WHAT IS “AMERICAN MADE”?

Thank you for your interest in doing business with us at Charleston Billiards and Cue Company, Inc., founded and operated by Dennis M. Rash since 1998. We are the low country’s leading billiards retailer and the area’s exclusive dealer for both Olhausen Billiards and Connelly Billiards tables, the two finest American pool tables made today.

At Charleston Billiards, we feel that it has never been more important to buy American Made than it is today, especially when buying a pool table. Not simply to support our nation’s economy, which is critical in these times, but because both Olhausen and Connelly are true American manufacturers. They construct their tables using time-honored methods of structural superiority. They build their frames using Uniliner or cross-braced fortification with backed over-sized premium slate bolted directly to the frames and their rails bolted directly to the slate. You simply can not make a pool table any stronger.

They construct their tables using select American grown woods like Northern Red Oak, North American Maple, Southern Knotty Pine, Southern Hickory, and Premium Appalachian Cherry which is among the most prized of furniture grade hardwoods. They use wooden feather strips and 100% gum rubber cushions devoid of cheap fillers like silica and clay which allow cushions to break down and crack or harden over time requiring very expensive repairs. Both manufacturers have a lifetime warranty, not only on the cabinetry and the rails, but most importantly, with very few exceptions, on the cushion rubber.

Other manufacturers may tell you that their cushions are 100% gum rubber or that they have a lifetime warranty. But, if you read their warranties carefully, they have exclusions for humidity and climatic conditions or do not cover the table’s cushions at all. Olhausen and Connelly have no such exclusions. If you have a problem with their cushions, they will replace them at no charge—period.

Most non-American manufacturers also use cheap rubber feather strips which shrink over time allowing the cloth to come loose from the tops of the rails. They make extensive use of non-wood materials in their construction which are painted or laminated to look like wood and represent them as solid oak, mahogany, or other fine woods when they are not.

These off-shore tables, as they are known within the billiards industry, generally use un-backed slate and employ various methods of blocking for attaching the slate to their non-standard cabinets. Their poor cabinet bracing makes it very difficult to level the slate. In essence, the slate is not attached directly to the cabinet which causes increased vibration and generally poorer stability and play. If you doubt this information, ask someone who has bought one of these tables.

If a dealer tells you their tables are “Made in America”, ask them to make your table out of Michigan grown Rustic Hickory, Southern Knotty Pine, or Premium Appalachian Cherry. Can they do it? No way. Connelly Billiards can—and they will!

If they still insist their tables are “Made in America”, ask them to make your rails out of an Exotic Hardwood like Jatoba, Bacote, Bubinga, Lace Wood, or Zebra Wood. Can they do it? Nope. But, Olhausen Billiards can—and they will—in a matter of a few weeks!

Simply ask them to make the table shown in their brochure in any stain other than the one or two that it is pictured in. Can they do it? No. Why not? Because, their tables are made in China, Malaysia, or Viet Nam—not in America.

Why is this important? Maybe you don’t need solid Bubinga rails or a Rustic Hickory table. And, maybe you can live with the table in the one stain in which it is offered. But, what will they do if you need a replacement rail or leg on your table in a few years when your table model is no longer offered? Can they make the part for you? Probably not. If they can, how long will it take to get and will the stain match your table? The answers: A very, very long time, and very probably not. If needed, Olhausen or Connelly Billiards can make and ship a matching part within a week or two.

PLEASE, BUY QUALITY!!--BUY AMERICAN!!--SUPPORT THE U.S. ECONOMY!!