Dismantling a snooker cue.

[MJP]

Just paid £3 for a snooker cue with a Lignum Vitae rear part.

I want to try to dismantle this now, to rescue the LV plus what might be some African Blackwood rings.

What's the best way? Would boiling the part in water soften whatever glue was used (would it be a hide glue?).

Martin.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

Hi - I've never attempted this, but a couple of thoughts spring to mind:

- The age is probably the biggest driver of what glue was used (I guess pre-war or earlier means probably hide glue, but who knows);
- I'd be prepared to find lead somewhere in the thick end (possibly used to 'tune' the weighting of the thing);

 

[profchris]

Hide glue needs heat + moisture to release. Not much heat, hand hot is enough. The problem is getting moisture into the joint.

Most PVAs and resins release with heat - uncomfortably hand hot should do, but you need the heat all through the joint.

I believe Cascamite and some others don't release at all.

A picture would help advise. But if you only want some parts, cutting it close to the glue line would make it easier to release the glue, or you could plane or chisel off the surplus.

 

[MJP]

Thanks folks.

First perhaps a comment would be useful to explain why I'm spending time on such a fairly pointless little exercise: - after all, I can buy nice chunks of Lignum Vitae cheaply enough on ebay.

Well, last March I was operated on for bowel cancer and am now the proud possessor of a colostomy and am halfway through my chemotherapy.

As anyone who has been through this will know, both energy and enthusiasm are at a very scare premium - I haven't the go in me to do anything useful so I'm currently pottering with trivia.

So that's the story.

Anyway, I've looked again at the thing this morning and it appears to me that the glue is probably the least of my worries - could there be a metal rod running through the middle holding it all together?

Any ideas how I should now proceed?

Martin.

 

[profchris]

I'd just saw along the glue joints, because you'd lose almost nothing of the wood that way. Start with a sacrificial saw (maybe even a hacksaw) in case there's a metal rod.

If you want to keep the rings intact, leave a small margin. Then remove the surplus with heat (and moisture if needed), if that fails plane off the excess.

Any reason why that wouldn't suit?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

There is often a steel bar in them, but it's usually only few inches long to give weight right at the end.
I'd have thought it unusual to find lignum in a cue of that design - it's often a fairly dense hardwood that takes dark stain well.