Importance of using an ANHYDROUS alcohol product
Altho you'll find many different answers and methods to your question, no matter how many threads you dig up, I think you'll find that the general consensus is that alcohol and Magic Eraser work just fine.
Many of us carry a small piece of ME in our case and it can be used dry as well to clean the chalk from your ferrule.
After using the Magic Eraser, you'll find that it leaves a little grit on your shaft. Clean it with a soft cotton rag or paper towel.
One of the best ways to slick your shaft after cleaning is by using wax. Q Wax is one of the best that is readily available. Either that or a good carnuba wax at your auto supply store if you want to buy a large enuff tub to last you 5 lifetimes.
Apply the wax with a soft rag or paper towel and burnish with a piece of leather. Leather burnishers are available at your Billiards shop or on EBay or maybe if you have a craft store close, you can find a few scraps and make your own. Some guys use a piece of brown paper bag to burnish. That works just fine too.
There is a handy dandy little thing called a Q Wiz. Its a round disc that has a fine grit on one side and a burnisher on the other. Once you have a nice build up of wax from repeated cleanings, people will just give their shaft a clean with the Q Wiz. You'll be taking off a layer of dirty wax
and then just apply another coat of wax and burnish.
It helps to keep a soft towel in your case and wipe the shaft down after you finish playing.
There is another product called Cue Silk. You can use it for a quick fix to slick your shaft if it gets sticky. Only thing is, it costs an arm and a leg for a small bottle with about 30 drops in it.
The good news is, all Cue Silk is, is a ladies hair care product for the frizzies and you can get a large container of it at the drug store or any hair salon.
Bio Silk
Silk Therapy
FX Silk Drops.
I use Pantene as it was the cheapest I could find when I was looking.
Go to the hair care aisle of your local drug store. Start reading the ingredients on .... most No Frizz products. Look for products with high concentrations of ... Cyclomethicone and/or Dimethiconol or Dimethicone.
Hope this helps for a start.
Blue Hog ridr:
Fantastic post, buddy! Your post even covered topics and products not covered by Chris Tate's also-fantastic thread.
One thing I want to point out, though, to avoid the "frizzies" on the shaft after the Magic Eraser treatment, is to use only ANHYDROUS alcohol. That is, alcohol with NO water in it whatsoever. This type of alcohol is used as either a fuel (for alcohol stoves) or as a thinner for shellac. It's called Denatured Alcohol, and is sold at any hardware store. Yes, even the "Orange Box" (Home Depot) carries it:
It's inexpensive, too.
Isopropyl Alcohol (known in the solvent trade as simply "IPA") can be obtained in pure ANHYDROUS form as well, but it's not easy to come by. The closest to anhydrous you'll find, is the 91% formulation found at CVS and other pharmacies. But that product still has 9% water.
I recently found a product that's more expensive than the can of denatured alcohol, but is a lot more convenient. It's a 100% anhydrous isopropyl alcohol wipe product, that you can get here:
Note that these two products are marked "HazMat" because of their high flammability (as 100% IPA is considered a "fuel"). They can only be shipped Ground.
I bought the 50-pack because the little packets are very convenient to put in your cue case's pocket, and you can use these on the spot.
The reason you want to use ANHYDROUS alcohol, is because the wood in your cue shaft will absorb the water out of the alcohol. Wood, as we know, swells when it absorbs water, and the wood fibers will then swell and curl. As the Magic Eraser is rubbed along the shaft, the loops in the melamine foam (what the Magic Eraser is made from) then catches and "snags" on these raised/curled fibers, and pulls them up even further. This is the "hairiness" that folks who use an a non-anhydrous alcohol product (e.g. rubbing alcohol) experience.
Although you can then sand the shaft down, you're actually sanding-off the tips of the wood fibers, and leaving the little pits and channels that the wood fibers swelled out of and curled-up away from.
I'd rather leave those wood fibers laid down, so that you won't have pits and channels that will further trap dirt, and thus the shaft will be smoother and stay cleaner longer.
Hope this helps!
-Sean
