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0408335364 NSW Australia
The game of pool has been a passion of mine since I started playing competitively in 1997. While studying at Otago University in New Zealand, I was coached under the "Monk Program" by Lydia Nenewale - who was, and still is, New Zealand's No. 1 ranked female 8ball player. I play international 8ball and 9ball (9 foot American table) with a Predator pool cue; and snooker, billiards and pub pool with a Jazz Handcrafted cue.
I handcrafted "toa" pool cues in New Zealand using Black Maire timber paua shell inlays. I then had them carved by a Master carver from Rotorua and added a predator Z shaft and moray medium tip. These were produced in a very limited number for special orders, and as most hancrafted cues were very time consuming and expensive to make ($500 - 600) without the shaft.
I have played with many factory and handcrafted cues and found most either look nice but play bad, or play well but are too expensive. The cues you find in sports stores around Australia and NZ for $80 - $120 are just not up to standard and are prone to warping in a relatively short time. 95% of pool players actually play pool with a snooker cue. This is becase 95% of players play on pub tables, or English style pool and snooker tables. It actually makes sense to play with a snooker cue because a proper pool cue is too heavy and the tip is too big to have optimum control on these types of tables.
For those of you that do not know the difference, a pool cue tip is usually around 12mm with a plastic ferrule weighing up to 21 ounces usually made out of maple. A snooker cue has a much smaller tip around 10mm with a brass ferrule and usually made out of ash and weighing usually 17 - 19 ounces.
I believe the Jazz cue bridges the gap in the market and enables the pool enthusiast to get their hands on a quality handcrafted cue that looks and plays like a cue over 3 or 4 times the price.
Nathan Froggy Robinson
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