i have shafts with original 50 year old tips on them. still shoot fine. junk tips are junk, good tips last.
I have some very old as well, over 50 years in some cases. I don't think it is consistently true that good tips will always last. They fair better than junk tips, but they are leather after all, and some will dry out and harden. I have some that are relatively fine and others that are hard as hardwood. And I don't think it necessarily relates to the original quality of the product. With each passing decade time becomes a larger factor and eventually overshadows the quality. The quality is static while time marches on. The balance will shift.
I am a leather aficionado and have some vintage leather jackets, boots, and belts. If not cared for well they will harden, dry out, and eventually essentially rot. Which reminds me...I have a 1950's biker jacket I need to get back to working on. A gift from a friend...a real treasure.
As an example, a cue I left in a case (Fellini type) for years, probably about ten years, had some very light fungus on the linen wrap and tips when I finally took it out. Thankfully it was extremely light and caused no appreciable damage, but that fungus was eating the organic material. The leather and linen are food for microbes.
Well tanned leather is preserved to a certain extent but it is still organic material that can and will degrade over time. Even if sealed up and in environmentally controlled circumstances. This is one of the reasons that intact leather artifacts in archaeology are so rare.
A year or two? No big deal.
50..100...more?
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