I shaped my tip to my liking (dime shape) right after install and haven't touched it yet, using a Zan Hybrid. Forget the name of the shaper, haven't looked in my case in a while. Whenever I wax my shaft (that doesn't sound right) I'll burnish the sides of the tip.
Tip shaping frequency
- Thread starter Stroking
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I shaped my tip to my liking (dime shape) right after install and haven't touched it yet, using a Zan Hybrid. Forget the name of the shaper, haven't looked in my case in a while. Whenever I wax my shaft (that doesn't sound right) I'll burnish the sides of the tip.
ive personally never had a tip mushroom on me, only seen it on house cues. I’ve used kamui mediums, ultra skin hard, predator med, damn sniper, and a water buffalo...I don’t know if that’s a name brand or just the material type.
A comment I read on here when I first started playing helped me a lot I think. Someone said you only need to chalk the edges of the tip and that should help keep its shape. I get to a dime radius with a new tip and then Just occasional scuffing after a miscue or whenever I feel like it needs it.
A comment I read on here when I first started playing helped me a lot I think. Someone said you only need to chalk the edges of the tip and that should help keep its shape. I get to a dime radius with a new tip and then Just occasional scuffing after a miscue or whenever I feel like it needs it.
Sounds good.
My fav tip is the dawg dud, and I've had it at least 3 years and never touched it. Every 20-30 hours I'll very lightly use the kamui scuffer just a bit, but never change the shape.
Back when I used lepro and moori I'd be shaping all the time... I just can't stand mushrooming. I've tried a few others, with my second place nod going to the black ultra skin, but I really haven't used them enough to say how well they hold up.
I use my tip pick all the time, as it is fairly gentle on the leather--then follow up with a tool surface similar to the Kamui gator grip. I just kinda 'roll' it from tip edge toward center with a little twist action, and proceed until going around the whole tip. All that's left is to burnish the sides--I use saliva or water on paper towel and then immediately use the Porper burnishing tube (works great) and then finish burnishing with a piece of leather.
Just takes about 1-2 mins tops, and it has worked very well for me (FYI, all of my laminated tips are Medium or Soft hardness.
Not sure what hardness my Triangles & LePros would be...anyone have an idea? What I can feel is that Elkmasters definitely seem the softest of the one-piece leather tips I've used.
Just takes about 1-2 mins tops, and it has worked very well for me (FYI, all of my laminated tips are Medium or Soft hardness.
Not sure what hardness my Triangles & LePros would be...anyone have an idea? What I can feel is that Elkmasters definitely seem the softest of the one-piece leather tips I've used.
Ultraskin hard
"Texture" with a Tip Pik before every session (no leather lost)
Shape lightly once a month or so with a Willard (looks like a silver sombrero) held at an angle to just round the edges a little
Replace every several months to a year when it's compressed too thin (say 1/16" or so left on the flat side)
pj
chgo
"Texture" with a Tip Pik before every session (no leather lost)
Shape lightly once a month or so with a Willard (looks like a silver sombrero) held at an angle to just round the edges a little
Replace every several months to a year when it's compressed too thin (say 1/16" or so left on the flat side)
pj
chgo
With the exception of one Kamui Clear Black Medium, all of my tips are hard and layered. I scuff with a Morakami Gator Shaper before each session. I own a Willard Shaper and check the curvatures occasionally, but have not used it to reshape a tip in a couple of years (since I bought the gator tool). Those tips have not mushroomed.
Current hard tips in use: G2, Instroke, Precision, Talisman (Black and Pro), Zan Grip Hard.
Current hard tips in use: G2, Instroke, Precision, Talisman (Black and Pro), Zan Grip Hard.
Triangle 81
LePro 78
Higher number is harder.
This came from a tip hardness chart I picked up on a website some time ago.
LePro 78
Higher number is harder.
This came from a tip hardness chart I picked up on a website some time ago.
Thanks for posting. I just noticed that the Pooldawg website list the hardness or density score for most tips...here are a few I could type fairly quick:
one-piece leather
- Elkmaster (66.8) soft
- LePro (96.3) hard
- Triangle (91) hard
- Triumph (84) med
laminated leather
- Ultraskin (72.1) med -- hard(76.6), hardest(78.7), pro(61.8), soft(64.8), ss(62.2)
- Tiger Emerald (76.0) med
- Kamui Brown (82.2) med -- hard(92.2), soft(78.1), super soft(69.2)
- Tiger Sniper (77.8) med
- Predator Victory (78.7) med -- hard(84.8), soft(72.3), super soft(67.5)
- Moori (75.5) med -- hard(84.4), soft(72.8)
Thanks - great info.
