The Pool Cue Tip
Which pool cue tip is the best?
What's best for me is not necessarily the best cue tip for you.
The pool cue tip is the most
important part of the cue. It is the only thing that actually contacts the
cue ball. Sometimes, changing the tip can instantly turn a cue from bad to
good.
Hard or Soft
Pool cue tips come in many different
degrees of hardness or softness. They range from tips which are very soft
to the Phenolic cue tips that are really hard and all ranges in between.
The tips hardness is determined by how the tip is made, what type of leather it
is made from and how the leather was tanned in the first place.
Type of Leather
Pool cue tips can be made from many
different types of leather. Cowhide is traditionally what you think of
when you think of leather but Pigskin and even Water Buffalo is used. I
think that cowhide tends to be soft to medium, pigskin to be medium to medium
hard, and water buffalo tends to be medium hard to hard. These are only my
observations and the tanner can change the leather's characteristics by changing
the tanning process.
Single, Layered, or Phenolic
Pool cue tips come in 3 different
styles. The usual style that everyone is familiar with is the Single Layer
tip. This tip is a combination of leather and glue that is put into a mold
and compressed into the cue tip shape. These tips come in all different
sizes and in various hardness.
The Layered cue tip has become
popular in the last 10 years or so. This tip is constructed by building up
layers of leather with glue in between the layers to bond them together.
These pool cue tips are usually glued together in a vacuum chamber to eliminate
air pockets in between the layers. Layered tips tend to be more consistent
and last longer because of the way they are constructed. They also are
more expensive for the same reason.
The Phenolic pool cue tip is a
specialty tip used on break and jump cues. These tips are made like a
single layer tip and have very little or no leather. They are extremely
hard and require almost no shaping or maintenance. Often these tips are
made with Bakelite or some other hard plastic. A properly designed
Phenolic tip transmits all the power directly to the cue ball and does not
compress at all. It's easy to miscue with one of these cue tips but when
you hit it right it does pack a punch.
Nickel or Dime
The shape of the pool cue tip has a
great effect on how the tip "plays". For years all pool players used a
nickel radius with a large hard tip. Snooker players traditionally used a
small soft tip and a dime radius. The "nickel" or "dime" refers the
curvature of the cue tip. In the last few years research by Predator with
Iron Willie and Meucci as well as others have shown that a dime radius on a
large tip (approx. 13 mm) greatly affects how the cue tip and the cue ball react
at the moment of contact. Their research showed that the dime radius
decreased the amount the cue ball "squirted" with side English.
Large or Small
Traditional thinking is that you must
have a small tipped cue to play snooker and a small tipped cue cannot be used
for pool. A few years ago Predator came out with their "Z" shaft.
The Z shaft is smaller in diameter than the traditional pool cue shaft and this
started the whole big and small argument again. The reality of the debate
is that it does not matter what size the cue tip is. A large tip can put
just as much English on a cue ball as a small tip. This is because the tip
has a radius on it and the pool ball is round. Therefore the tip only hits
the ball at one point no matter how big or small it is. This means no
matter how big or small the cue tip or the ball is you can only hit offset so
far before you miscue.
Thick or Thin
The thickness of the cue tip affects
the way that the tip plays. The tip actually acts as a spring. When
it hits the cue ball it compresses and then springs back. The tip's spring
rate changes as it is used and is compressed. When the tip mushrooms it
has compressed and the spring rate has changed. If the tip gets too thin
then it "bottoms out" when the cue ball is hit. Then it is time to change
the tip. This happens a long time before the tip gets down to the ferrule.
As you can see there is more to cue
tips than meet the eye. Next time you need your cue retipped you may just
improve your game without the hours and hours of practice.
At Billiards Plus we stock a wide
variety of cue tips. These include; Blue Diamond, Elk Master, Everest, Le
Pro, Moori, Phenolic Jump/Break tips, Royal Oak, Talisman Pro, Triangle, and WB
cue tips. We can discuss the different tip choices with you and
help you decide which pool cue tip would suit your playing style.
Stop in and let our
professional staff help you today.
Do you have a
question? Contact Us.
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