The purpose of the Billiard Congress of America stands to honor outstanding players of the international billiard community who thought their competitive career through skill and or dedication have enriched the billiard sport.

Learn a bit about the wood species GW uses on pool tables, shuffleboards, and much more. Remember, If you are interested in custom materials or custom fine furniture please give us a call and chat with our Pro’s today!

CANADIAN MAPLE
Common Name(s): Canadian rock-hard maple, Hard Maple, Sugar Maple, Rock Maple

Distribution: North America, Canada

Color/Appearance: Hard Maple lumber is most commonly nearly white to an off-white cream color.

Grain/Texture: Grain is generally straight, but may be wavy. Has a fine, even texture.

Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices or on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Comments: In tree form, Hard Maple is usually referred to as Sugar Maple, and is the tree most often tapped for maple syrup!

Learn a bit about the wood species GW uses on pool tables, shuffleboards, and much more. Remember, If you are interested in custom materials or custom fine furniture please give us a call and chat with our Pro’s today!

CANADIAN MAPLE
Common Name(s): Canadian rock-hard maple, Hard Maple, Sugar Maple, Rock Maple

Distribution: North America, Canada

Color/Appearance: Hard Maple lumber is most commonly nearly white to an off-white cream color.

Grain/Texture: Grain is generally straight, but may be wavy. Has a fine, even texture.

Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices or on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Comments: In tree form, Hard Maple is usually referred to as Sugar Maple, and is the tree most often tapped for maple syrup!

ALDER
Common Name(s): Red Alder, Western Red Alder

Distribution: Coastal western North America

Color / Appearance: Red Alder tends to be a light tan to reddish brown; color darkens and reddens with age.

Grain / Texture: Grain is generally straight, with a moderately fine, uniform texture.

Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices or on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Comments: Red Alder is the most abundant hardwood in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, and is a commercially important lumber.

OAK
Common Name(s): California Black Oak, Kellogg Oak

Distribution: Western United States

Color / Appearance: Oak has a light to medium reddish-brown color, though there can be a fair amount of variation in color.

Grain/Texture: Have medium-to-large pores and a fairly coarse grain.

Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices or on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Comments: Hard, strong, and moderately priced, Red Oak presents an exceptional value to woodworkers.

Golden West uses about 5% oak today, due to over saturation of the market in the past.

HEMLOCK
Common Name(s): Mountain Hemlock

Distribution: Northwest coast of North America

Color/Appearance: Heartwood is light reddish brown. Sapwood may be slightly lighter in color but usually, isn’t distinguished from the heartwood. The conspicuous growth rings can exhibit interesting grain patterns on flat-sawn surfaces.

Grain/Texture: Grain is generally straight, with a coarse, uneven texture.

Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices, and is reported by the IUCN as being a species of least concern.

Comments: Hemlock generally has narrow growth rings.

Used on The GW Keystone

EXOTIC WOODS

BLACK WALNUT
Name: Claro Walnut, California Black Walnut

Distribution: Eastern United States

Color/Appearance: Heartwood can range from a lighter pale brown to a dark chocolate brown with darker brown streaks. Color can sometimes have a grey, purple, or reddish cast.

Grain / Texture: Grain is usually straight, but can be irregular. Has a medium texture and moderate natural luster.

Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices or on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Comments: It would be hard to overstate Black Walnut’s popularity among woodworkers in the United States. Its cooperative working characteristics, coupled with its rich brown coloration puts the wood in a class by itself among temperate-zone hardwoods. To cap it off, the wood also has good dimensional stability, shock resistance, and strength properties.

BURMESE TEAK
Common Name(s): Teak, Burmese Teak

Distribution: Native to southern Asia; Widely grown on plantations throughout tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Color / Appearance: Heartwood tends to be a golden or medium brown, with color darkening with age.

Grain/Texture: Grain is straight, though it can occasionally be wavy or interlocked. Coarse, uneven texture and moderate to low natural luster. Raw, unfinished wood surfaces have a slightly oily or greasy feel due to natural oils.

