Straight Shooters

	Photo: Black Boar

In the song The Baron, Johnny Cash sings about a pool game between the baron and Billy Joe in which, down on his luck, Billy Joe bets his mother's wedding ring against the baron's "fancy stick."

In an unexpected and fortunate turn of events, the baron's long-lost wife shows up before the eight ball falls, and Billy Joe realizes that the baron is actually his father -- and inherits his pearl-handled cue.

Countless pool players, even the pros, can only curse Billy Joe's luck as they hand over their prized cues as payment in bets gone bad.

Many of the top pool players are hard gamblers who will wager anything of value when they get desperate, says cuemaker Anthony Sciannella, owner of custom cue outfit Black Boar. "People forfeit their cue and get out of town," jokes Sciannella.

The best cuemakers in the country, like the swordsmiths of ancient times, are hoping you won't have to hock their masterpieces of ingenuity. However, you can be assured they will fetch you a nice price if you do.

Eye Candy

Sciannella only produces eight cues a year for two exclusive clients, at around $20,000 for an eight-point cue.

When the price goes above $5,000 or $6,000, says Sciannella, the cue goes from playing item to collector's piece. "Many of these cues will never hit a ball," he says.

Dan Dishaw, president of the American Cuemakers Association and owner of Dan Dishaw Custom Cues, says that the majority of people buy cues because of how the pieces look in hand.

A friend once advised Dishaw, who formerly sold musical instruments, "If you want to sell more guitars, hang a mirror in your store." The same clearly holds true for the cue.

Basic cue construction is pretty consistent throughout the industry, says Dishaw; the difference is in the design.

"[The design] is an extension of your personality," Dishaw explains, describing one $100,000 cue made by Alaskan cuemaker Thomas Wayne on which interlaced ivory formed an intricate Celtic design interspersed with about forty gold pieces. "The gaudier it is, the more appeal it has," says Dishaw.

Think of the cue as a fashion statement akin to driving a Mercedes, suggests Arnot Wadsworth of Arnot Q Custom Cues.

Jim Stadum, co-owner of Samsara Cues, calls the cues he makes functional art. After cuemaking exploded in the 1990s, the competition became stiff, and creativity gives the needed edge.

Samsara relies on its unique techniques and styles, most notably an ancient technique called intarsia, in which many pieces of wood are glued together at different angles to create a design. The goal, says Stadum, is to have people look at his cues and wonder, "How did they do that?"

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