I doubt they're made from elk. Elk are a controlled animal as far as harvesting goes. I wouldn't think there would be enough hides available to make very many tips.A little homework, a dealer says the Elkmaster tips are made from elk. The dealer is highly respected in the snooker world I believe so perhaps it is true. Tweeten makes the tips here in the USA and seems a bit coy about where the leather comes from.
A nice fine grain quality leather whatever it is. They do also produce water buffalo tips I believe so those big hides could indeed be for other tips. The hide on an animal varies a great deal in different places and it is at least possible that the Elkmaster tips are made from the finer thin areas of the water buffalo, under the belly and inside the legs are some areas that are generally finer grained and thinner than the hide on the top of the back for example. The hides could come from elk, sheep, goat, hogs, the list is almost endless. They could be using horse hide too and be a bit coy fearing backlash from horse lovers. I found horse hide to vary greatly in the same places depending on the breeding of the individual animal.
Years ago I tipped a lot of house cues for pool halls using water buffalo tips, I think Triangles. Buffalo was a very tough durable hide, very coarse grained fiber. However, I can't say that they didn't play well and hold up under abuse well. That coarse grain may help them hold chalk. I suspect in blind testing people today would be quite pleased with them until they found out the price. You can buy boxes of Triangles for the cost of some of these new tips last I knew.
Selected Elkmaster tips work well for my personal cues dudded or not. If I am breaking hard I usually grab a break cue off the wall and my normal playing style doesn't require much power. Some people completely destroy the integrity of the leather crushing Elkmaster tips as much as they can. These I would be leery of. If you want a hard tip, best and easiest to start with a hard tip.
Leather is a very complex subject. What I know isn't even the tip of the iceberg. I used to hang out in a saddle shop a little bit. Just admiring the craftsmanship of the leather worker. Skill and art, and it starts with selecting the right leather for the job.
Edit: Are you or the installer burnishing the sides of the tip? Different ways of doing it as it seems with everything. A drop of water and a dollar works fine. I try to use the newer money the better and I am a traditionalist about burnishing. A little spit, and then I burnish with a stiff hundred dollar bill. Kinda like sticking something with scent on it to a hound's nose, I want the tip to know what things are all about!
Hu
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