one , two , three-A , and three-B to round out your knowledge. (There will be six parts in total, published on a staggered schedule.) Now that we have the material to fill the slots in the ring billets, we have to make the billets. The material veneer sandwich measured .245 inches thick. We will cut the slots .245 inches wide, and just wipe the veneer strips on a piece of 220 sand paper to make the

As a residential home building contractor and carpenter, Walter Kelley of Hallsville, Texas fell in love with the game as a teenager and started doing minor cue repair work around 1985. While his cue repair business grew, Walter opened Ace High Billiards in 1987—a retailer of supplies and accessories to support his local community of players and leagues. By 2008, Ace High Billiards added a virtual storefront and now has a complete online catalog of offerings. After doing repa

If you frequent the national and regional league scene and the annual Super Billiards Expo, there’s a cue repair vendor that is highly regarded as one of the best in the business—Joe Blackburn. At these events, Joe is never too far from his work companion, Steve Lomax of Lomax Custom Cues. The duo has garnered high respect from both players and fellow cue makers alike. Steve’s story is not too unfamiliar but a success story nonetheless: Devout player has his cue retipped at a