Where are the better-than-leather tips?

Bob Callahan

Bob Callahan

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
After being away from pool so long, I thought by now someone would've developed a tip that plays better than leather. There have been some developments in break and jump tips, of course, but even those aren't all that new. Everybody knew you were supposed to look for the house cue with the thinnest, hardest tip to break with, years ago. It wouldn't even be surprising to find out that people were breaking with capped ferrules that were rounded, long before modern synthetic tips.

I've tried a few things...superball (shattered), tire rubber (left skid marks on everything), and even a synthetic tip Paul Gerni sent me a long time ago...but none were better than leather.

It would be nice to have a tip that gave better friction, needed no chalk, and lasted a longtime, wouldn't it?

What all have you tried/know about?
 
i remember back in 87 or there about a plastic/rubber compound tip made their way into the pool room, with out the internet etc thesource of things was a bit harder to tace down. they had black sides and lite brown domes and were the same color on the bottom. Which was fine if your ferrel was the exact size of the tip, if not the problem was easily solved with a sharpie marker. To thebest of my recollection they played fair but were very hard to keep attached to the cue, I know I saw them flying all over the place. My friend was glueing them on again and again. then they disappeared. Someone got them in a plastic bag with no name etc, I have no clue where they came from, he might havea few in his tip collection
 
Slip-on end caps

Bob:

A while back, there was this thread (link shown below) that described what a particular tournament director caught one of the participating players using:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=149470

The company that makes these is found here:

http://stockcap.com/prod_detail.asp?id=99&cat=12

Another type of "gimmick" tip sold is this:

http://hotshotscanada.com/item4764.htm
http://twistertip.com/

I don't think any of these are legal, but it'd be interesting what kind of "grip" these would give on the cue ball? (Especially the first "stockcap" product, since the second product is already sold as a gimmick/trick-shot tip substitute.)

-Sean
 
I've been experimenting with a cue tip made from the foreskin of the Great Canadian Yak. They are harvested during mating season, cured, and tanned. Alas, I think I might switch back to leather, these Yak foreskip tips just have too much squirt :rotflmao1::rotflmao1::rotflmao1:

Happy Friday everyone!
 
Cratex makes for a really good playing tip. Only lasts a few games then starts to breakdown.
Leather is fairly hard to beat.
 
Joe Porper makes synthetic tips available in soft medium and hard. They are called the Ram Tip.
They can be bought as singles on EBay.
I've only installed a hard on a break cue and the guy likes it just fine, altho, they aren't as good as a Super Pro in leather.
I would think a person could get used to a soft for regular playing, but in the long run, nothing can beat a leather tip.
 
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Bob Callahan said:
After being away from pool so long, I thought by now someone would've developed a tip that plays better than leather. There have been some developments in break and jump tips, of course, but even those aren't all that new. Everybody knew you were supposed to look for the house cue with the thinnest, hardest tip to break with, years ago. It wouldn't even be surprising to find out that people were breaking with capped ferrules that were rounded, long before modern synthetic tips.

I've tried a few things...superball (shattered), tire rubber (left skid marks on everything), and even a synthetic tip Paul Gerni sent me a long time ago...but none were better than leather.

It would be nice to have a tip that gave better friction, needed no chalk, and lasted a longtime, wouldn't it?

What all have you tried/know about?
Click to expand...

Wooden baseball bats - leather cue tips.
There are reasons why they are still used.

Dale
 
Nothing has been proven to be better than leather for use in making cue tips. Nothing. And I doubt that anything will be around in the next hundred years that performs as well as leather. Leather can provide the full spectrum of hits, from very soft, to rock hard, and in-between. Advances in technology have led to a host of great playing laminated tips that, unless you fool around with the tip too much, should last quite some time.

As to chalking....I like chalking after every shot, I do it as I walk around looking at the table, it gives me a quiet time in which to plot my next shot.
 
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pdcue said:
Wooden baseball bats - leather cue tips.
There are reasons why they are still used.

