When I first walked in a pool room in 1961, I was in total awe of the number of pool tables and so many pool cues on
the wall racks. It was a new experience having only played in the basement or gymnasium of the local school’s
summertime activities programs. When I picked up my first rack of pool balls from the counter man, he tossed in a few pieces of chalk that I paid little attention to.
Down through the years, my interest in pool exploded and I became addicted just like so many other readers. My initial
fascination was focused on pool cue designs that eventually lead to my interest in pool cue construction. Along the way, I stumbled up different brands of pool chalk but never really settled on one brand. As long as a cube of chalk still had a good shape, that was fine with me.
Then about a dozen, maybe more, years ago, more elite brands of chalk started appearing boasting of being able to chalk on Sunday and play until Tuesday without having to reapply chalk again to your cue tip. And of course, cleanliness which became a very important criteria for me so I have ivory ferrules on all my cues to avoid any chalk staining. Cue shafts also get dirty from chalk so that was another reason to use chalk that didn’t create a mess, as well as minimizing chalk buildup in the table cloth. Ever use a rainbow vacuum on a pool table? The effluent can start looking like a river of blue mud. So chalk brand gradually became more important over time to many players.
I became a fan of Blue Diamond Chalk and used it for years. Still have a dozen brand new boxes. Another brand was Magic Chalk that I tried as well. It seemed like new chalk brands were popping up all the time and then it settled down and Dr. Dave did a great review on different pool chalk brands. I saw a F/S thread for a large quantity of MC and so I wondered how important is pool chalk nowadays with pool players? I was pretty indifferent about which designer (pricey) chalk was the best and resisted paying crazy prices until TAOM.
It seems to me TAOM has become hugely popular and price isn’t important. I have been playing with the same piece of TAOM for over a year and bought a box of Pagulayan chalk because I prefer the cube shape to oval. The Pagulayan chalk is fantastic and so it dawned on me that the 3 pieces of TAOM chalk (oval & cube) will probably last several years. The chalk is absolutely the cleanest chalk I’ve ever seen.
So I wondered how chalk sales are going for pool supply stores? Do players still have brand allegiance for pool chalks? I just bought a piece of TAOM V10 on Walmart’s website for $4.19 (shipped with taxes incld was only $10.57). The same chalk on Pool Dawg is $19.99 plus tax and shipping. Walmart was less than 1/2 the price. .I was going to order a larger quantity but I realized I’d likely never really need the chalk since it lasts so long. TAOM seems to atop the totem pole for the best pool chalk. If you want to try it, check out Walmart’s website pricing. One cube of TAOM V10 for under $11 is a fantastic price.
