A properly fashioned Cue Tip

SeniorTom

SeniorTom

Well-known member
I have only been playing pool 2 years now and I'm doing pretty good. I have 5 playing cues and alternate between them. I have one nice Pechauer cue that I don't use that often because I don't want to mess it up, but it seems whenever I use it I don't shoot very well. It's almost like night and day between that cue and others I have. I talked to an accomplished player, the brother of a friend of mine, and he noticed right off the bat the tip wasn't properly worked to a nice rounded shape, it was more or less flat on top. I have had trouble drawing the ball with it, and I can usually draw the ball quite well. This was confusing to me why I couldn't draw the ball but after he told me to rework the tip, which I did, I started to shoot much better and could work the ball drawing it or following. I didn't realize that a tip made that much difference in how successful I shoot and work the ball, but it was like night and day. I think I prefer the nickel shape over the dime shape, but now I'm very wary of making sure it's fashion properly. I am wondering what most people like in terms of tip shape, whether it be the nickel or dime rounded tip, and any other advice regarding hardness and such. I have always played with a kamui clear super soft tip, and now I'm making sure they are worked in properly. Any advice on what type of tip one should use or how you round it off? There are so many tips on the market and different hardness or softness to them, it seems the sky is the limit. What type of tip do you use, and how do you work it into shape?
 
Triangle or le pro.
Nickel
I simply play with it for a few weeks. Take off any mushroom or overlap on the side. Then, play more.
My shaper collects dust.
 
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maha said:
what kind of car do you have? what kind of shoes do you wear. get it? its all personal choices.
i like toyota's so i suggest you get one of them.
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I get your point, and it would be better received if this were a car forum. Should we not talk about tips and the way they are maintained on a billiards forum? After all, they are the point of contact that gets the cue ball rolling. Yes it is a topic that has a lot of opinions, but so does every other topic in these forms. I would like to hear what tip other people use and whether they nickel or dime them, as well as any other information. I am understanding, by accident, how important tip shaping is in terms of shooting success.
 
garczar said:
i use ultraskin black mediums shaped to dime. good for me.
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Me too (hard) - hope Tom's still in business.

There's a reason tips are mostly shaped to nickel-dime radius - that's the flattest curve that includes 60 degrees of arc on normal 10-14mm cue tips, the minimum arc needed to ensure you don't hit on the tip's edge before reaching maximum spin.

pj
chgo
 
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Ok. Tips. I use whatever came on the stick. Tiger Everest right now. Replace time used to be either WB xtra hrd or Elkmaster (go figure). Kinda liking the Tiger though, so I may stick with that.
 
SeniorTom said:
I have only been playing pool 2 years now and I'm doing pretty good. I have 5 playing cues and alternate between them. I have one nice Pechauer cue that I don't use that often because I don't want to mess it up, but it seems whenever I use it I don't shoot very well. It's almost like night and day between that cue and others I have. I talked to an accomplished player, the brother of a friend of mine, and he noticed right off the bat the tip wasn't properly worked to a nice rounded shape, it was more or less flat on top. I have had trouble drawing the ball with it, and I can usually draw the ball quite well. This was confusing to me why I couldn't draw the ball but after he told me to rework the tip, which I did, I started to shoot much better and could work the ball drawing it or following. I didn't realize that a tip made that much difference in how successful I shoot and work the ball, but it was like night and day. I think I prefer the nickel shape over the dime shape, but now I'm very wary of making sure it's fashion properly. I am wondering what most people like in terms of tip shape, whether it be the nickel or dime rounded tip, and any other advice regarding hardness and such. I have always played with a kamui clear super soft tip, and now I'm making sure they are worked in properly. Any advice on what type of tip one should use or how you round it off? There are so many tips on the market and different hardness or softness to them, it seems the sky is the limit. What type of tip do you use, and how do you work it into shape?
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EDIT: I meant to preface this with - disregard the nay-Sayers, some people just have an opinion and aren't willing to discuss/change ;)

The issue is, everyone is different. There are a ton of threads about tip shape and there are even more opinions. Personally, for my player I prefer a much flatter tip than most - think 50 cent piece - and that's the first thing I look at if I pick up a bar cue, if the tip is more like a dime I will miscue. For my break cue I like an extremely flat tip. The smaller the radius the less you have to move the tip to obtain the same amount of english as you would with a flatter tip. When I was younger (been playing since the mid 80's) I would tend to hit the CB pretty hard (mud ball issue maybe?) but since I didn't know any better I just kept playing as the tip got flatter so that's what I'm used to.

