Black marker on the tip sides?

C

cesarmorales

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Nowdays I take my cue to the cue shop and for a few bucks they clean the shaft and shape the tip.

Thirty years ago I did my own tips and worked on them every few days, cleaned the shaft with thousand grit sandpaper. Then I would shape the tip and run a black marker around the edge of the tip. I would use a match book or dollar bill to rub over the tip end of the cue to burnish it.

This was before the layered tips we have now and I tried this old trick on a layered tip the other day. The new morri tip was bulging out of the sides after a day or two of playing and I was getting bad hits about every twenty shots. I had the cue shop grind down the tip to about fifty percent and then I tried out the black marker trick on the edges of the tip.

Hey, it appeared to work. I am not getting those weird hits anymore.

Anyone else use a black marker on their tips anymore, it was what we all did back then.
 
pwd72s

pwd72s

recreational banger
Silver Member
sounds like the aromic chemicals in the marker hurt the glue of the layers? Just a guess...
 
Nostroke

Nostroke

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Yeah everybody did it but i had always thought it was just to maintain a consistent look when down on the shot.
 
PaulieB

PaulieB

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
cesarmorales said:
I had the cue shop grind down the tip to about fifty percent and then I tried out the black marker trick on the edges of the tip.

Hey, it appeared to work.
Click to expand...

Why would you think it's the magic marker on the side of your tip that is working and not the fact that you had your tip ground down to half its height?

Gotta think as far as mechanics are concerned, cutting your tip in half is gonna change things more than adding color to it.
 
Blue Hog ridr

Blue Hog ridr

World Famous Fisherman.
Silver Member
A couple of tips I use don't burnish up too good. I use a brown furniture spot fixer to color them and then they burnish better.
They come in the same form as a Magic Marker.

Altho I tape off the ferrule, it can still bleed thru but is much easier to remove from the ferrule than a black marker.

You can buy a package of 3 different shades at the Dollar Store usually.
 
Last edited:
Cue Guru

Cue Guru

Close, but no roll...
Silver Member
I used to color them too- now-a-days I don't bother.

I just burnish on the lathe with a bit of spittle.
 
Tramp Steamer

Tramp Steamer

One Pocket enthusiast.
Silver Member
Chris Hightower, always recommended spittle, but insisted upon "high quality spittle". I asked him once if he would sell me some, but he said that mine was probably good enough. Turns out he was right.
Marking pens are not a good idea, especially with layered tips. The esters in the dye will attack the glue that bonds the layers. Probably not all the way through any one layer, because of the rapid drying time of the marker, but at least enough to damage the tip as you have described.
I think Blue is on to something with the tobacco juice. :)
 
Last edited:
Winston846

Winston846

Aspiring 14.1 Player
Silver Member
I just use a little spit myself to burnish and I mask off the ferrule and make a black line with a Sharpie. Never knew what this really did beyond aesthetics, but I also use it as an indicator that it's time to change the tip.
 
Last edited:
Black-Balled

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I had tips done by Charlie Fleming and he had a special polish for blackennind the sides. I don't recall the maker, but is was specifically marketed as a pool good and was in a little bottle with an applicator...He said it appeared to be basically shoe polish.

I have had it for a long time and it has not faded.
 
R

rrich1

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
just had my tip put on a couple of weeks ago and he used a sharpie for the sides of the tip before he burnished it.
 
BluesTele

BluesTele

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
i've used a sharpie/marker for years on the tip shoulder,

it looks nice and also helps against mushrooming.
 
Tommy-D

Tommy-D

World's best B player...
Silver Member
> I've been doing this for 20 years on my Schon shafts,and for over a decade on tips for customers. Because of skills I built as a kid building models,I used to do it with just a plain wedge tipped marker well enough I never got any of it on my ivory ferrules that a piece of 600 turning the shaft BY HAND couldn't clean up.

I've seen this topic come up here several times over the years. Read where certain people complained about what it did to their cloth,or didn't like the fact that whoever put the last tip on it did it without asking.

I started doing it on my own to maintain the look my Schon shafts had out of the box,dead black,shiny and just PIMPIN :thumbup:.

I've tried it myself on layered tips,but sometimes it can have a negative effect on the glue bond,which was/is a known issue supposedly due to a chemical reaction with the ink. I had one of the old 25.00 Mooris fail on me a little at a time that way,and a few Talisman. That doesn't mean I won't do it,but since I just started installing layered tips for people in public,I intend to ask if they want it done,and inform them of the possibility.

My local customers like it to the point I don't even have to ask. With this being the case,every one piece tip I've done since upgrading to a lathe in '98 has been done with a Sharpie or something similar. You can even make an Elk Master look good with it. I also use this to track my own work visually. An added effect of this is that it fills the pores on the sides,and can help cut down mushrooming,and makes it easier to see if there is,and exposes problems that you might not see till the sides fluff out around 8 hours of play.

I agree with a previous poster,it helps give people a cleaner sight picture on the cue ball,least it does for me.

I have been using the Industrial Sharpie with the yellow rubber grip for a few years now. Tommy D.
 
danquixote

danquixote

DanQuixote
Silver Member
I've used the Porper tip burnishing liquid for some time now on Mori med's.
seems to work pretty well with no detrimental effects on the layered tip.
 
whammo57

whammo57

Kim Walker
Silver Member
I use a dark brown marker and then burnish it with a little cue wax and a paper towel until the paper towel stays clean. I don't want any marks on the balls or the cloth.

Kim
 
Blue Hog ridr

Blue Hog ridr

World Famous Fisherman.
Silver Member
Do you have any brown or black shoe polish?
Tape your ferrule off and put a small dab on a soft paper towel.
I'm thinking that you could polish it up real shiny. Its not liquid so it won't bleed thru onto your ferrule and if by slight chance you do get some on the ferrule, you should be able to remove it quickly.
 
C

cesarmorales

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I am glad to see other people are still doing this because when I mentioned it to my mentor he asked me why I did such a stupid thing.

But from what I am getting in the responses, it MAY not be a good thing for layered tips.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top