You got me rummaging around there, and I found they actually have a chart with lots of them. Here it is, including the ones you posted.
pj
chgo
P.S. Since this was a list, all I had to do was copy and paste it - no typing needed (except to add some of yours).
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Sky ran our Techno-Dud from July 2018 and never touched it.. In Russia he thought it was too hard and I missed his text.. He could have conditioned it but they replaced it... He ended up MVP in Mosconi with the new one and Schmidt ran a 626 with one...
Tips are just springs.... Crappy leather makes crappy tips..... Cheap ones harden fast or are inconsistent... I would list the cheap ones but many here will be offended as they can't tell a difference..
Tips are just springs.... Crappy leather makes crappy tips..... Cheap ones harden fast or are inconsistent... I would list the cheap ones but many here will be offended as they can't tell a difference..
These are all shore A......... Soft rubber... Useless as they are prepped by sanding so they don't all end up 100.... So the prep matters more than the tip. You also have samsara at 95 of 100 LOL means phenolic is 115+. ShoreD the tip new will test the same installed after break in... on shore D Samsara is 80ish Barely harder than the WB Blacks at 78... Bk2 phenolic is 91 (used to be 93 but no one at Predator knows where they were buying the phenolic before they went to china on the BK2)
Drop the bomb. I'd rather know.
A tip is like a tire, it will wear with use. That wear will be different depending on one's playing style. If you play closer to the center of the tip, on average, the top will tend to flatten. If you play a lot on the edge of the tip, it may round over on the edges. Ether way the tip should be shaped whenever it is out of spec with the radius you want.
I play with dawg duds. My tips tend to flatten and slightly round on the edges. I used to leave them like this and only scuff them slightly with a gator grip. I have stopped using the gator grip. Being flat it tends to flatten the tip even with careful use. It's a shame because it is great at opening the leather back up.
I have found that I prefer a perfect nickel shape and always play more consistently with a well shaped tip. I use a last4ever tool, fast and efficient. I will shape whenever I see the tip is too far from a nickel, I can actually tell by the way it plays. I have no problems changing tips more frequently nowadays because that allows me to always have a well shaped tip. Jeff's tips are three bucks apiece. With install three tips a year cost me 54 bucks. Can't beat that.
I would have a different routine if I played with 50 dollar tips. But I don't.
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A tip is a "consumable" item. You've got to change them as they wear. I know a lot of players who use the same tips for years. I also note how inconsistent those same players can be. They'll blame anything else but the tip.
I know players who will change shafts thinking that their inconsistent play is due to some mismatch with the properties of that particular shaft. All they really need is to find the right tip and maintain it properly.
For some reason a lot of players, even really good players, have some aversion towards spending money on tips. Shape them whenever necessary and change them whenever necessary. If that means finding a more affordable alternative to your 50 dollar tip then so be it.
Price does not equal quality with cue tips, regardless of what manufacturers want you to believe.
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I know players who will change shafts thinking that their inconsistent play is due to some mismatch with the properties of that particular shaft. All they really need is to find the right tip and maintain it properly.
For some reason a lot of players, even really good players, have some aversion towards spending money on tips. Shape them whenever necessary and change them whenever necessary. If that means finding a more affordable alternative to your 50 dollar tip then so be it.
Price does not equal quality with cue tips, regardless of what manufacturers want you to believe.
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I've been using Pooldawg8's milkduds for several years now...I will re-dress/shape it once in the first week (if needed, sometimes it's not) and maybe once more during the life of the tip. My chalking action wears down the tip at the optimum bevel for me, and as you play the tip will compress to the bevel you play with. Often as not, it's better left alone to season/shape as you play. How often and how far you strike the CB from center will determine what shape your tip wants (notice I said what your tip wants, not you). Too many players grind their tips off trying to keep a perfect bevel/shape, not realizing it's a bevel that doesn't suit their play, as their tips shape themselves to adjust to how they strike the CB...
We hear this all the time, but I don't believe it. I use spin on virtually every shot and my tip just keeps getting flatter until I reshape it.
pj
chgo
I think a lot has to do with the tip you choose to use...your mileage will always vary...OP wanted to hear what I do, that's what I do. When I shot with triangle tips back in the '80s, I had mushrooms every session.
every inning
Shape your cue tip after every inning, more often if you miscue. Use the cue repairmen's friend, a Willard tool, to shape with. Always carry spare tips with you, a new tip might not last out a long session.
