Cue Tip Care By Billiards Plus
When customers bring their cues in to
us we see all kinds of problems with the pool cue's tip. Most people
realize that pool cue tip care is important but they don't know exactly how or
what to do. If the tip is shaped poorly or mushroomed your pool cue will
not play very well or very consistently.
Tip Shaping
The most important part of cue
tip care is it's shape. If the tip is too flat the cue will miscue more often when
you try to put "English" on the cue ball. If it is too rounded your long
shot accuracy will suffer.
For years the "nickel" radius was
considered the best possible shape for a cue tip. Recent research has
shown that the "dime" radius actually produces less cue ball deflection.
Long shot accuracy with the "dime" is also helped by better technology cues and
aftermarket shafts.
Regardless of what radius you use the
important part is that the tip be completely even. There should not be any
bumps or valleys on the tip surface. Any imperfections would cause the cue
ball to react funny.
Shaping Tools
There are many different tools on the
market that you can use. For a "nickel" tip it is pretty hard to beat the
Creative Inventions Shaper/Tacker. They are small, cheap, and easy to use.
The Big Shaver by Creative Inventions will also do a great job The Cuetec Bowtie
tool is pretty good too. The Willard's space ship shaper comes in both the
"nickel" and the "dime". It is nice because it has an inspection gauge on
the rim so you can see how you are doing.
For a "dime" radius your choices are
more limited. The Willard's is good and is cheap. The other tool
that I like is the Atrox tip tool. It is more expensive, but does more cue
tip care things than just shaping your tip.
Mushrooming
Every time the cue's tip strikes the
cue ball the leather is compressed and then springs back into it's original
position. After a period of time depending on the composition and design
of the tip it stops springing back to it's original shape. When this
happens the tip flares out over the ferrule. This is called mushrooming.
When a cue tip mushrooms the feel of
the tip changes. The pool cue tip is very soft where it is spread out and
the cue easily miscues. To get the cue to play good again the mushroom has
to be cut off. Again, there are a variety of tools that can do this job.
Creative Inventions makes a Mushroom Graser, the Cut Rite Shaper/Cutter, as well
as the Little and Big Shavers. The Antrox tool does this job also.
Burnishing
Once the cue tip's mushroom is
removed, the edge of the tip needs to be burnished. The burnishing process
hardens the leather on the outer edge of the tip and helps to prevent the
mushroom from happening. Again, there are many good tools on the market to
do this job.
Tip Tapper
After your cue's tip has hit the cue
ball a few thousand times you will probably notice that your tip does not seem
to hold chalk anymore. This is because the pores of the leather have been
packed so tight that chalk doesn't have anything to stick to. By taking a
tip tapper and roughing up the tip it will hold chalk again and the tip will not
miscue as often. On multi layered pool cue tips like the Moori or Talisman
you should not use a tapper. The tapper will cut through the layers which
will wear the tip out prematurely. On a multi layered tip just use a
shaper to gently roughen up the surface of the cue tip.
Inspection and Maintenance
Like your car, your cue should be
inspected and maintained on a schedule to keep it working at it's best. I
like to inspect my cue's tip after every match. That way I know it is good
for the next match or I have the time to make any repairs I need to make before
I have to play again. At the end of each session I will reshape my tip and
check the sides for any indication of a mushroom. If the session has been
a long one I will also use my tapper.
By knowing what to look for and
performing some pool cue tip care I know that my cue will not let me down when I
need it. It also leaves me with no excuse for missing that shot that
rattled the pocket. With a few simple tools and some time you can keep
your tip in good shape also.
If you're still not sure what to do
or just want to make sure it is done right you can bring your cue to Billiards
Plus and our pros can fix you up and get your cue tip playing like it should.
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