Christian Ölwing's Ebony & Bloodwood Cue

Christian's design incorporates a large variety of different techniques & would be a perfect example to showcase some of the steps involved.  With his permission, I will show several stages of the cue as it progresses towards its finished form.  Clicking on any picture will bring up a larger version.

These are the veneers that will be used in the building of this cue.

Bloodwood will be used in the V-points & Butterfly points, as well as in the buttsleeve window.

My setup for cutting the butterfly points.
This shows the partially cored ebony forearm after being machined to accept the first set of butterfly points.  The forearm will be removed from the machine while the points are glued in place.  

This shows a closer view of the machined surface.  You can clearly see the glue grooves in the maple core inside the ebony.
After the 1st set of points is solidly cemented to the forearm, the rough slabs will be machined flush with the existing forearm.  Then the forearm can be set-up again so the 2nd set of surfaces can be machined for the remaining butterfly points.  Care must be taken to correctly orient the forearm to insure that the 2nd set of points is exactly 90 degrees from the 1st set.

This collage shows the forearm after the 1st set of points has been machined almost flush with the forearm & the 2nd set of flats has been machined.  The view in the upper left shows a clear edge view of the butterfly points.  The view in the bottom right shows what remains of the 1st set of points after the 2nd set of flats has been machined.  Note the trailing ends of the veneers.  They are exactly in line, top to bottom.  If the forearm had not been oriented properly, the trailing edges would not be in line.  In fact, very small errors would be clearly visible.  Evenly spaced & aligned butterfly points is a sign of good technique (if I do say so myself).

Big jump ahead here: 2nd set of butterfly points glued up & machined flush.  Next, I cut the V-grooves for the 3rd set of points.  Here you can easily see the partial core and a very nice look at the small amount of veneer remaining after all that machining.  There is a lot of work involved in these butterfly "accents".  Note again the evenness of the trailing ends of the butterfly veneers.  Also notice the delicacy of the thin webs at the base of the forearm.  They are only .082/.085" thick at that point.  It looks pretty flimsy but the addition of the V-groove points will tie everything together for a solid hitting forearm.

Here is a closer look at the veneers & partial core.  As you can see, the core fits very well into a flat bottom bore.  The clearance is tight & the glue grooves are filled nicely.

This forearm is almost done.  The V-points have been installed.  This view shows the nicely centered butterfly points.

Another view featuring the V-point in the center.

This picture shows 3 different forearms, each with a different style of V-point.  Each style demands a different treatment of the main forearm body.

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