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.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Justis Chronicles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.