Ask the Cuemaker #8 Kenny Murrell

[Bells]

Hello,
What is your most favorite wood to work with and why? Have you ever built any full splice cues? If you were to build a cue that had venered boxes in the butt section would the veneers be "stacked" or "mitered". Also would it be possible to see some pics of your cues. Thanks for taking the time to do this.......

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by JimBo

Part 8 in our very informative series, this one should be an interesting one for a lot of reasons, first Ken is some what of a rookie cuemaker, and second I don't know much about him. Up until this one I was friends with the people who have participated, so I can't wait to learn something new and get to know all about Ken.

Kenneth Murrell was a 20+ year military man working in and running a Navy machine shop, he retired 6 years ago and he started building cues, now he's a stay at home Dad and cue builder, he started doing repairs on cues while in the Navy, he's now based in the FL pan handle. As I have already stated I don't know much about Ken so I'll kick us off with some easy questions.

1) Ken Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. Can you explain your start a little better for me, Are you a pool player, if so how long have you played the game and how would you rate yourself (A,B,C,D scale). How popular is pool on Navy bases and do the players have their own cues?

2) Who helped you on actually making a cue, have you worked in any other shops, did you learn from a book or CD/tape?

3) What cuemakers from the past have influenced your work, and who's cue did you play with?

4) How would you describe your style as far as looks and design?

5) What do you feel is the most important aspect of the cue from a construction standpoint?

Jim <---Snuck 12 questions into 5, very sneaky start.

Hi Jim.
Thank you for having me here.
I started playing pool at about age 7, my father and uncle where quite the players back in their day.
I got started doing a repair to a Meucci cue for a guy on the ship and it just sort of evolved from there. While in the Navy, I played pool in more countries than I can remember. Been drunk in most of them also. Nothing better than walking into a pool hall in the middle of a small Italian town, nobody speaks English, but all of them want to play 9 ball with you.
Never worked in anybody elses shop, never read a book or watched a CD on building cues. With a long machine background, I spent some time studying the cues that I owned, blue printed one out the way that I would build it and built it from the plan. It played alright, nothing to write home about, but it gave me a basic idea of what had to be done. From there, I have refined my process somewhat, changed the way some things are done and the cues play much better now.
Over the years, I have owned Szamboti's, Balabushka's, early Joss, Scruggs, Palmers, Kersenbrock, etc. I used to collect the early R series Schon's. I have always liked the plain and simple, 4 point with veneers, simple butt sleeve. I currently play with a 5 point with veneers, plain butt sleeve and hoppe ring, buck horn joint and ferrule. Simple, to the point and plays great.
As for a style, well I am not sure I have one. I started building what I liked but over time it became more what the customer wanted. Now I build primarily what the customer designs with some of my influence mixed in, but I have never been the best at design. If Thomas Wayne is the Savant at design, I am the idiot. Most of my best designs are scrap now. I keep it simple unless the customer wants to come up with an idea and I can usually expound on that and figure out how to build it and make it astetically pleasing. That is my strong point, figuring out how to do what they want in their design, give it some finishing touches and flow.
Everybody has an opinion of what is the most important in cue building. I figure it would be consistancy in what you are doing, using the best materials and keeping close tolerances while fitting.

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by RoyL

Hi Ken,

I keep reading about how each subsequent year it is getting harder and harder for cuemakers to purchase good maple for shafts. Is there really that much of a shortage for high grade maple shaft wood? Or are some cuemakers just not looking in the right locations?

I ask this because I see some people claiming to have "their" sources, and they seem to have vast quantities of what they deem to be high grade shaft wood. One website I visited had what appeared to be pallets of shaftwood.

Just wanted to get a cuemaker's opinion.

Good shaft wood is no harder to find now than it was 20 years ago. Old growth trees were milled into lumber in the late 1800's, nothing is old growth now. Good shaft wood just cost allot more now, and some cue makers are not as picky as the ones making cues 20 years ago were. No matter where you get your shaft wood, you get good, mediocre and so-so from time to time. You have to set a standard as to what you will use and live with the cost.

