Customizing Billiard Tables

Today, the A.E. Schmidt Billiard Co. is the oldest family-owned billiard table manufacturer in the nation.

Kurt Schmidt, owner of the A.E. Schmidt Billiard Co. in St. Louis, loves a challenge. So when he received a call in 2006 from a customer in Oregon asking for a custom-size pool table that also served as a dining room table, he jumped at the chance.

“I’ve never met a challenge I didn’t like,” says Schmidt, 48, whose great-great grandfather founded the company in 1850.

Building a 7-foot billiard table that can seat up to 12 dinner guests was a challenge because it had never been done before. The table had to be at a comfortable height for both dining and playing pool, but it couldn’t be so low to touch a diner’s knees.

“Six months later, I’d built my fifth frame and I still couldn’t make it hold the slate properly,” he says, referring to the table’s main playing surface. “The first snapped in half from the weight of the slate. The second, third, fourth and fifth seemed to hold, but after a week started to sag.”

Eventually, Schmidt solved the problem and The Carsten Diner—named for the customer—came to life. “That’s what makes us different from other pool companies,” he says. “We can take an idea and bring it life.”

Of course, most of A.E. Schmidt Billiard Co.’s tables aren’t as challenging to build. “Our average customer only wants a couple of things changed,” he says. “They’ll look at our basic models and just want to dress it up a bit.”

The Schmidt family has been dressing up billiard tables for generations. Kurt’s great-great grandfather, Ernst Schmidt, started the company in 1850 and was in the business of carving ivory billiard cue balls, constructing cabinetry, and repairing billiard tables and equipment. In 1882, Ernst’s son, Oscar, began crafting the company’s first pool tables.

Today, the A.E. Schmidt Billiard Co. is the oldest family-owned billiard table manufacturer in the nation. Among the company’s 20 employees are Kurt’s wife, Karen, who works in the front office, and his aunt, Gwen, 91, who’s been crocheting linen pool-table pockets for more than 40 years. “She can make one pocket a day,” Kurt says. “That’s her limit.”

Karen hand-dyes the crocheted pockets black, brown, or any color a customer selects.

A sixth generation of Schmidts also is learning the business. Kurt’s son, Michael, a 21-year-old college student, works part-time for the company, and daughters Stephanie, 17, and Rachel, 15, often help out in the factory.

Schmidt workers build about 600 tables a year, each requiring 22 hours or more to construct. The tables—with names such as Kashmir, Majestic, Xanadu and Ivanhoe—often include ornate hand-turned legs, colored trim, and mother of pearl table sites, and are constructed out of oak, cherry, maple, walnut, hickory or cedar. A basic model sells for around $2,000, while elegant high-end models such as the Carsten Diner cost more than $6,500.

The company’s customers range from celebrities such as singer Justin Timberlake to middle-class American families. One of Kurt’s favorite memories is about a customer who prepaid for a billiard table, bringing in his two sons every week with cash they earned cutting grass on weekends. “The dad worked right along with them,” Kurt recalls. “I never forgot the lesson that customer taught me: The reward is great, but getting there is where all the meaning is.”

Don Bartholomay of Bankshot Billiards in Albany, N.Y., has been selling Schmidt tables for 20 years, alongside restored antique tables. Bartholomay says Schmidt’s products are closer to the structural integrity of antique tables, which generally are longer lasting than today’s mass-produced tables. “I think if Schmidt were to stop making tables, I might just stop selling new tables,” he says, adding that Schmidt tables are “the best-made tables anywhere.”

Kurt says it’s all part of the family legacy. “You feel the weight of the past four generations to not only see that the company remains relevant to the industry, but respected for its manner of dealings with customers as well as vendors.”

Of course, the company’s success ultimately can be traced to the quality of its billiard tables. “They don’t take shortcuts,” says Pat McDonald, owner of McDonald’s Billiard Supply Co. in Knoxville, Tenn. “They are a more expensive table, but you’ll never have to buy another one as long as you live.”

Margaret Schroeder is a writer in Springfield, Ill.

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