Not the USUAL tip question

searingcue

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Soft vs Hard tips

More action.

If you could take two tips that had the same traits with the only difference being actual hardness the difference in contact time with the cue ball hit with the same speed of stroke is nearly nothing. Fractions of a thousandths of sec. Even with a soft tip hit at a low speed speed of stroke contact time is within a couple of thousandths of a sec. Years ago when we looked at this using video cameras cue ball rotation hit with a soft tip vs a hard tip was almost virtually the same.
The biggest difference with soft tips vs hards tips was the speed therefore distance traveled in the same time frame.
With that I'm not sure I can say more action with a softer tip? What I do know is that a harder tip will keep spin on the cue ball over a longer distance due to getting there quicker. Friction overcomes the spin bringing the cue ball to a roll in a short time frame. Soft tips are less efficient resulting in lower cue ball speeds compared to a hard tip which is more efficient delivering more speed. If I was far away from an object ball and I needed to draw it all the way back to me I'd want a firmer tip. It's also why so many like the hard phenolic tips for their break cues for higher cue ball speeds. If I was close to a ball and wanted a lot of spin but lower speed I'd want a softer tip.

Dennis
 
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