Description
STATUS: Ready to ship. Please read:
The walnut shaft with the stunning black cherry burl is a gift to the purchaser of Gone to Church.
It developed a tiny bend after I glued the burl on, and I can’t stand the idea of adding the shaft to the burn pile. I should have waited until closer to the final turn before gluing the burl, giving the shaft more opportunity to warp as I cut it down over time. (Then I could have chosen a different shaft for the burl.) Lesson learned. I finished the shaft anyway because the burl is bonkers beautiful and the last turn on the Taper Shaper cut most of the warp out. The shaft is very playable, and might become your favorite.
Expect the walnut shaft to feel a little stiffer than ordinary walnut (which is quite soft — high deflection). It has a purple heart shank its first four inches, and an extended red phenolic ferrule. Should give a medium hit.
I have prepared cherry and hickory shafts for Gone to Church, but you can choose any wood you like in the dropdown. Expect a 3-day delay before shipping for me to prepare them. I have plenty of shafts (10 hardwood species) that have been turned over time, available to craft a new shaft for you to meet your preferred length, tip diameter, wax or no wax finish, etc. There is no additional cost if you’d like different species shafts than the cherry and hickory I’ve already prepared. Just select them in the dropdown menu and I’ll reach out after purchase to make sure I build them exactly as you want.
The shaft shown spinning dead nuts in the video is cherry and features a walnut ring from the same stock as the rings on the butt.
The hickory shaft, note, is collarless. It’ll make an awesome break shaft if you select a hard tip. But you can also use the hickory shaft for regular play if you like a snappy response. Want both? Select a Le Pro tip. You’ll thank me.
Need a jump stick? Add a 12″ collarless shagbark hickory jump handle to your purchase for $100. Just select the hickory jump handle under “add an extension,” and mount it to your hickory shaft for a jumper that gets air.
CONSTRUCTION:
I’m entering my third season as a cue builder…. so how do you know you aren’t buying junk?
- My name, integrity, and reputation as a blunt-truth grit lit author are all I have. I put them behind my cues by offering a lifetime warranty and a 14 day return/refund policy.
- I show how I build cues on YouTube.
- The shooters buying my sticks love them and say so.
- I’m happily available to field your questions. Email me at clayton at charactercues.com for a time to talk.
The cue building process is a little different for me than most builders, since it begins when I find a piece of wood, usually in decay, that I can restore. More than a year often passes between processing a log and shining the cue I made from it.
I dry the wood to 0% humidity, stabilize with Cactus Juice resin, cook in an oven, then allow the blanks to rest.
I core all of my cues except my hickory break sticks — meaning I turn a dowel out of birch, hard maple, or hickory to be the cue’s skeleton. Cores help prevent warping and improve strength.
Each of my cues hangs in the shop a minimum of six months, being turned down to final size a few hundredths at a time. This is also to prevent warping.
I finish cues with CA, a super clear, hard and durable finish.
The bottom line, I’m a 100% person, and this cue received my 100% and then some.
Pin: Brass American Ball/Radial
Collar: White Tomahawk material, .85″
Butt Cap: Black Phenolic; 1.23″
Woods Used: Black cherry burl (handle), spalted/stabilized walnut burl (either side of handle), and spalted/stabilized black cherry (forearm).
Core: Hickory into Hard Maple
Length: 58 1/4″ – 58 7/8″
- Butt: 29 1/4″
- Cherry: 29 5/8″
- Walnut: 29″
- Hickory: 29 1/2″
Weight: 17.8 – 18.4 (drilled and tapped to add 1 oz weight bolt; mention if you’d like it.)
- Butt: 14.8 oz.
- Cherry: 3 oz.
- Walnut: 3 oz.
- Hickory: 3.6 oz.
Ferrule/Tip Diameter:
- Cherry: red phenolic, 12.41 mm
- Walnut: red phenolic, 12.98 mm
- Hickory: Tomahawk material, 12.99 mm
Hello, I’m Clayton Lindemuth, the grit lit author responsible for the Baer Creighton series and more. I started building cues as a way to keep the creative engines going while waiting on the muse to strike, and now I spend almost all my time in the shop. I focus on spalted, live edge, and burl cues that I build from hardwoods I harvest, process, and stabilize myself, drawn from the woods around me in Hormtown, Pa.
I use cue building processes learned from masters of the industry. Video courses, books, mentors, and forever testing new methods. Learn about my building process from my YouTube channel and be sure to subscribe. One of my first 1,000 subscribers will win the spalted cue, Fanfare for the Common Blue.
I will work to my utmost to ensure your cue is how you want it and that our relationship is always warm.
Problems? This cue comes with a lifetime warranty and a 14 day return/refund policy.
Feel free to use the payment plan if purchasing this cue before completion.
I’ll consult you before building shafts to be sure to meet your preferred specs — collar material/color, tip diameter, ferrule color, material, that sort of thing.
–Clayton
