An early example of a fancy Cognoscenti cue, this piece features Ivory and fine .999 silver inlays. The forearm is dark black ebony with a handle of highly figured birds-eye maple. All of Joe's cues today include stitched rings containing 30 pieces of fine silver.This particular cue was one of the first cues that featured the now famous ring. The point inlays are solid pieces of ivory which have inlaid small ebony dots, nestled inside a sterling circle. The ivory points are pretty thin in many places and were very delicate. Inlaying the fine silver skeleton points  is a tedious process. To complete such a task, a number of jeweler's tools for filing and curving the silver are needed. Silver is not soft and easy with which to work. Each curve had to be curved by using jeweler's pliers.

The joint pin is a green-colored G-10 screw. Gold was the first cue maker to use this glass-epoxy resin. In its application on cue sticks, the G-10 provides for a better balance as it is much lighter than steel (commonly used), and just as strong. Today, many cue makers use the pin. Gold's earlier cues had green-colored screws. Today he uses black-colored screws of the same resin.

General Information About Joe Gold & Cognoscenti Cues-

Joe Gold began building cues in the early 1990s. His first shop was a humble workspace consisting of  good  (but minimal) equipment.The name of his cues, Cognoscenti, is a Latin term describing people who are "in the know." Gold's early cues were inlaid using a pantagraph machine, which is an overhead pin router where a scribe  follows a metal design template and replicates that design to scale on the cue stick. Today, Gold's cues utilize CNC technology to cut pockets and parts for inlays, although the actual inlay process is done by hand, by Joe himself. Gold's current shop is one of the most technically advanced cue shops in the world. His cues are some of the sought-after collectibles and many of his designs are stolen and copied by cheap production cues made abroad.