Confusion

[Catman]

Greetings, I have been strongly considering a Viking cue but after much perusing of this site I have a few questions. From what I can see the only difference between the VM39 and the VM40 is the color of the butt cap. With the VM39 having a black butt cap and costing $8 more than the VM40 which has a white butt cap. Then the VM36 and VM37 cues appear to be the same except for the difference in buttcap ...with the VM36 having the white buttcap and costing $8 MORE than the VM37 which has a black buttcap. What am I missing here? Why does the black cost more on one cue ...then less on another?

thanks,

>^..^<

[Jim]

I'd like to thank you for taking a good look at the Viking cues. Hopefully, you'll like what you see. As for your first question, there is more of a difference between the VM39 & the VM40 than the color of the buttcap. If you look closely at the VM40, you'll notice the VM40 has an ivory-colored joint collar on the butt half of the cue. There is no joint collar on the shaft half of the cue. Personally, I think having a collar on both halves of a joint adds some strength to the union. The VM38, is the same cue again, but with a decorative "railroad track" ring on either side of the joint collar. Your other question surrounds the VM36 & VM37. Again, you're right. The only difference between the two models is in the buttcap and joint collars, but it's not directly because of the color difference. The VM36 is the same cue as the VM37, except for the ivory-colored implex (high-impact plastic). However, when we change the colr of the buttcap and joint collar to ivory, we need to add a thin black implex ring between the ivory buttcao and the stained buttsleeve to avoid having the woodstain on the buttsleeve bleed into the ivory-colored buttcap. Without the black ring, purple colored streaks would creep into the ivory color of the buttcap. The wider black ring just below the ivory-colored joint ring is there for the same reason, to avoid bleeding from the forearm to the ivory-colored implex. The wider black ring above the joint color on the shaft half, is there to balance the color scheme. So the extra $8 is not for changing colors. It's for the cost of the extra rings, having to cut a longer tenon on the butt and shaft to accomodate the extra ringwork, for fully sanding both surfaces of each ring to ensure proper adhesion, and for gluing them all together. Hopefully, that better explains the cost differences. Thanks for asking. Merry Christmas!

[Catman]

Thanks Jim for your excellent response. I knew there must be something I was overlooking. I just bought a VM39 ....if my wife likes it I'll get her one too. I shoot with a 19oz and she prefers an 18oz, but it will be close enough for her to try. Thanks again, and Happy Holidays.

>^..^<