Wait a minute, I am not selling or installing tips anymore! That being the case, with the exception of a really bad quality tip, my old friend TD873 and others saying the same thing are correct. The tip will largely tell you how it wants to be shaped for your play. Clean it up now and then if needed, it probably won't be. Before play use a brad tool or similar to roll firmly across the surface of your tip. Don't let it slip, you are just rolling dents into the leather, not cutting it.
High tips and low tips don't play the same so I advise changing tips with them still fairly tall. That isn't to make a buck, once you get used to the hit of a low tip then all tips will seem different, even the brand new tips of the same brand.
I cut up a small handful of tips when I tried to maintain a dime configuration for awhile. My style of play rarely needs a dime and once I quit being hard headed my milk duds last almost forever.
All tips aren't created equal. Invest under twenty bucks at harbor freight for a set of scales. Weigh the tips you buy or try to talk the repairman into letting you weigh his tips in stock.
When I weighed my box of Elkmasters before dudding them the weight was in four distinct ranges. About ten of them were very very light. There were two distinct sets in the midrange, and four very heavy tips. I dudded the midrange tips, tossed the light ones without too much pain at less than fifty cents apiece, and saved the heavy ones to play with on personal sticks and see if they were special. Lost them in a storm so I'll never know.
I try to avoid grinding tips to shape them, this can destroy a layered tip sometimes. Best results I have found is with the premium utility blades and then using an angled block to get the top bevel very near to ninety degrees to the surface of the tip. This works much better than the usual negative rake without being grabby. When placing the side of a blade on the usual flat block it creates a negative cutting angle trying to have the tip push off of the blade. I also mark the blade every time I shape a tip. The premium blades last longer but I still follow my old protocol of transferring a blade to another holder for general use only after shaping three tips.
I realize that I went a bit beyond the question but how tips are shaped definitely impacts how often they are shaped. If you have a cue repairman at your hall having him reshape the tip if needed is probably worthwhile. Much better to cut leather away than to grind it away.
Hu
Shape your cue tip after every inning, more often if you miscue. Use the cue repairmen's friend, a Willard tool, to shape with. Always carry spare tips with you, a new tip might not last out a long session.
Wait a minute, I am not selling or installing tips anymore! That being the case, with the exception of a really bad quality tip, my old friend TD873 and others saying the same thing are correct. The tip will largely tell you how it wants to be shaped for your play. Clean it up now and then if needed, it probably won't be. Before play use a brad tool or similar to roll firmly across the surface of your tip. Don't let it slip, you are just rolling dents into the leather, not cutting it.
High tips and low tips don't play the same so I advise changing tips with them still fairly tall. That isn't to make a buck, once you get used to the hit of a low tip then all tips will seem different, even the brand new tips of the same brand.
I cut up a small handful of tips when I tried to maintain a dime configuration for awhile. My style of play rarely needs a dime and once I quit being hard headed my milk duds last almost forever.
All tips aren't created equal. Invest under twenty bucks at harbor freight for a set of scales. Weigh the tips you buy or try to talk the repairman into letting you weigh his tips in stock.
When I weighed my box of Elkmasters before dudding them the weight was in four distinct ranges. About ten of them were very very light. There were two distinct sets in the midrange, and four very heavy tips. I dudded the midrange tips, tossed the light ones without too much pain at less than fifty cents apiece, and saved the heavy ones to play with on personal sticks and see if they were special. Lost them in a storm so I'll never know.
I try to avoid grinding tips to shape them, this can destroy a layered tip sometimes. Best results I have found is with the premium utility blades and then using an angled block to get the top bevel very near to ninety degrees to the surface of the tip. This works much better than the usual negative rake without being grabby. When placing the side of a blade on the usual flat block it creates a negative cutting angle trying to have the tip push off of the blade. I also mark the blade every time I shape a tip. The premium blades last longer but I still follow my old protocol of transferring a blade to another holder for general use only after shaping three tips.
I realize that I went a bit beyond the question but how tips are shaped definitely impacts how often they are shaped. If you have a cue repairman at your hall having him reshape the tip if needed is probably worthwhile. Much better to cut leather away than to grind it away.
Hu
Exactly. It's like saying your tires wear down in the spots that suit your driving style so there is no need to rotate them.
It's going to wear more in the places where you contact the ball the most and unevenly at that. You can play with an uneven tip, but that will definitely lead to inconsistency, unless of course you pay attention and rotate the cue to ensure that the top wears evenly over 360 degrees. Consistency is why you should reshape your tip.
I used to be in the camp that reshaped very infrequently. I am far more consistent and my game has definately improved since I started allowing myself to keep a well shaped tip. It seems to me that telling yourself your tip doesn't need to be touched is a sort of ignorance is bliss type of thing.
I wonder how many pros don't fuss with their tips once they've been initially shaped?
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