While neophytes might gawk at the delicate inlay work of a fancy butt Black takes sentimental pride in the fact that Steve Mizerak`s favorite workaday hitter consists of a shaft he made and a butt created by Balabushka. It was then he moved from the garage to the converted warehouse where he works now, turning out approximately 200 cues a year. Within a couple of weeks, he died.''Ībout three years after that conversation, Black felt enough pride in his work to begin signing his products with a spidery signature. ''He said, `I very much appreciate what you say.` And then we had a nice, brief chat. I have just started making pool cues, and I wanted to call and tell you that I respect the work you do, and I`m trying to emulate it.` Balabushka, my name is Richard Black of Houston. These skills are not passed down.''Ībout 10 years ago, early in his obsession, Black placed a phone call to George Balabushka of Brooklyn, who, along with the late Herman Rambow of Chicago, stood at the forefront of an earlier generation of billiard craftsmen. ''It is only after you`ve paid your dues and earned your spot in the hierarchy that you are accepted into the fraternity.
''Cue makers are very proprietary because they have learned the hard way,'' Black said. With what I spent on phone calls to find sources of supply, people could start new industries.'' Black, previously a stranger to lathes and sandpaper, had nowhere to turn for formal instruction. I`ve gone through an untold amount of equipment. ''I`ve thrown away thousands of dollars worth of glues, trying to find the seven glues that I use now. I had no idea what I was getting into,'' he said. During the ensuing months, one side of his two-car garage began to fill up with power tools and the scraps of countless failures. The friend soon backed off, but Black persisted. ''I was so impressed with the work on that cue, when a friend later suggested, `Let`s make one ourselves,` he got my attention. ''By comparison to the Janes product, the cues that I owned were just garbage,'' Black recalled. Usually, the participants in what the Houston Chronicle deemed ''the fanciest game in town'' competed for silver trophies, but on one occasion, someone suggested that a custom pool cue should be awarded as first prize.īlack ordered the stick from Danny Janes in Towson, Md., and when it arrived, he realized for the first time that the world of billiards offered a realm of elegance even he had not imagined. They all played serious pool, while classical music hummed in the background and bartenders served drinks. The hustler is going to understate his game.'' Except for Mizerak, of course, whose celebrity allows him to indulge his penchant for flash.īack in the early `70s, the cream of Houston`s high-society pool players, in their dandiest formal wear, gathered regularly at Richard and Ardis Black`s Houston home. ''Well, bull! Nine times out of 10, the guy with the fancy cue is the one I want to play because, usually, he can`t play pool he just wants a nice piece of equipment. ''They see a cue like this, they`re going to say, `Holy cow! This guy can play pool!` It had an ivory ring where the shaft joins the handle, ivory and ebony inlays in an intricate pattern, highlights in mother-of-pearl. '' Black gestured toward a display case and the $1,800 Crown model reposing within.
''But if the player comes in with a cue like this. The average amateur would be willing to play against a guy with a cue like this. Anybody seeing it would not believe that`s a well-made cue. ''This is a cue I whacked out in one afternoon. ''Here`s one of the best hustles you can have, right here,'' he said, fondling the unimposing hitter. His own weapon of choice is a plain, leather-wrapped item, not even as fancy as his basic, $250 Hustler model. ''I set up and form my parts in quantity and make up portions of the cue far ahead of time, so when I`m ready to make a cue, the parts are culled, aged and dried.'' ''I`m very time-motion conscious,'' Black said.
Smaller receptacles in the shop hold dark red and purplish Brazilian rosewood, rare cocobolo, spectacularly striped zebra wood, lacewood and delicately tinted French veneers. His staples are Canadian rock maple for the shafts and bird`s-eye maple or ebony for the butts and fronts to which the shafts are joined. You cannot be artistic and creative if you live in a cluttered mess.''īlack`s raw material fills another rack. I`ve got to have it clean, neat, orderly, tidy. ''What you see here is the way I always keep my shop. ''I`m not putting on the dog,'' he told a visitor one night.