Regarding tip hardness - they all become hard tips at some point - where's your sweet spot. I prefer a hard tip and when I play with a soft tip it feels mushy and I don't get that ping I'm looking for. Sure, it's fun, you can get a lot of action but in my experience, it's much less consistent, which is more noticeable on a fast table. Straight out of the package I like Kamui medium but have found that Kamikaze hard is very similar at a portion of the price. Soft tips will also mushroom much faster and if you don't keep up with them (and use extreme english often) they will tend to split on the edges. If you're the type of person who plays soft and or timid (for lack of better words) then a soft tip would probably be ok in the beginning but if you tend to use a lot of energy in your stroke then a soft tip will mushroom much faster (requiring more maintenance) and become more firm much more quickly - how much it affects your play is subjective and depends on you.

My suggestion, since you like the Kamui SS and to prevent spending $150+ on 5 tips and installation, I would recommend getting some Kamikaze soft and medium tips and put 2 of each on your cues (then throw in a Kamikaze hard on the fifth one just for fun) and shape them differently and go to the pool hall every day for a week and see what happens.

Now I'm going to go into left field - does your Pechauer look like the cue in this thread?

What kind of wood - Pechaeur P10 - 2003 catalog

I'm getting ready to sell this and realized I forgot/don't remember what type of wood this is. It looks like cocobolo and given I purchased it new I don't think I would've went with anything but that. But I'd like to make sure. As the title...
forums.azbilliards.com

I purchased that cue to replace my main player (a Huebler) but could never get used to it, the taper of the shaft just didn't work and I couldn't get the action I was used to with my Huebler so I relegated it to a break cue and I completely flattened the tip. Seriously doubt it, but it would be funny if that was my old cue, which I sold on here a few years ago.
 
gregcantrall said:
You lost me there. 🤷‍♂️
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He didn't lose me there but, it did remind of (and I forgot to put in my post) my post here - https://forums.azbilliards.com/thre...-75-shaft-make-you-better.225031/post-7863670 - indicating that playing with different cues probably isn't good idea. However, that is why I suggest to put multiple tip types on his cues and play with them every day for a week so he can figure out the differences.

I'm not opposed to people playing with different cues on a regular basis - I just recommend they understand what the differences are. I recently learned I can play my best game on bar-box with a lighter cue (17.7oz) but when I move to a 9' I need a heavier cue because I play with a stroke-slip and the weight of the cue drastically affects my play.


Oh, and to the OP I will reference my comment from earlier...

"disregard the nay-Sayers, some people just have an opinion and aren't willing to discuss/change ;)"

In short - do NOT take the advice of one or a few people, take the time and learn the intricacies of a pool cue and make YOUR choice - most importantly - do not resist trying new things or making changes - you are you.
 
SeniorTom said:
I have only been playing pool 2 years now and I'm doing pretty good. I have 5 playing cues and alternate between them. I have one nice Pechauer cue that I don't use that often because I don't want to mess it up, but it seems whenever I use it I don't shoot very well. It's almost like night and day between that cue and others I have. I talked to an accomplished player, the brother of a friend of mine, and he noticed right off the bat the tip wasn't properly worked to a nice rounded shape, it was more or less flat on top. I have had trouble drawing the ball with it, and I can usually draw the ball quite well. This was confusing to me why I couldn't draw the ball but after he told me to rework the tip, which I did, I started to shoot much better and could work the ball drawing it or following. I didn't realize that a tip made that much difference in how successful I shoot and work the ball, but it was like night and day. I think I prefer the nickel shape over the dime shape, but now I'm very wary of making sure it's fashion properly. I am wondering what most people like in terms of tip shape, whether it be the nickel or dime rounded tip, and any other advice regarding hardness and such. I have always played with a kamui clear super soft tip, and now I'm making sure they are worked in properly. Any advice on what type of tip one should use or how you round it off? There are so many tips on the market and different hardness or softness to them, it seems the sky is the limit. What type of tip do you use, and how do you work it into shape?
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get used to ONE cue and use it. alternating 5 is lunacy. never known ONE player worth a shit that did anything remotely similar.
 
garczar said:
get used to ONE cue and use it. alternating 5 is lunacy. never known ONE player worth a shit that did anything remotely similar.
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How can he choose one cue when he doesn’t know the difference? Any thoughts on which of his 5 cues he should use?
 