Sustainability: This wood species is not listed in the CITES Appendices or on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Comments: Sometimes called Burmese Teak, this name is used to differentiate natural-grown trees (typically from Myanmar, aka Burma) from Teak grown on plantations. Used extensively in India and within its natural range for centuries, Teak has grown into a worldwide favorite. With its superb stability, good strength properties, easy workability—and most of all, its outstanding resistance to decay and rot—it’s no wonder that Teak ranks among the most desired lumbers in the world.

ROSEWOOD

Name(s): Rosewood

Distribution: A slow-growing, hardy deciduous rosewood tree native to the Indian Subcontinent and Southern Iran. Is native to the foothills of the Himalayas. It is primarily found growing along river banks below 900 meters (3,000 ft) elevation but can range naturally up to 1,300 m (4,300 ft).

Color/Appearance: The heartwood is golden to dark brown; the sapwood, white to pale brownish white. Rosewood is among the finest timbers. It is the wood from which ‘mridanga’, the Rajasthani percussion instrument, are often made.

Grain/Texture: Presence of hints of coarse grains with the shiny and silky smooth texture, compared to the glossy finish of artificial polishes.

Comments: The Rosewood tree is prized for its dark red heartwood. Rosewood is a tropical hardwood with a tight, even grain. Rosewood is heavy and hard, but relatively easy to work with. Rosewood has a strong sweet smell, which persists over many years, even in furniture that may be hundreds of years old. Amazingly, just scratching or refinishing antique furniture will release the smell of roses thus the name.

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Why is Golden West Billiards the best in crafting custom matching game room pieces of furniture such as a billiard table, snooker tables, shuffleboard, game tables, and stools.

Golden West Billiards, MFG. is a family owned and operated company which started manufacturing in the late 1960’s! So, you know that GWB applies their accumulated knowledge and experience to produce exquisite parallel furniture.

Your game room, basement, garage, family room, loft, or man can have a matching theme that will provide a luxurious but inviting atmosphere for your friends and family for years to come.

Related Article

Buying A Pool Table? What to Plan

How to Chalk Your Cue The Right Way

Shooting Basics

A billiard room is a recreation room, such as in a house or recreation center, with a billiards, pool or snooker table. A one-table billiard room requires enough space around the table to accommodate the range of a stroke of the cue from all angles, while also accounting for chairs, the storage rack and any other furniture that is or will be present. Optimally, there should be at least 6 ft (1.8 m) of clearance between the table and any walls, furniture or other objects, on all sides and at all corners of the table.

Lighting is important to the design of a billiards room. Billiard rooms need overhead lighting, and a multi-bulb light fixture specifically designed for illuminating a billiard table is most often used. Such fixtures are available in both incandescent and fluorescent models, and range from crude to highly ornate. Billiard rooms with windows usually employ curtains or blinds during daytime use, to prevent excessive glare.

When designing a billiard room you have endless options. Everything depends on your desire and your home decor. Every color looks great if you use it right.

Check out some of the following examples for great ideas!

No matter what a pool table needs a level playing surface. Slate top is universally accepted as the industry standard for high-quality pool tables and if you want your table to last and play well it’s important to spend the extra money and get a 3 piece slate table. Synthetic versions of pool table slate that cost much less include:

Honeycomb: Imagine this, a plastic honeycomb-like playing surface sandwiched by layers and made out of plastic. This style, doesn’t warp as much as other synthetic alternatives but the surface is also not as smooth as the other types of tops.

Permaslate: Is a layer of plastic on top of particle board. This material is considered more durable than other synthetic slate, moisture will indubitably cause warp and decay over time.

Medium Density Fiberboard: Is basically particle board. Pool tables with MDF tend to be lighter in weight but not durable. The table is so light that if a player rests against it, they have to be careful not to knock it over or make a hole in it.

You can buy a pool table made with syntactic materials for under $1,000 which seems like a good deal at first until you have to replace it a few months later. Why not put that money towards purchasing a good product that you know will last 10 times as long, is American Made and will work with you to find just what you need. Give us a call today.

According to a new nationally representative survey by the Consumer Reports National Research Center. When Given a Choice between products Made in America v.s. products made abroad, 78% of Americans would rather buy American Made Products. Why? Well, 80% of those people cited retaining manufacturing jobs thus knowing it’s very important for the American market to keep buying American products. Not only that, 60% also cited concern about the use of child workers or other cheap labors overseas. Which is also a huge problem, Child labor is forbidden by law in most countries but continues rapidly in some of the poorest parts of the world.

