In an attempt to get to a more positive place and stop talking about case makers and people I don’t like I thought I would spend a little more time on people I do like.

Rusty Melton is a relatively new case maker who is a rising star in the business. He is a “good ole boy” from the Show Me state of Missouri. And show us he does with his traditional design heavily tooled cases.

Rusty started out in the tradition of many case makers doing fairly simple envelope style cases. These are generally in a teardrop or lemon shape with the leather sewn backside to backside. While this is still a labor intensive process it’s much easier than doing cases where the seams are closed backside to frontside. Many case makers start out this way because it’s a faster way to get a case done.

Rusty’s tooling started out a little rough and his finishing was not quite as nice as more established makers. But in the past two years he has emerged as a world class cue case maker.

He and I have had a few conversations about case making and I am proud to say that he has taken several of my suggestions to heart, especially where the cue protection is concerned. As you all know this is my personal obsession and I am always very pleased when I see one of my colleagues taking it seriously as well.

He went from this which are tubes covered in a rough fabric with no padding;

To this which shows soft fabric backed by foam rubber;

That’s a man who really cares about his customer’s cue investments!

Then he took things a step further and started doing the type of seam work that is honestly the toughest and hardest to do in this business. Very very few case makers will do seams this way and it speaks huge volumes about Rusty’s dedication to his chosen craft that he has volunteered. Because honestly folks, most people just care about the decoration and as long as there are a bunch of pretty flowers on it they could care less how well the case is made or what effort the case maker put in constructing it.

Now doesn’t that make a much nicer impression than the teardrop shape?

So let me express this in terms of work as to the difference. Pushing the needle through two pieces of leather that are back to back and you can see the holes takes a couple hours to sew the seam by hand. Doing the blind seam as in the two pictures above takes about a day just for the seam. But the result is way nicer.

Go here to see more of Rusty’s work. Rusty’s Case Gallery

I won’t tell you how to contact him but I am sure if you like his work you will find out how to find him.

I hear his list is getting long so you might want to get on it before it’s up in the range of the SouthWest cues waiting list.

This question was asked by a person on the AZB forum:

“Why wouldn’t every manufacturer include a tighter fitting padded inside?…it only makes sense IMHO…”

Mr. Justis responds, “Mainly because it offers nothing more than a catalist (sp) when mixed with chalk dust to damage the cues finish. Over time, excess friction combined with chalk dust can turn the cues mirror finish to one full of micro scratches better known as haze, not purple either. Why take a chance when it can be avoided.”

So let’s examine some of the interiors Justis offers to see if he practices what he preaches.

Let’s start with his Roadrunner cases. This is an simple “envelope” case which is made of one piece of leather folded in half. Justis provides a piece of suede leather for about three inches down at the top. The parts are not separated at all.

So it’s quite easy to see that Mr. Justis has no concern whatsoever about “chalk dust” causing damage to the finish of the cues placed in these cases. And he has made these cases for Black Boar, Szamboti, and many others.

Now let’s examine his Pro-Lite interior:

Mr Justis claims that a padded snug-fitting interior combined with chalk dust causes micro-scratches. He says that “excess friction” is the cause.

Friction occurs when two things rub against each other that is clear. Justis cases are made with a tight knit fabric for the first five inches and with thin nylon after that. Any chalk dust on those fabrics stays on the surface and does not filter through.

His cases are loose fitting so the cues slide and bounce freely.

Which means that they rub on that chalk a lot. The following are all pictures of Justis interiors I have collected over the years.

Notice the chalk dust that is INSIDE the butt cavities on these cases. I presume that this happens because there it’s not always easy to hit the shaft hole when inserting the shafts.

So that’s enough for you to see clearly that Justis cases attract plenty of chalk dust that sits on top of the fabric. So if Mr. Justis is correct that chalk dust plus friction causes finish damage then I wonder why he builds a case which allows the cues to move so freely on this chalk filled cloth.

Would you deliberately put some chalk on a piece of fabric and rub this on your cue vigorously? No? Well what do you think is happening to your cues in a Justis case when you are driving down the road? The cues are allowed to slide and jiggle and get jarred. So they are sliding and rubbing against that chalk filled cloth.

But wait what about that snug fit that we provide? Isn’t Justis right that any chalk dust dust with a “snug fit” will be worse?

Well before I answer that let’s look at one more thing about Justis and how much he does not care about his customers.

He has advocated several times online that his cases can hold more cues than there are cavities. To do this one has to double up in some of the compartments. Which means that there will be a – wait for it – hold on – oh my – a tight fit!

Let’s recap what Justis said about cases with snug fitting interiors:

“Mainly because it offers nothing more than a catalist (sp) when mixed with chalk dust to damage the cues finish. Over time, excess friction combined with chalk dust can turn the cues mirror finish to one full of micro scratches better known as haze, not purple either. Why take a chance when it can be avoided.”

So I have to ask then why does he tell his customers that they can do this:

Seems awfully hypocritical in my opinion.

The fact is that Jack Justis does not care one bit about your cue. If you call him up and tell him that your cue was somehow damaged in his case he will call you a liar.

Case in point:
CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL SIZED IMAGE

CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL SIZED IMAGE

So folks now you have a little more information about Jack Justis. The truth is that he builds cases with as little effort as he can. He has put zero thought into whether his interiors are truly protective or not preferring instead to put all the responsibility on the case owner to be extra careful when using a Justis case.

I have been doing this for 20 years and have easily more than 25,000 cases on the market with padded interiors. In all that time there has been no such epidemic of people coming to me with “micro scratches” or finish hazing caused by our cases.

I personally believe Jack is snorting this chalk dust and then making the outlandish claims he does. But if he truly believes what he is saying then maybe he can account for the images above.

Something to think about when you are considering your next case.