The leather pool table pocket net was first patented by the Benedict Billiard table Co. of Syracuse NY. Bankshot Antiques now brings the manufacture of high quality leather pool table pockets back to upstate New York offering all the parts necessary to outfit your table with new pockets. check out some informative pictures of finished pockets on Bankshot Antiques Pocket page.
If you need something you don't see please call. Pocket irons have changed a great deal since Benedict's patent. The most common now are the #6, #3 and #5 but there are many more not all pictured here. #3 irons alone have many different shapes that make them specific to your table. Don't throw them away even if broken! |
If your table is an antique, the only way to preserve the originality and maintain the functionality is to keep your original irons and sew new leather to them.
There are many types and variations of irons and none made today will look as “correct” or likely fit as well as your originals. One of the first things I look at on an old table is to see if it has its original irons. Some types are certainly more common – a #3 or #6 for example – but others are more out of the ordinary – a #5, or a “G-iron” or a Benedict “round flange” or a thin Briggs – and many more. There are also more parts to a pool table pocket than many realize, partly because their table has lost some of its original pieces. Everyone knows that there is a “basket” which catchers the balls and a “top cover” on the iron to which the basket is attached, but there is also reinforcing leather under the top cover, and scalloped trim lining both the inside of the pocket and the slate side as well. Some tables have a leather “flap” on the back side which hides the stitching and some have fringe. We have had fringe made in the old style with authentic colors and proper braid thickness and length. Some tables use a crocheted net instead of a leather basket and we have a source for hand-crocheted nets. Our pockets are hand made. We treat our leather with a conditioner, dye it in an oil bath and finish it with wax giving the pockets the nice feel of an old saddle. |
