Wilk, enjoyed your post....Me/Wife/Stroud/wife used to party together back when he lived in Colorado Springs.
Only thing I learned, after playing with ivory ferrules for over 55 yrs is this. The GOOD tips back in the day had the dark orange colored backing and allowed the player to wear the tip down further (Champion tips). But, it also protected the ivory from a bad miscue.
6 Weeks after Fatty died, I did a (audio/video) interview with his X wife Evelyn in Dowell IL at her home. She told me a trick with cue tips that Rudolph did. He of course was a large man and sweated allot and carried allot of Cash in his pants pockets, BUT he also, at the bottom of his pockets, had a few tips (curing) that would absorb his sweat and natural body oils, and he would intentionally handle then to cure em. Ev said they would be in his pockets for months on end before usage.
Because Champion Tips were coveted back in the sixties and early seventies I did this. And I did have a home lathe and did tips and shaft work for decades, so I had a trick, but it was VERY important.
When I got a new tip with a backing I'd remove the backing, I'd face the backing to the ferrule separate from the tip, next day face the tip to the backing, next day cut it, bevel it (mushroom) as those tips sides eventually stood up (flush with the side of the ferrule) during the break in period. Couple more side touch ups in the first two weeks and good to go.