Many knife makers play billard and love billard cues and many cue builders love knives. No wonder - the materials and the used techniques are quite similar. (Burl-) wood, ivory, metall - both trades use the same stuff.
Brake cue from ebony and Brazilian rosewood-burl with a Rosewood blank and some rosewood scales. The cue blank was stabilized and cored with maple core.
As vivid billard player and cue collector, I have deepest respect for the art of cue building. The required techniques employ at least as much precision as the knife making. The production of full splice ques has to be pointed out. Here, 2 woods are "spliced" together to receive the required weight distribution, often accentuated with different coloured veneers. Masters like Travis Nicklich of Blackcreek Cues or John Davis have perfectioned this technique.
There are a handfull specialists that even master a double full-splice. Here is a unique cue made by Paul Drexler with ivory inlays, built from a rare John Davis double fullsplice blank (maybe one of the last ones that John Davis made).
There is a new project coming up that will use techniques from knife making and cue building to produce a unique cue. Project name: "Blue Steel" - Stay tuned!