Chili Palmer said:
How can he choose one cue when he doesn’t know the difference? Any thoughts on which of his 5 cues he should use?
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after two yrs of playing you're going to try a few and settle on one. my point is that you develop feel/touch by using the same cue on a regular basis. going back-n-forth you'll never play as well as with just one. been around a lot of good players in last 40odd years and i've never known a good player that flip-flopped between cues. they may get a new one from time to time, we all do that, but they played full time with one cue. best way imo. as for which of his five cues? don't know, don't care. he should have easily decided on a main player by now.
 
garczar said:
after two yrs of playing you're going to try a few and settle on one. my point is that you develop feel/touch by using the same cue on a regular basis. going back-n-forth you'll never play as well as with just one. been around a lot of good players in last 40odd years and i've never known a good player that flip-flopped between cues. they may get a new one from time to time, we all do that, but they played full time with one cue. best way imo. as for which of his five cues? don't know, don't care. he should have easily decided on a main player by now.
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I thought he was asking about tips?
 
muskyed said:
I thought he was asking about tips?
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I did start asking about tips, but I appreciate the direction it is heading. I think I didn't explain myself well? What the problem turned out to be was a flat tip had significant impact on shooting straight and spin action I was not able to put on the cue ball. While switching between cues, a couple of the cues had tips that weren't well shaped, flat, and due to my inexperience, didn't realize why I couldn't shoot well with them. I couldn't pot balls consistently, nor could I put any backspin/follow on cue ball. When I got the tips rounded to dime shape, it was like night and day. I started getting successful results like I am capable of. I also wondered if others experienced similar results. I agree though, I should use just my favorite one, but I do like trying different ones.
 
I have many cues that I enjoy and play with. There is 4 or 5 that I routinely play at home with. I have worked hard at getting them similar in playing by shaft diamiter, weighting, ballance, and tips.
I even recently have modified the shafts on a couple to add a touch of weight so that I could take some weight off the weight bolt to bring them more similar to the specs of the cue I like most and always use for leagues, although that may change for league this fall, as my new Jacoby is giving my favorite Schon a run for its money.
While I play at home with all, when it gets down to the day before league, I only use my main cue for practice, even though the 4 or so I routinely play with, actually now play very similar.
I have put the same basic tip on all shafts, and that is either an Ultraskin Fire med, or Ultraskin black med.
As to shape, dime or nickle, not sure how much it matters. I guess I'm a middle of the rd kind of guy as I'm basicly a dime on the outer half, and nickle the center.
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muskyed said:
I have many cues that I enjoy and play with. There is 4 or 5 that I routinely play at home with. I have worked hard at getting them similar in playing by shaft diamiter, weighting, ballance, and tips.
I even recently have modified the shafts on a couple to add a touch of weight so that I could take some weight off the weight bolt to bring them more similar to the specs of the cue I like most and always use for leagues, although that may change for league this fall, as my new Jacoby is giving my favorite Schon a run for its money.
While I play at home with all, when it gets down to the day before league, I only use my main cue for practice, even though the 4 or so I routinely play with, actually now play very similar.
I have put the same basic tip on all shafts, and that is either an Ultraskin Fire med, or Ultraskin black med.
As to shape, dime or nickle, not sure how much it matters. I guess I'm a middle of the rd kind of guy as I'm basicly a dime on the outer half, and nickle the center.
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Nice rack of cues you got. That's going to be my goal, get all my cues to 19-19.5 oz, with same tip build. The only difference is the 12.5 cf shaft on two of them. Someone mentioned balance points, but I think they all balance out pretty close.
 
For cue tips the milk dud's aren't bad then the techno dud and then a med G2 has been getting the majority of the playing time

On my break cue is a Le Pro tip yes it's a bit old school ha ha

As you'll notice ask a question get many answers you then get to figure out which works the best for you .
 
The 6 cues in my case all have the same specs and tips except for my Prewitt cue that still has the original
Moori brown medium tips. The six cues have big pin flat joints and the butts all weigh 14.5 ozs. It took a lot
of time to get 6 cues to be alike from the shafts to the cue butts. Changing cues is seamless and requires
no adjustment except that two of the cues have leather wraps and the other four have Cortland linen wraps.
Nickel shape for my tips & Kamui Black Clear Soft Tips is my choice…Pagulayan chalk (cube shape TAOM).
 
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