$25 for a piece of chalk is ridiculous!

I have not heard one bad thing so far regarding the performance, only the price.

There's been anecdotal evidence of all kinds out there. Unfortunately, since pricing gets so much of the attention, some of that becomes less than trustworthy.

It's not that pricing isn't important here, but the pricing discussion gets in the way of discussing other matters of the product, and all too often becomes a values/morals discussion and ceases being about the product at all.
 
I don't know. 4 out of what?

Out of the amount of miscues Mr. Schmidt makes in a tournament. He was probably speaking hyperbolically when offering his opinion. Nonetheless his opinion has merit as a miscue by a professional when playing another professional is generally costly. So anything which reduces them is probably worth a lot to a pro. It should be safe assumption that outside of actually using Kamui chalk the profesional player has probably done all that is physically possible to minimize the incidence of miscues.
 
There's been anecdotal evidence of all kinds out there. Unfortunately, since pricing gets so much of the attention, some of that becomes less than trustworthy.

It's not that pricing isn't important here, but the pricing discussion gets in the way of discussing other matters of the product, and all too often becomes a values/morals discussion and ceases being about the product at all.

Agreed.:thumbup:
 
Interesting... I think I'll stick to master chalk. I dunno, I guess I like chalking every shot. The chalk dust doesn't bother me, it prolly doesn't cause cancer. I think I'll leave this made in japan crap, in japan. I bet it costs about $0.50 a piece to make. Especially if it's coming from japan. That's one hell of a profit margin! Where can I buy some stock?

But hey, if it works for you guys then that's good, enjoy :thumbup:

I understand being for the ol' USA.

But I think you may be mis-informed about Japan and their products. Japanese people and as a nation are very quality conciencious. They are into high quality products. Producing them and buying them.

I think you may have China and Japan mixed up?
 
I understand being for the ol' USA.

But I think you may be mis-informed about Japan and their products. Japanese people and as a nation are very quality conciencious. They are into high quality products. Producing them and buying them.

I think you may have China and Japan mixed up?

Yeah, prolly a mix up. So many shitty china and Taiwan products give the Asian nation (products) a bad name. Jeez I forgot about Toyota and Honda! They are the best quality cars on the market!
 
And that is perfectly ok. However your equipment setup is a prime example of the validity of the argument for products that raise the bar. You say that the Predator is the first proper cue you ever bought. In fact though Predator is a company which was built on the premise that existing cues, to include George Balabuska, Szamboti, Schon, etc...are all inferior to the laminated shaft/low weight tip end construction they invented.

When they debuted the shafts were on average 3x costlier than conventional shafts. They had to spend a lot of time convincing consumers that their product provided a performance advantage over single piece maple shafts. And even today 20 years later people still debate Predator's claims and many people do not feel that Predator shafts constitute a proper cue at all.

So in fact you are quite new school in this respect.

Very true. Preadator had their "gimmick" with the multi layered shafts and they have (had) similar marketing ploys that kamui has. Although I did not buy it (my cue) because of the hype. It was the cheapest cue my hall had the time for sale ($245.00). So that's the main reason I bought it lol. It's pretty beat up now after 10 years of playing but it has character and it still hits like a motherf**ker!

Edit: I think I paid $300.00 for the cue. It's been so long...
 
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I like this predator argument, I thought of this myself. The problem is, unless I haven't read something here, is that places tested predator's assertions with a robot hitting machine-- and low and behold what they were saying was true.

Now, i'm not sure what kamui is really saying about their chalk, if anything. But i'd have to see some tests like were done on predator shafts to believe this chalk prevents miscues (or let's a player hit further out on the cb).
 
Yeah, prolly a mix up. So many shitty china and Taiwan products give the Asian nation (products) a bad name. Jeez I forgot about Toyota and Honda! They are the best quality cars on the market!

Actually it's only a very small percentage of products that people use to give all of China a bad name. 40 years ago Made in Japan was similarly derided.

Your Predator cue was probably made by a Taiwanese company using Taiwanese workers imported into Canada.
 
I like this predator argument, I thought of this myself. The problem is, unless I haven't read something here, is that places tested predator's assertions with a robot hitting machine-- and low and behold what they were saying was true.

Now, i'm not sure what kamui is really saying about their chalk, if anything. But i'd have to see some tests like were done on predator shafts to believe this chalk prevents miscues (or let's a player hit further out on the cb).

I agree and if they made this claim and could back it it up with data then there would be a lot less argument.
 
Nathan,
I am very disappointed. You share our emails publicly without my permission. Not cool. Let me post my response to your email.

Hi Nathan,
Actually. Smurfs do exist and Gargamel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargamel was hired by us to process the smurfs into chalk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smurf
We came out with the new movie http://smurfhappens.com/?hs308=SMF6186
to gain more popularity for the blue color. ;-)

Hail to Gargamel!

ROFLOL!

-John


I sent another email to John at Kamui, this time inquiring about the possibility of a financial opportunity.



John's response...


This got me thinking further, and so I replied with the following...


I eagerly await John's response.
 
We are never satisfied with the products we produce and therefore our passion is continue to innovate and make improvements to every aspect of billiards where we can see needs improvement. We do not force anyone to buy our products. It is your choice yo buy or not. It is our challenge and passion to make a difference in our little industry.

