Are Elk Master Tips Inconsistent?

The blue diamond are alot more consistent or else a milk soaked and pressed ekl tip.
Neil
 
When I did cue repairs for a few years, Triangles and Lepros were the most inconsistent for me of the one piece tips. Elk masters were as a rule more difficult to trim to size, but they all seemed about the same to me. I would make sure to use a brand new utility knife blade on the elk masters, every single time.
 
I meant out of the box

conetip said:
The blue diamond are alot more consistent or else a milk soaked and pressed ekl tip.
Neil
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Sorry, I should have qualified that. I am very familiar with milk duds. pooldawg8 makes AWESOME Dawg Duds.

I meant the question to be about Elk masters with no modification. Are they inconsistent, and if so, what do you go by to sort the good from the bad?

thanks
fatz
 
Pre-Flag Master said:
Sorry, I should have qualified that. I am very familiar with milk duds. pooldawg8 makes AWESOME Dawg Duds.

I meant the question to be about Elk masters with no modification. Are they inconsistent, and if so, what do you go by to sort the good from the bad?

thanks
fatz
Click to expand...

Buy a durometer.... They range in hardness from super soft to hard because they are indeed inconsistent.... Find one that is decently hard in the mid-high 60s and you likely will have a decent one.... Baroni Cues or someone posted durometer results and the elkies ranged from sponges to as hard as lepros.....
 
The Renfro said:
Buy a durometer.... They range in hardness from super soft to hard because they are indeed inconsistent.... Find one that is decently hard in the mid-high 60s and you likely will have a decent one.... Baroni Cues or someone posted durometer results and the elkies ranged from sponges to as hard as lepros.....
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Cool, thank you. Any other criteria that people look at?
 
Pre-Flag Master said:
Cool, thank you. Any other criteria that people look at?
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Based on the fact that they are a chromed leather I have yet to be able to tell visually how the tip would turn out.... I can tell immediately on the lathe when the tip is shaped.... The bad ones look like an old washcloth when you start to shape them.......
 
The Renfro said:
Based on the fact that they are a chromed leather I have yet to be able to tell visually how the tip would turn out.... I can tell immediately on the lathe when the tip is shaped.... The bad ones look like an old washcloth when you start to shape them.......
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"Old washcloth" - I like the analogy. :cool:
 
Yes they are. IMO, they're even worse than LePro's. I've stopped installing them. Can't make any money when it takes 3-4 tries to get a good one. Plus, they're hell on cutting tools.

QA appears to be non existent for these tips.

I have a couple of customers who are begging for good soft tips like the top 5% of ElkMasters. I haven't found any. :cool:
 
Tiger Emerald tips are an excellent more-durable and more-consistent substitute

I've always been an Elkmaster fan, and this was my tip of choice until recently (well, the past year) when my cuemaker friend -- that does all my tips and cue work, and knows my preferences well -- suggested I try the Tiger Emerald. The Tiger Emerald is a layered tip to be sure, and prior to this, I was not a layered tip fan by any stretch of the imagination. (I dislike layered tips as a general rule.)

However, after trying the Tiger Emerald -- which, interestingly, is "supposedly" a medium tip -- I loved it. Has the "soft grippy feel" of an Elkmaster, but doesn't compress as often, and lasts a lot longer. My cuemaker friend says that he doesn't go through the issue of "good or bad tips in the box" like he does with Elkmasters, either. Every Tiger Emerald tip in the box is good, and he hasn't had a "bad" one yet after a couple years of installing them.

One thing, though -- being a layered tip, you can't be as aggressive in shaping a Tiger Emerald as with a single-layer tip like the Elkmaster. I use the CueShark, with a spinning motion, as this is less likely to grab the edges of the layers (which would otherwise cause the tip to delaminate). If you use a tool that shapes with lateral cutting motion (e.g. like a mill file, or the Sandman, or the Extreme tip tool, or the standard "half pipe" tool that you insert a strip of sandpaper into), you have to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL, otherwise the tool will grab the edges of the layers, and you can cause the tip to delaminate. (You have to start from the very center of the tip, at the top/peak, and sand/file *towards* the edges.)

Anyway, I didn't mean to sidetrack this thread about inconsistency with Elkmasters with a tome about another type/brand of tip, but I thought my comparative experience of it with Elkmasters would be helpful.

-Sean
 
I've found them, and most 1 piece cheap tips, to be very inconsistent. I drop them a few times on the counter and listen closely to the sound to pick the good ones. The good ones will sound solid and harder, and the bad ones will sound drier and lighter. It's kind of hard to explain, but if you try it you'll see what I mean. Harvey Martin used to pick the shafts for his billiard cues this way (tapping them on concrete and listening to the sound they made) and it works pretty good for all one piece tips. Also, if you buy them by the box, try to get them from a place that sells a lot of tips. You don't want a box that's been sitting on a shelf for a year.
 
elkmasters

A durometer would indeed seem the best bet to test tip consistency of single layer tips. Doesn't help much with layered tips, any layer might be bad or none. I have found this in layered tips repeatedly, don't like them for several reasons.

So I favor nonlayered tips. Since I don't have a durometer and do have a digital caliper or four or five and a precision scale I use those to sort nonlayered tips. I usually measure height first because obviously a difference in height would mean a difference in weight. The height is usually pretty consistent. Next I weigh the tips. I don't particularly care what they weigh, I am looking for consistency within maybe plus or minus three percent.

Out of fifty elkmasters about ten were light, very light. Tossed them. Three were very heavy. Curious about these, I segregated them but never got around to trying them. The other 36 or 38 were acceptable to install. Best I recall I paid about thirty dollars for the box of elkmasters so I have a less than a dollar a tip in the "keepers". With my playing style I have gotten years out of a single elkmaster, milkdudded but not pressed to a hard tip. Plain elkmasters hold up just fine too playing a straight pool style.

Of course the usual "your mileage may vary" applies.

Hu
 
I have Kamui brown m/s tips on my Bluegrass. I got the Tiger Emeralds on my new Murrell cue and really like them a lot. When the Kamuis are done, I will replace them with the Tiger Emeralds.
 
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