Best ivory ferrule alternative?

mjdoutdoors

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
What is the best ivory ferrule alternative? I tired of replacing my cracked ferrules on my Paul Motty over the years. In my opinion ivory has no place on the perfomance end of a cue. They are a throw back to the old days and modern materials just seem better. I am looking for a material that will perform similar to ivory so my cue will play the same with no drastic change.
 
What is the best ivory ferrule alternative? I tired of replacing my cracked ferrules on my Paul Motty over the years. In my opinion ivory has no place on the perfomance end of a cue. They are a throw back to the old days and modern materials just seem better. I am looking for a material that will perform similar to ivory so my cue will play the same with no drastic change.
Sorry not possible!

Materials weight different!
Could go longer ferrulle to compensate.

There is ferrulle weight charts around. Do a search and you will see.

I went lighter and linen based melamine (LBM) after southwest cues jerry Franklin spent years testing other material alternatives to ivory. He did it out of his love for elephants and animals! Never see ivory on Jerry's cues. He pioneered the use of ivory alternatives on custom cues.

Kd
 
Try to find some Micarta ferrules.

Sorry to read you have had poor results with ivory which is totally the opposite of my experience.
My Mottey cue from '91 hasn't had any issues with its original ferrules or its piloted ivory joint; ditto
for my '06 Scruggs cue's ivory ferrules and flat ivory joint. The cue I just had made this past May,
albeit only 4 months old, has ivory ferrules and joint. And the cue Jerry R. is currently making also
has ivory ferrules and flat ivory joint. Rest assured, if my experience playing with ivory ferrules and
cue joints wasn't the very best, i.e., nary any problems, I'd be using different material for my cues.

The closest substitute I've come across is Micarta but phenolic ferrules and even LBM ferrules leave
a lot to be desired in my opinion. I've seen Micarta listed for sale but it was in raw form so you'd need
a cue-maker to actually make the ferrules for your cue.
 
If you want a hard ferrule/hit, you might want to look at any of the Ivorine ferrules.

Ivor X etc.
 
Mason's Micarta is like hitting with diamonds. As hard as a hit comes. I love it. Very light, though. Less deflection than ivory. An improvement, truly.
 
Sounds interesting since i've been using TOI full time for a year and a half and i like high deflection. I love the super hard aluminum bat hit of my Motty and want to keep that hit.
 
LBM to me brings a crisp hard hit
Juma is a softer hit

Ivory tends to feel like a soft hit.

The biggest thing that is nice about ivory is it is easy to keep clean, and hits fairly softly. Personally I liked lbm, but it is hard to find good lbm anymore without pitting, at least the last few shafts I've had made I've heard that complaint from cuemakers. Juma is being used by a lot of cuemakers these days. MasonH's micarta was really nice.
 
LBM to me brings a crisp hard hit
Juma is a softer hit

Ivory tends to feel like a soft hit.

The biggest thing that is nice about ivory is it is easy to keep clean, and hits fairly softly. Personally I liked lbm, but it is hard to find good lbm anymore without pitting, at least the last few shafts I've had made I've heard that complaint from cuemakers. Juma is being used by a lot of cuemakers these days. MasonH's micarta was really nice.
Very true! Hard to find good LBM! Southwest bought a lot and Ted Harris that I know of!!!
The atlas billiard supply has been out for years! They pushed the ivorene 3 stuff that I hated! Heavy and hard deflected real bad! IMO

Not many sources, the manufacturer stopped or something!

I found a few feet of rod at Tim Scruggs shop! Bought it all. Tim gave it to me after seeing how bad I wanted it. He was always nice to me. I really like the guy "very" much. Miss seeing him around.

Kd
 
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Nothing will hit harder than quality melamine. It is indeed getting tougher to find. The manufacturer I used to get it from, same as SW, quit making it. It's special order now and they sub it out to another manufacturer, and charge double what it used to cost. I switched to another manufacturer that makes a comparable product, except that it isn't as white. Good stuff, though. It's around. You just gotta find it.
 
Nothing will hit harder than quality melamine. It is indeed getting tougher to find. The manufacturer I used to get it from, same as SW, quit making it. It's special order now and they sub it out to another manufacturer, and charge double what it used to cost. I switched to another manufacturer that makes a comparable product, except that it isn't as white. Good stuff, though. It's around. You just gotta find it.

please PM me the source???

I am not a cue maker just a pool player looking for some for personal use only!!!

i am worried that i can't get it later for some reason. I will hoard some like moori tips in the 90's. If you want to keep the source secret that is fine. I will send you money for some and you could just forward it on to me. Trade secret secure!!!

sorry guys but i had to get my beg on! lol

kd
 
Yep Elforyn is the best Ivory substitute iMO...

the only thing i dont like about it,
it doesnt polish up shiny
or im not doing it right? i dunno .
havent seen anyone elses in person to compare with
 
The atlas billiard supply has been out for years! They pushed the ivorene 3 stuff that I hated! Heavy and hard deflected real bad! IMO

Kd

I think you are confusing invorene 3 and 4. 4 was unusable but 3 was probably the best non ivory ferrule ever created.
 
Kid, Atlas has AEGIS-II LINEN MELAMINE in stock. I don't know anything about it, beyond that it says Melamine.

I have a few short rods of the older Melamine and Titan in stock. I like the LBM.

According to Chris Hightower, he rates the LBM at a Med Hard hit. Or, you could get a hold of Chris and see what he has. Joe B from Cue Components always has a ton of different material also.

There, I just shilled for all three so no one can call me bias.

I have 2 shafts with Aegis and like the hit no problem.

When I first joined AZ, I guess 6 yrs ago now, the first purchase that I made was for a bag of 10 or so Ivorine something or the other. I would have to check the bag for the name. I haven't used any as I usually use LBM or Titan.

I got a bunch of ferrule material with a used lathe, and one of the ferrules is clear, maybe Acrylic or something else.
Don't know how well it would hold up but think it might look kinda cool on the end of a shaft.

I may give it a whack one day.
 
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