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by brooklynjay

hi kenny,

i was wondering if you do anything else creative besides cuemaking. where do you draw your inspiration from? also what are your feelings behind cue design theft?

thanks

jay

I am a collector of sorts, mainly cameras and watches. I used to turn bowls and spindles, but no time for it now. I love photograpy and used to be a portrait photographer, payed allot better than cue making. These days, I am a full time stay at home dad, cook, house cleaner, etc. I work around the twins, which will be 4 this month. Take my advice, have kids early! I will be past madatory retirement age when these 2 get out of high school. Anybody that says having kids keeps you young never had to deal with twins.
Design theft.......I am sure that out of the thousands of cues built over the years, I have used an inlay or design that was concieved by someone else. I dont go searching for cues to copy or designs to draw from. I use what I grew up with for most of my cues, simple with little or no inlays, let the wood speak for itself. I am sure that some of the designs that I have built for people have come from a desing someone else concieved, it would be nieve to think anything less. If I know it is a direct copy from another person, I will not build it for the customer. I do use some general shapes that I like with my own flair added of course.

[Kenny]

Yes, linen. I have never been a big proponent of linen wraps, but some people just have to have them so I do them. Same with stainless joints. A gentleman down in Texas insisted that he had to have a cue built to the same specs as his Gus and talked me into doing a stainless joint cue for him. I have always liked the look of this style of cue but sometimes stainless can really depress the feel of a cue to me.
Thank you, I guess I am a little anal when it comes to the small details. If it does not look right, smell right or sound right, it gets **** canned and I start over. That cue that went to Germany that you speak of....I actually made 3 forearms for it, third time was a charm! .....Thank goodness
I will see what I can do about posting some pictures up here. I am actually working on a new computer and I dont have any of my pictures loaded on this computer so I will have to work at it.

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by RoyL

I thought of a hypothetical question for you. If there was another big cue boom in Japan or maybe a new boom in China, and your cues were among the "must have" cues, would you consider an agreement from a dealer empowering them to become an exclusive distributor of your cues?

Basically, would the lure of a say three-four year guaranteed sell of all cues built, at higher than usual prices, outweigh the fears of being called a "sellout" by disgruntled customers now unable to afford your cues.

I wouldn't have a problem because I don't think many cuemakers are getting rich from building cues.

I dont think I have to worry to much about a big boom in Japan any time soon. I am not great at visualizing a design from scratch. I am much better at expounding on an idea and bringing it to fruitation. If I had to come up with allot of high end cues from scratch for somebody, I would probably just be scrathing my head allot.
Your right, if I did not have my retirement to pay my bills and a wife with a real good job, I would have to find another line of employment or.....God forbid, start building production cues full time.

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by ScottR

Kenny, I have to say that many of your cues that I've seen pictured were very impressive from a design and execution perspective.

What is your favorite part of cue building?

What part is a royal pain in the butt (not counting nit customers)?

What are the specs on the cue you personally use; assuming that you are not like most cue builders and don't own a cue of your own?

Do you have a favorite wood, or wood combo, to work with?

As everyone said above, thanks for taking time to talk about your craft with us.

Scott

My favorite part of building a cue is taking a raw piece of wood, envisioning what is in there, cutting away the crap and being able to hold the finished product in my hand and knowing that it is what I envisioned in the first place.
For me, design is the hardest part. The machince work is second nature. I can lament over rings in a cue for months till I finally figure out what to do with them, dont even ask about inlays for a butt sleeve. I have built cues that were at final cut stage that hung in my shop for a year or more before I could decide what to inlay into them and then I was hit and miss on quality of design.
I normally play with a standard length cue 58". I like buckhorn joint, flat faced 3/8 x 10 pin, my shaft taper, short ferrule with medium hard tip. I like my joint size at .850 and my butt cap diameter at 1.265" with a straight taper.
I like good birdseye or really good curly maple and ebony, always a winning combination. Brazilian rosewood comes in right up there with them, you never know what it will look like till it is done and it smells great when you turn it.

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by JimBo

Yeah, very important, Cue design theft, also I forgot to ask do you have a web-site??

Jim <---Has a few more

I have a company working on a web site for me right now and it should be out in the next couple of months. If I can figure out more than the first 2 sentences in the begining paragraph I will have it made.

[Kenny]

Originally Posted by AndyB

Ken
What advice would you give to a cuemaker starting out?
And with so many cuemakers jockeying for customers in a small market, what is the key to getting customers amd more importantly getting repeat customers?

Thanks
AndyB

Build consistent quality cues. Pay attention to the details, your customer will. Make sure you ask what your customer wants and build it to their specs, not yours. What you think is best may not be best for your customer. Know your limitations, it is alright to say no to somebody if what they want is above your skill level or it is just not feasable. Not everybody will think your cue is the best thing since sliced bread. Dont expect to make a good living building cues, dont do it for the money. You either have the passion for the craft or you dont. Patients is a virtue, but while being patient you will worry about everything you have worked on and loose sleep thinking about what you could have done differently.