The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-16
ABOUT CUES AND BALLS.
SOME POINTS OF INTEREST FOR
 BILLIARD PLAYERS.
How the Tools of the Game are Made Favorite Weights Used by the Fa-

 Favorite Weights Used by the Fa- , nous Experts.
 Of the large number of persons who
 play billiards there are probably few who know much about the cues and balls which they use.
 The cues vary greatly in weight and price, according to the woods used in their making. The tops of all good cues
 are made of maplewood. The maple is lseasoned in the open air for from six to twelve months and kiln dried, to pre- went warDing after the cues are tin- i iished. The butts are made of ebony, tsapote, mahogany, rosewood, cocoabolo, 1 tulip, amarant and snakewood; the diff ferent woods being used to secure the proper weight. Ebony is the heaviest wood. The cost of these various woods,
 except the snakewood and ebony, is the isame. EbGny and snakewood bring a slightly increased price. The best cues
 are those of natural balances; that is, that are weighted by the clear wood, and are not loaded or bored, although 1 some players prefer the loaded or bored cues, and have them constructed to suit their taste.
 Although a great many professionals juse cues weighing as much as twenty
 two and twenty-five ounces, the major
 ity use the lighter weights, from fifteen ] to eighteen ounces. Frank c. Ives used f a twenty-two ounce cue. So does
 Frank Keeney, a well-known Brooklyn player, who used a nineteen -ounce cue 1 for some years, but hearing that Ives
 used a twenty-two ounce cue he tried lone of that weight himself and found 1 it suited him so well that he has since
 used it exclusively. Wizard" Schaer-
 CT, however, the world champion, uses
 a cue weighing only eighteen ounces. 1 There is a large choice in cue tips flat tips, round tips, narrow tips, and
 broad tips-but there is no real differ
 ence between them, it being all mat 1 ter of what each player fancies. The
 only tip which has any advantage over
 the others is the removable tip, which
 can be unscrewed from the cue and re-
 placed when out of order, without any
 delay or annoyance. The leather used
 in cue tips is calfskin, taken from the
 head, just back of the ears, where the 1 leather is both thick and soft. No oth-
 CT leather would do. as it is either too
 thin or too hard. The French calfskin lis considered slightly better than the American, but there is not much choice between them.
 l The regular cues cost from fifty ents
 to ten dollars, the difference in price be-
 ing due to the inlaid fancy woods, pearl
 or ivory name plates, ivory joints and ltips, cord wound about the grip, orna-
 mented butts, and other similar addi-
 tionS The jointed cues are made most l ly for travel and the best cues are not ljointed unless so ordered, as the joint
 ed cues are not so strong as the single piece cues.
 To offset the precipitation of the hands
 and to afford a better grip, the butts of the more expensive cues are cord lwound or have ornamental corruga- 1 tions.
 The cues given for prizes at tourna- lments are handsome affairs, inlaid with dlhSIElit COlOISU WOOQS WllU d UdJllc
 plate of pearl, and cost from fifteen to
 twenty dollars. Some cues have been
 given for prizes at the leading clubs
 that have had gold name plates, and
 have cost as much as sixty dollars. Billiard balls are made of Zanzibar ivory-the other ivory, known as the
 Bombay ivory, being too liable to crack
 or chip. The Zanzibar ivory is soft and
 therefore lasts better. The regula tion
 ball is two and three-eighth inches in diameter, and set of four costs about
 thirty dollars. They are rough turned l-that is turned little larger than the balls are to be when finished-and are lstored away in open crates for from lsixteen to twenty-two months to sea- son the ivory after being turned, and Ito allow any shrinkage to take place before the balls are finished. If the balls were not seasoned in this way they would be liable to shrink after
 they were finished, and as they only shrink in the direction of the grain, they would become oval instead of re- maining round, as they should be, and lit would be ecessary to have them Iturned again.--New York Times.