I have been playing pool for almost 20 years, and within this time I've had many of the tip tools out there which I thought would help me in my game. Most of these purchases either seem to work fine in the beginning but proved useless after a few uses, or they were simply bad purchases right from the start. I do not want to name them all, but in the recent years two of the tip tools proved to do a good job: Wolfbite's two piece shaper/burnisher and Kamui's Gator Grip scuffer. Now there is a third one that has been developed by one of our own, joelpope, and it may very well be the what is claimed on it packaging: "The last tip tool you will ever buy".
In the picture below, Last4Ever is shown in the foreground with the other aforementioned two shown in the back. Wolfbite tool (back-right) does a great job at shaping/re-shaping thanks to its contoured surface, but it removes some of the tip material by design. I didn't mind this for many years, but with increased play time I realized one may need to replace tips more often that should be when Wolfbite tool is used for scuffing.
Kamui's Gator Grip (back-left) is a single task tool that does a good job where the Wolfbite tool falls short. It doesn't remove too much tip material, but the lack of a contoured surface doesn't guarantee that you'll retain the tip shape after a few uses, and you may end up with a less than ideal tip shape even though it may be difficult to notice with the naked eye.
Last4Ever seems to solve these problems: It is a multitasking tool to start with. One of its 4 functional sides is a shaping-reshaping tool that not only does a great job (see the picture below where I used it to shorten the White Diamond tip on my break cue, no lathes used here), but also comes with a large flat scuffing surface that doesn't remove ANY tip material, hence makes sure that that you retain the dime or nickel shape, whichever you may prefer. All you need to do is to rock the large flat abrasive surface of the tool back and forth across your tip to remove any glazing and improve chalk retention, and when you need to reshape your tip due to regular play, just turn it over and use the contoured surface designed for the job.
In addition to the advantages above, the multi-purpose Last4Ever tool has two more functional sides: one with a piece of leather for burnishing the sides of your tip, another with a finer grit cloth backed jeweler's abrasive to remove any mushrooming your tip may develop over time. Detailed instructions for proper use is included with packaging, but the tool is quite intuitive and easy to use.
All of the abrasives used in the Last4Ever are cloth backed jeweler's abrasives that should last, well, you guessed it, forever. However, Joel told me that he will continue to experiment with different abrasives, and expand his line of tip tools in the future. Right now, Last4Ever comes in either an oak wood or a machined aluminum versions, both of which look great and small enough to carry around either in your pocket or in your case.
For ordering, get in touch with Joel at [U]joel.pope@me.com[/U] with your preferred tip shape. The wood one retails for $14.95 and the aluminum one for $19.95. He is a great guy to deal with, and did a great job in understanding the needs of us players in developing his tip tool. Also, AZB members get a %20 discount for a limited time, can't really beat this for a tool that does it all, and does it right!
In the picture below, Last4Ever is shown in the foreground with the other aforementioned two shown in the back. Wolfbite tool (back-right) does a great job at shaping/re-shaping thanks to its contoured surface, but it removes some of the tip material by design. I didn't mind this for many years, but with increased play time I realized one may need to replace tips more often that should be when Wolfbite tool is used for scuffing.
Kamui's Gator Grip (back-left) is a single task tool that does a good job where the Wolfbite tool falls short. It doesn't remove too much tip material, but the lack of a contoured surface doesn't guarantee that you'll retain the tip shape after a few uses, and you may end up with a less than ideal tip shape even though it may be difficult to notice with the naked eye.
Last4Ever seems to solve these problems: It is a multitasking tool to start with. One of its 4 functional sides is a shaping-reshaping tool that not only does a great job (see the picture below where I used it to shorten the White Diamond tip on my break cue, no lathes used here), but also comes with a large flat scuffing surface that doesn't remove ANY tip material, hence makes sure that that you retain the dime or nickel shape, whichever you may prefer. All you need to do is to rock the large flat abrasive surface of the tool back and forth across your tip to remove any glazing and improve chalk retention, and when you need to reshape your tip due to regular play, just turn it over and use the contoured surface designed for the job.
In addition to the advantages above, the multi-purpose Last4Ever tool has two more functional sides: one with a piece of leather for burnishing the sides of your tip, another with a finer grit cloth backed jeweler's abrasive to remove any mushrooming your tip may develop over time. Detailed instructions for proper use is included with packaging, but the tool is quite intuitive and easy to use.
All of the abrasives used in the Last4Ever are cloth backed jeweler's abrasives that should last, well, you guessed it, forever. However, Joel told me that he will continue to experiment with different abrasives, and expand his line of tip tools in the future. Right now, Last4Ever comes in either an oak wood or a machined aluminum versions, both of which look great and small enough to carry around either in your pocket or in your case.
For ordering, get in touch with Joel at [U]joel.pope@me.com[/U] with your preferred tip shape. The wood one retails for $14.95 and the aluminum one for $19.95. He is a great guy to deal with, and did a great job in understanding the needs of us players in developing his tip tool. Also, AZB members get a %20 discount for a limited time, can't really beat this for a tool that does it all, and does it right!
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