Few products except for cars, textiles, furs and woolens are required by law to reveal their American Heritage and must comply with federal rules designed to keep consumers from being misled. This means that many companies would rather source out products like fur because if they didn’t they would be looked down upon in American society thus they send it overseas where there are fewer laws to comply with for inhumane treatments of animals and the way the furs are appropriated.

Knowing about the alarming concerns when it comes from buying goods overseas, citizens would rather buy local, American goods. Knowing that the products are higher quality since they are made by professionals in each field. The only downside to buying American is, Yes, they might be a bit more expensive but wouldn’t you rather pay for it once and not have to deal with replacing it? Furthermore, buying American would mean that the products you purchase work the way they are supposed too, have a longer lifespan and you could even find a little reward in not participating in unfair treatments.

HOW TO KNOW?

Knowing takes effort, and many people can be complaisant simply because they don’t know what to look for.

It’s important you understand where your money is going, this will help improve the way things are run and just as important to put effort into researching what you are buying. Read labels carefully, ask questions, consult website information such as companies websites, contact your manufacturers directly, check out listings and then make an informed decision.

Golden West Billiards is proud to announce that Our products are American Made. Come, build with us, We create custom pieces.

References:
consumerreports.org

This rare yet sexy design is very unique thus anyone who sees the table will marble at its construction. The flowing legs have an ancient architectural look, designed out of wood with a steel spine for extra support. The body is steel reinforced with metal brakes. The top is built-up of 3 pieces of Brazilian slate covered by Championship cloth Red #35.

Once complete, the Red Velvet seems like something you’d see in a Vegas penthouse. Start to finish, including design time, and back-and-forth time the process took a little less than a year. Most of the attention and time spent was focused on the planning of the table. Once we had all the pieces together the actual build time was only 3 weeks!

Shipping, of course, was a huge ordeal, since the table was going to the capital of Qatar, Doha which is a peninsular Arab country. The ocean freight would have taken around 2 months. So, in order to get the table there in a reasonable amount of time the Red Velvet had to be Freight over by airplane.

We want to express gratitude to everyone who was involved in creating this piece of art and a special thank you to our friends in Doha who made it all possible. We hope you enjoy playing on this table as much as we enjoyed building it.

(Red Velevet shown without the red championship felt )

Buying a Used Pool Table?

If you are buying a used table it’s very important to first to pay attention to the rails. Most likely your rails will be fine since they have a long shelf life of 20-25 years! Here is something to you can try to test your rails before purchasing.

When you show up to inspect the pool table grab a ball and roll it hard toward a rail, watch it bounce, from rail to rail, you’re looking for a good bounce rate 3 or 4 times. Make sure to test around your table, making sure that all your rails have good bounce. If the table does have good bounce you have to consider the price of each rubber piece, getting it felted and installed could run you more than the table itself so you really have to be discriminating.If the table does have good bounce you have to consider the price of each rubber piece, getting those pieces felted, and also installed, could run you more than the “deal” on that table be sure to use good judgment and you should be fine. Of course, when you buy a new table you don’t have to worry about that for a verrry long time.

If the table does not have good bounce you’ll have to consider the what it’ll cost you to re-do each rubber piece, getting those pieces felted, and also installed. Be sure to use good judgment and you should be fine. Of course, when you buy a new table you don’t have to worry about that for a verrry long time.

The next big thing you have to question when looking to purchase a used pool table is what is your playing area made out of. You always want to get a table with slate. Anything else would be a waste of money because your table will never be level simply unusable.You preferably want a 3 piece at least 1in thick. To learn more about slate check out this blog > Choosing A 1 or 3 Piece Slate Pool Table < or feel free to give us a call. We are always happy to answer any questions you may have.

The way to test for slate is by knocking on the top, does it sounds like your knocking on a wooden door? or does it sound like a deeper, harder, knock like knocking on concrete? you should be able to tell.

Next, take a look at the construction of the table. Are the legs supported onto the frame with nice thick blocks or thin wood or brackets? Are there at least two beams supporting the bottom frame of the table.

