Artificial tips?

[Petros Andrikop]

Hello everyone, greetings from Athens-Greece, hope this finds you well in all aspects.

I'm in the process of finishing my book about basic principles of Pool, a first for Greek literature.
I will of course include a chapter with basic information on equipment, mentioning its evolvement, mostly on cues.

Seems that gradually we're turning into carbon fiber cues, possibly in the future most if not all parts of Pool cues will be made from this material.
Any chance we gonna see cue playing tips from an artificial material in the future? Looks like current technology does not provide any answer yet in this manner.
I think there have been some tries in the past with no significant results, don't know if the industry is even considering reasearch in that direction now.

What do you think?
Thanks in advace for your time.

Stay safe,

Petros

 

[billsey]

They are already using phenolic tips for break cues, so I wouldn't be too surprised to see other synthetics at least tried.

 

[Geosnookery]

No.

100% of the people I play Snooker with use a wooden cue, 100% of those
I play English pool with use a wooden cue and likely 80% minimum of those I play American pool with use a wooden cue. I’ve never played Chinese 8 ball against anyone with a non wooden cue although likely a few players may use use carbon fibre. No idea about Brazilian Sinuca or Russian pyramid...although I know top players like Anastasia Kazan use wooden cues.

Wooden cues aren’t going anywhere. There are trends in synthetic tips but just about every one returns to leather once they stop chasing magic bullets.

 

[PariahZero]

Any chance we'gonna see cue tips from an artificial material in the future?

There already are artificial tips, especially in the “break tip” area: phenolic, G10 fiberglass, transparent polycarbonate, Taom’s Break 2.0, the Picone White Diamond, Outsville Hammerhead, ON Cyborg BK Break, various “hybrid” polymer/leather tips.

For shooting tips, there’s Outsville’s Ki-tech, and Spinster’s grip tips. I’m sure there are other elastomers that could do the job.

Ultimately animal skin is really useful stuff, is incredibly tough and resilient. Various treatments can change it from hard enough to be used as armor, to soft enough to dry the paint on a multimillion dollar hypercar without scratching it. It can be made completely waterproof, to being used specifically to soak up water.

And it’s relatively inexpensive, environmentally friendly, and completely renewable.

 

[whammo57]

No.

100% of the people I play Snooker with use a wooden cue, 100% of those
I play English pool with use a wooden cue and likely 80% minimum of those I play American pool with use a wooden cue. I’ve never played Chinese 8 ball against anyone with a non wooden cue although likely a few players may use use carbon fibre. No idea about Brazilian Sinuca or Russian pyramid...although I know top players like Anastasia Kazan use wooden cues.

Wooden cues aren’t going anywhere. There are trends in synthetic tips but just about every one returns to leather once they stop chasing magic bullets.

well said

Kim

 

[garczar]

For playing nothing beats leather.

 

[cueman]

The most serious attempt at making non leather playing tips was in the late 80s and 90s was by Future Tip. They thought they had the tip of the future. But now it is in the past and almost everyone went back to leather. They had one blue colored tip that would move the cue ball pretty much like a LePro, but it had a little click sound to it. The tip just softer than that one felt like you were playing with leather and was even brown like leather, but would not move the cue ball like leather.

 

[barryr]

For playing nothing beats leather.

yet

 

[garczar]

yet

Why is it so hard to believe that leather is the best material?? People have tried FOR YEARS to make a synthetic playing tip and ALL of them have sucked. Big time. One MIGHT come out that offers less maintenance and/or better durability but they won't beat leather's touch/feel/sound.

 

[Tom1234]

I’ve tried a tip made of a rubbery substance (don’t remember the name); it sucked big time. No control as anything other than center english caused miscues.

 

[Toxictom]

I saw a post on the Facebook group “pool is not dead” where a guy made an entire tip out of Gorilla glue. Looked like he just taped around the ferrule and filled it with the glue then shaped it after it hardened. It looked good. He said he was experimenting and hadn’t shot any balls with it yet.

 

[PariahZero]

I saw a post on the Facebook group “pool is not dead” where a guy made an entire tip out of Gorilla glue. Looked like he just taped around the ferrule and filled it with the glue then shaped it after it hardened. It looked good. He said he was experimenting and hadn’t shot any balls with it yet.

Given the cost of Gorilla Glue... that’s probably a fairly expensive piece of polyurethane (or polyurethane foam). Definitely more expensive than an elk master, and nowhere near as good.

The thing I’d love to see is how well a veneer (or flax) cloth composite would work as a shaft. Weave very thin strips of veneer into a cloth, wet the cloth with epoxy, then wrap the cloth tightly around a mandrel.

It’d be all the pain of making a carbon fiber shaft, and would perform fairly similarly to carbon, but it has a bit less edgy look.

I like the look, if nothing else.

 

[Tommy-D]

I can tell you for SURE that the black or H version of the Future tip was a quite acceptable alternative to phenolics before anyone tried them,as long as it didn't eventually come apart from sidewall stress fractures.

They BIT into the cue ball wonderfully,but when breaking every day they never lasted more than a few months.

They smelled like melting electrical tape when sanding on them,and they could be tricky to glue with early/mid 90's CA glues,but if they held up they worked well. I still know where a stash of all 3 varieties are .

The S and M versions felt like a gumball machine Super Ball type material to me anyway,waaay too mushy to be truly useable,but were capable of crazy things with the right stroke and chalk. Tommy D.

 

[lstoltman]

I saw a post on the Facebook group “pool is not dead” where a guy made an entire tip out of Gorilla glue. Looked like he just taped around the ferrule and filled it with the glue then shaped it after it hardened. It looked good. He said he was experimenting and hadn’t shot any balls with it yet.

Who’s got time like that to be monkeying around?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cueman]

I can tell you for SURE that the black or H version of the Future tip was a quite acceptable alternative to phenolics before anyone tried them,as long as it didn't eventually come apart from sidewall stress fractures.

They BIT into the cue ball wonderfully,but when breaking every day they never lasted more than a few months.

They smelled like melting electrical tape when sanding on them,and they could be tricky to glue with early/mid 90's CA glues,but if they held up they worked well. I still know where a stash of all 3 varieties are .

The S and M versions felt like a gumball machine Super Ball type material to me anyway,waaay too mushy to be truly useable,but were capable of crazy things with the right stroke and chalk. Tommy D.

If anyone has one of the old blue Future tip put it on your cue then face it off until it is only about a 1/32 thick and glue your normal playing tip to it and see if it does not instantly increase your cue ball action. I used to sell those as Action Pads. But with the faster cloth becoming more popular throughout the 90s I found most people did not need to increase cue ball action.

 

[Thunder Thighs]

Someone at Predator is going to see this opportunity, do some R&D and sell synthetic tips for $100. Probably sell a tip and chalk as a "kit". And guess what? People will line up to buy it. Demand will be greater that supply for the first 2 years, then other manufacturers will start coming up with their $70 versions.

Sounds familiar?