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Billiard Cue

A modern day billiard cue can be made from many materials. Traditionally they were made from one piece of wood, but now they are almost always two pieces. Wood is still the most popular material, but aluminum, titanium and various alloys are becoming more common. Carbon fiber is beginning to be used, even blends of wood and other materials, but they all have the same shape.

The shape of a billiard cue has evolved greatly over the past 500 years. Originally from the French word “billiart”, which translates to “mace” in English, it described a long wooden stick with a large mallet on the end, similar to the modern croquet mallet. When billiards moved inside onto a table sometime before 1500, they kept the mallet but shortened the stick.

The mace was used to push the balls around the table, but when a ball was resting on the bank of the billiard table it was impossible to push with the large mace. To remedy this, the mace was turned around to its pointy tail, or “queue” in French, and struck from that end. That is where the word cue most likely came from. Over time the mace was being used less and less in favor of the more nimble tail end, and eventually is was completely eliminated.

The cue stick slowly got longer and thinner. During the industrial revolution the modern billiard cue was developed. It was made from two pieces that screw together, making transportation easier. More importantly, the cue became very evenly balanced because of exact machining and leather tips began being used. Leather tips allowed the balls to be struck off center to make them spin and vary the characteristics of the strike and roll.

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