I have and old set and I can feel it on the 14 ball. I have a 20 year old set of centennials and its a slight rise on the 15 ball, both are the sets that I uae at pool halls so I figured it came from nails in the pockets?
Numbers on Aramith balls not flush?
- Thread starter bobbydee
- Start date
I have and old set and I can feel it on the 14 ball. I have a 20 year old set of centennials and its a slight rise on the 15 ball, both are the sets that I uae at pool halls so I figured it came from nails in the pockets?
Probably just from age. Pocket nails won't make the numbers rise.
That happens through wear. The different colors of phenolic are sometimes different harnesses. If that's on your personal sets, you might be cleaning them too aggressively, like every day in a polisher.
I have seen new sets where the entire "eye" was bulging on some balls.
It can affect roll, but if it's just the black, not much.
Probably.
It's because the balls are old. When they are brand new, most are perfect. They shrink over time. And different parts of the balls shrink differently.
I have a set of new old stock Rachig, which are regarded as some of the best balls ever made. They were made in West Germany. The balls don't look played at all. They all measure about .015" smaller on the diameter, which is a MILE. And in addition to that, each number is sunken in probably another .015". You can see it with your eye and feel it very easily.
Other sets I've measured the black portion of the number is flush with its neighboring surface, but the entire "white part" of the ball that contains the number is at a different height then the rest of the ball. It results in the ball being oval. This is just a very tiny amount, about .0005". Can't be felt. But it shows that the various pieces of the ball change size differently.
My contention is over time, something in the balls shrinks. Maybe some oil or something from the plastic evaporates over the years. I'm not sure what it is. But its more than the common idea that it is wear from sliding on the table.
I personally think more is going on than wear due to friction that results in balls getting smaller.
The only new set A'mith's that were like that were those IPT balls as i said earlier. I don't know if every IPT set had issues but it was known and KT was working with A'mith to fix but the tour folded. Other than old sets i haven't seen any A'mith balls where you could feel anything. New Centennials, Tournaments and Arcos Pred balls are all flawless.
I think they were closer to 2.25 and round than Aramith balls of the time, but shrinking over time is a problem that takes years to see and longer to fix if you don't have complete info on the material and process.
Rachig balls were also observed to have more throw than others.
That's sometimes called the "eye".
A friend of mine reported shrinkage in an unused set (Centennials?), but I think wear, either on the table or in the polisher, is at least as important. It's very common in old sets for the cue ball to be significantly smaller than the object balls.
Used in a home environment i doubt seriously you'll ever have any ball issues. Its poolroom use/abuse that does the damage.
Thanks Bob!
Thanks for the in depth reply! Makes sense!
I'm curious to see what you feel if anything.
Aramith Continental balls have silk screened numbers.