Dale
Click to expand...

That's true. Also, the reasons are totally different for tips and bats. For bats, the reason wood is used is for nostalgia, the sound the wooden bat makes, and the safety of the players. An aluminum bat is superior in every conceivable way. Something like 20% more ball speed coming off the aluminum bat. Modern baseball parks would need to be extended, infielders might consider face guards...etc.

The leather tip seems to be used simply because no one has come up with anything better.

So the analogy actually works well for the original posters idea.
 
Thanks for the replies.

sfleinen said:
Another type of "gimmick" tip sold is this:

http://hotshotscanada.com/item4764.htm
http://twistertip.com/
-Sean
Click to expand...

I have a Twister, and it is fun to fool with. Wonder what would happen if the same material was used for a standard tip?


Blue Hog ridr said:
Joe Porper makes synthetic tips available in soft medium and hard. They are called the Ram Tip.
They can be bought as singles on EBay.
I've only installed a hard on a break cue and the guy likes it just fine, altho, they aren't as good as a Super Pro in leather.
I would think a person could get used to a soft for regular playing, but in the long run, nothing can beat a leather tip.
Click to expand...

Didn't know about these. Thanks. Here's what Mueller says about them:

These tips won't mushroom, flatten out or change its shape. It's a formulation of components compressed into one of the most consistent tips available. There’s no maintenance or constant grooming, the tip stays perfect. 14mm Hardness rating for Soft: 64.1 Medium: 71.5 Medium Hard: 78.9.
Click to expand...

Link: http://www.poolndarts.com/p-5960-Porper-s-Ram-Tip/

Do you still use chalk with these? Anybody here played with one?
 
Gum Ball Machine SUPERBALL

those 50 cent gumball machine SUPERBALL is what you want to make your tip of, good luck :)
 
i tried a ram tip, it is worst POS i've ever used. you still have to chalk it. no feel, no control, i can't believe how anyone thought that kind of material would be useful for a cue tip. perhaps as someone else said, the hard would be OK for breaking, like using a phenolic tip. but for playing, hell no!

i have heard of a new synthetic tip called the Ninja (http://cuesmith.com/index.php?menu2=menu_accessories&page=tips_ferrules), but I haven't tried them.

i doubt any thing can be made anytime soon that will be better than leather.
 
also

Wooden baseball bats - leather cue tips.
There are reasons why they are still used.




and green pool tables
 
McChen said:
i tried a ram tip, it is worst POS i've ever used. you still have to chalk it. no feel, no control, i can't believe how anyone thought that kind of material would be useful for a cue tip. perhaps as someone else said, the hard would be OK for breaking, like using a phenolic tip. but for playing, hell no!

i have heard of a new synthetic tip called the Ninja (http://cuesmith.com/index.php?menu2=menu_accessories&page=tips_ferrules), but I haven't tried them.

i doubt any thing can be made anytime soon that will be better than leather.
Click to expand...

I make the Ninja tip, and I shoot with them exclusively. They hold their crown better, and mushroom very minimally. I played and broke with the same cue for six months and I never had to shape the crown. The consistency and accuracy far exceeds any leather tip I have ever played with.
 
From the right perspective, leather is the ultimate in "hi tech." Lot's of engineers these days are looking toward biology for ideas. Evolution has been working for hundreds of millions of years for different ways to engineer materials to do fantastic things. Leather (which is mostly cross-linked keratin) is one of them--skin is the largest organ in the body, and in some ways the most important. It's tough, yet elastic.

The foot of the gecko is a famous example of adhesiveness without a chemical bond--they can climb up window glass. Here's how it might be able to be copied using carbon nanotubes.
 
Hightower84 said:
I make the Ninja tip, and I shoot with them exclusively. They hold their crown better, and mushroom very minimally. I played and broke with the same cue for six months and I never had to shape the crown. The consistency and accuracy far exceeds any leather tip I have ever played with.
Click to expand...

You should have a website about it...

MANY would be interested to learn more, no doubt.
 
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