Kamui thanks you for being our customer and we will not stop improving and providing the best products for you.
 
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well . . .

So when US Open winner John Schmidt says it would be worth it if it simply reduced his miscue rate by 4 per event your advice to him is that he needs to work on his stroke?

John has been known to say things to make a point. However if he really miscued four times or more an event I'd say he needed to work on his shot selection not his stroke! (not suggesting for a moment that John needs to work on either one)

Hu
 
And the other fact is that the vast majority of products which are defective or potentially harmful are not discovered until someone is harmed. That holds true for just about every human action and product built by humans.

China is the scapegoat of the moment but in fact you will find recalls of products across the board for health and safety reasons that span the world to include a lot of products made in the USA. No where on the planet are there regulators standing in every factory insuring that all rules and standards are followed.

The overwhelming majority of products made in China are safe. While it is incredibly important to identify and stop the ones which aren't it is also important that people understand that the dangerous ones are well in the minority.

If you honestly think Japan is so much better then perhaps you would like to explain the scandal surrounding the Fukishima crisis? Now it is widely known that the plants were horribly mismanaged and safety issues deliberately covered up for most of the past decade. It took a devastating event to uncover this possibly criminal mishandling though.

The majority of products from China that are not ingested are safe. But the amount of cases of toxic materials in objects that can be ingested or are handled enough so that its possible to ingest residue is far higher in China than anywhere else in recent years.

The reactors were actually American designed from 30-40 years ago, so there goes that theory. Also, it was hit by one of the biggest quakes ever and a gigantic tsunami. Not many things in existence can stand up to that kind of beating. Its a wonder the buildings are even standing.
 
Im a fairly new player to the game and so far the only chalk ive used is Masters chalk..I know my stroke is anything but perfect and I do notice when I forget to keep up on chalking I miscue alot more..When im playing and keeping up on chalking before every shot I rarely miscuem or at least dont miscue as much..So just from my experience in the last couple of months Ive come to the conclusion that chalk is an important aspect to not miscue..25-30 dollars seems very expensive to me for a single piece of chalk but I would still like to try it and see what I notice with it..So when it comes back in stock at Kamui I think I will buy a piece and see how I like it..If I dont notice any noticeable difference in gameplay I will stick to Masters since I can get 2 full boxes of chalk for the price of a single piece of Kamui chalk..
 
So when US Open winner John Schmidt says it would be worth it if it simply reduced his miscue rate by 4 per event your advice to him is that he needs to work on his stroke?

Well, I'd say his stroke under pressure is probably what he would need to work on to remedy that. What do you think his advice to himself would be, the same thing. Why do you think there are miscues? Pro pool players aren't Gods, they are guys who play very well.

Where is this quote anyway, you seem obsessed with it. I'm not sure what he means by "it". I hate to break this to you, but everybody already knows that 4 reduced miscues in a tournamnet is very strong, so why keep bringing it up? This isn't evidence corroborating your assertions or anything. There is also a big "if" in that sentence, underlined by yours truly.

New chalk just simply isn't how you miscue less, it's not the answer. But, let's just say for one second that this new chalk is the answer to miscuing less. Well, you're still wrong because any miscue after using the new chalk would still have to remedied by work on your stroke (under pressure), right? Or maybe you think a new piece of miracle chalk would be out by then? Or you think miscues wont exist after the kamui chalk?
 
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Where is this quote anyway, you seem obsessed with it. I'm not sure what he means by "it". I hate to break this to you, but everybody already knows that 4 reduced miscues in a tournamnet is very strong, so why keep bringing it up? This isn't evidence corroborating your assertions or anything. There is also a big "if" in that sentence, underlined by yours truly.

John Schmidt was asked about Kamuii chalk during the TAR 20 PPV between Earl and SVB. That is where this quote came from. Something to the effect of "I haven't tried it yet, but if it keeps me from miscueing, say 4 times over the course of a tournament, it's well worth trying." Then he stated that he was certainly gonna give it a try at some point.

The point being that if John Schmidt feels that any if increase in performance is worth it, there must be something to at least considering it's use. That's why people keep bringing John's comment up.

It also brings us back to the basic premise, if the chalk improves your performance at all, then all we are doing is haggling over price. As for what that improvement is worth to you.
 
The point being that if John Schmidt feels that any if increase in performance is worth it, there must be something to at least considering it's use. It also brings us back to the basic premise, if the chalk improves your performance at all, then all we are doing is haggling over price.

From your statement, I don't see that.

He didn't say 'any increase', according to you, he specifically quantified the increase. However, that still leaves the important question of what that quantification means.

Again, relativity plays a big part. 4 out of 4 is a lot different than 4 out of 104. "By 4" with no context doesn't mean anything.

Out of the amount of miscues Mr. Schmidt makes in a tournament. He was probably speaking hyperbolically when offering his opinion.

Hyperbole does not make for a trustworthy opinion. Some are putting a lot of trust in a quote they can't seem to place in a proper context.
 
If John Schmidt is useing it, you can bet he got for free. Master chalk is 9 centavos a piece. $25 is pretty ballsy if you ask me.

Furthermore, the price of Kamui chalk alone will keep me from buying any of their other branded products. Kamui definetely doesn't have your "game" at heart or they would offer the wonder chalk at a more affordable price for everyone.
 
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