Tip Burnishing Liquid, to use or not to use?

BilliardGreg

Billiard Aficionado
So I know the majority of time you can use a piece of leather to burnish the sides of a tip, but I see there is other things like Porper Tip Touch and Tip Crystal to give it that shine and protect from mushrooming. Has anyone ever just used clear nail polish sparingly to accomplish the same thing?

I am becoming the go to person for Tip Replacement in my area and I want to try to go the extra mile. Any other suggestions are welcome.
 

RickLafayette

AzB Gold Member
Gold Member
Silver Member
This may sound too simple but I get great results with shaft wax and a new dollar billed folded in half lengthwise.
 

HawaiianEye

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
First time I ever used a LePro, Jack Taylor showed me how he did his. He used black shoe polish on the sides and then burnished it with a piece of cardboard.

You have to be careful not to get it on your ferrule though. Back then a lot of the house cues had black ferrules so it didn't matter, but you don't want to get it into the pores on a white ferrule.
 

Tony_in_MD

You want some of this?
Silver Member
Nothing simpler than saliva burnished on with the back of a piece of sandpaper.
 

Ron Padilla

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
this is an older thread but wanted to add, leather workers us a product called gum tragacanth check the spelling on that it can be bought on line from amazon or Tandy leather, it is a thick product that you would rub on then burnish with leather, it seals and shines the leather, you can also use a little bit of wax or just plain water, the gum trag will work the best, I make leather products, holsters, belts, and other items and the gum trag is what I and many other leather users use to burnish the leather with.
 

asamimasa

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
this is an older thread but wanted to add, leather workers us a product called gum tragacanth check the spelling on that it can be bought on line from amazon or Tandy leather, it is a thick product that you would rub on then burnish with leather, it seals and shines the leather, you can also use a little bit of wax or just plain water, the gum trag will work the best, I make leather products, holsters, belts, and other items and the gum trag is what I and many other leather users use to burnish the leather with.

This is a good point. There's no magical secret sauce within the burnishing fluids. Gum trag itself isn't particularly magical either in terms of the seal results over water, and comes out a fair way of the cost of the burnishing fluid. CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose) is a similar diluted fluid I use for burnishing vegetable tanned leather. A 1kg bag of powder dilutes to about 20L for roughly $8; it's some crazy bang for buck for your leatherwork. I don't really recommend wax since it'd be prone to transferring with heat friction onto the felt.

A hard canvas would be my item of choice for applying friction, but this really is a case where a dab of spit gets the job done just as well as the dedicated products.
 
Top