Finally, take a look at the felt, does it look worn? will the balls catch and not roll? is there tearing? is it faded? The fading is just aesthetic, as long as the balls are rolling with not obstructions the fade can be overlooked until you’re ready to replace it.

GWB often carry’s used tables or can help you build a table that suits your budget, provide pool table restoration, and pool table moving services.

The history of billiards is long and very rich. The game has been played by kings and commoners, presidents and mental patients, ladies, gentlemen and hustlers alike. It evolved from a lawn game similar to the croquet played sometime during the 15th century in Northern Europe and probably in France. Game-play was moved indoors to a wooden table with green cloth to simulate grass, and a simple border was placed around the edges. The balls were shoved, rather than struck, with wooden sticks called “maces.” The term “billiards” is derived from French, either from the word “billart,” one of the wooden sticks, or “bille,” a ball.

The cue stick was developed in the 1600s. When the ball lay near a rail, the mace was very inconvenient to use because of its large head. In such a case, the players would turn the mace around and use its handle to strike the ball. The handle was called a “queue” meaning “tail.” We went on to calling the sticks “cues”.

Tables originally had felt vertical walls for rails and their only canton was to keep the balls from falling off. They resembled riverbanks and even used to be called “banks.” Players discovered that balls could bounce off the rails and began deliberately aiming at them. Thus a “bank shot” was born.

Billiard equipment improved rapidly in England after 1800, largely because of the industrial revolution. Chalk was used to increase friction between the ball and the cue stick even before cues had tips. The leather cue tip, with which a player can apply sidespin to the ball, was perfected by 1823. English visitors showed Americans how to use spin, which explains why it is called “English” in the United States but nowhere else. (The British call it “side”). The Two-piece cue arrived in 1829. Slate became popular as a material for table beds around 1835. Goodyear discovered vulcanization of rubber in 1839 and by 1845 it was used to make billiard cushions. By 1850, the billiard table had essentially evolved into its current form.

The dominant billiard game in Britain from about 1770 until the 1920s was English Billiards or Billiards was and still is played with three balls and six pockets on a large rectangular table.

Another game played on a table is Snooker, a complex and colorful game combining offensive and defensive aspects and played on the same equipment as English Billiards but with 22 balls instead of Three. The British appetite for Snooker is approached only by the American passion for baseball; it is possible to see a Snooker competition every day in Britain.

Billiard in The United States:

How billiards came to America has not been positively established. There are tales that it was brought to St. Augustine by the Spaniards in the 1580s but researchers failed to reveal any trace of the game there. A number of American Cabinetmakers in the 1700s turned out exquisite billiard tables, although in small quantities. The game spread throughout the colonies. Even George Washington was reported to have won a match in 1748. By 1830, despite primitive equipment, public rooms devoted entirely to billiards appeared. The most famous of them was Bassford’s, a New work Room that catered to stockbrokers. Here a number of American versions of billiards were developed.

Eight-Ball was invented shortly after 1900; Straight Pool followed in 1910. Nine-Ball seems to have developed around 1920. The most commonly played pool game is Eight-Ball, played against other players. The goal is to get all your balls in the pockets before your opponent does.

While billiards has developed through history it’s waged a constant battle of respectability. Producing an environment in which men, women, experts, and novices can come together meeting socially for one of the many friendly games played on a Billiard Table.

Be sure to come into our showroom and pick up your very own copy of  Billiards The Official Rule & Record Book. The Billiard Congress of America works with the World Pool and Billiard association to set rule standards for all related games. In addition, this book holds biographies of great BCA Hall of Fame members from the over 50-year history of the BCA. This book was the source of information for this blog. Thank you.

Golden West Billiards masterfully crafts professional tournament ready billiard tables. Offering completely custom pieces of fine furniture and are also available for your restoration needs. A restored table means esthetic restoration, done without wood fillers or bondo but with true solid hardwood and other repairs.

Restoration Includes if necessary:
-New solid hardwood frames, fresh paint or cleaned up.
-Slate Surfaced or replaced
-Pockets will be replaced and the corners templates for matching depth and radius.
-The diamonds will be measured to conclude exact angles.
-The cushions will be replaced or cleaned up and reattached.
-The cloth will be cleaned or replaced.
-The legs will be checked for cracks and replacements can be made.

Give us a call today with questions or concerns, we are here to help.
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