Seems like the chalks I like are the older ones that had a more gritty consistency. Seems like the "grit" gets into the texture of the tip's leather better. I thought I had a make shift solution by baking Master chalk. But that only fixed the pasty-ness problem. eventually I realized it didn't really make the chalk adhere better. I'm going to try Silver Cup again, but from what I recall it was only a little grittier than Master and the grit particles were too fine anyway, and too dry to stay on the tip. I am also going to try the new Balabushka, but people are saying it's only a little better than Blue Diamond. I personally feel that Blue Diamond isn't really all that great either - just not that gritty really. Old Pre-Flag can be a little hard. It's like the grittiness is there, but sometimes too hard to really coat easily - you have to work it a bit. I might try leaving it in the bathroom - as I have read others have done with chalk - to see if it will absorb moisture and soften up.
But still, pre-flag is expensive and not readily available. Blue Diamond and Balabushka, too expensive in my opinion, but at least I would buy them if they worked as well as I wanted. And obviously, therefore, I think Kamui is too expensive.
So if there are any billiard chalk industry manufacturers out there reading this, I'd like to suggest some specifications. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way, so you would probably have a market if you created a new line of chalk that is...
1. Gritty enough to go into the leather.
2. Soft enough and moist enough to stay on the tip.
3. Not so soft or moist as to be too pasty and leave a thick cakey-ness on the tip which would then get on the cue ball. This leads to skids, and also makes a mess on the cloth.
Price it right, and you might have a great selling product. I wouldn't necessarily suggest replacing any current lines of chalk because different people like different things. If the SRP for a box of 12 was $7.50, that would be very affordable. If retailers broke out individual cubes for $.75 or even $1.00 each I would be fine with that, and think most people would be too.
Market the new line as "Blue Grit". Get some John Wayne movie clips with the right verbal snippets and IMO, you have a winner... "Here, you'll shoot straight with this!"
If anyone here feels the same way, post a reply to show your vote. Maybe this could actually happen (well maybe not the John Wayne part). Does anybody know if the people at Tweeten or Silver Cup or NTC read these forums?
Fatz
But still, pre-flag is expensive and not readily available. Blue Diamond and Balabushka, too expensive in my opinion, but at least I would buy them if they worked as well as I wanted. And obviously, therefore, I think Kamui is too expensive.
So if there are any billiard chalk industry manufacturers out there reading this, I'd like to suggest some specifications. I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way, so you would probably have a market if you created a new line of chalk that is...
1. Gritty enough to go into the leather.
2. Soft enough and moist enough to stay on the tip.
3. Not so soft or moist as to be too pasty and leave a thick cakey-ness on the tip which would then get on the cue ball. This leads to skids, and also makes a mess on the cloth.
Price it right, and you might have a great selling product. I wouldn't necessarily suggest replacing any current lines of chalk because different people like different things. If the SRP for a box of 12 was $7.50, that would be very affordable. If retailers broke out individual cubes for $.75 or even $1.00 each I would be fine with that, and think most people would be too.
Market the new line as "Blue Grit". Get some John Wayne movie clips with the right verbal snippets and IMO, you have a winner... "Here, you'll shoot straight with this!"
If anyone here feels the same way, post a reply to show your vote. Maybe this could actually happen (well maybe not the John Wayne part). Does anybody know if the people at Tweeten or Silver Cup or NTC read these forums?
Fatz
