Since you are the KING of impulse buying...I have for sell some beavers that are trained to chew a taper on a shaft...WAIT...thats from another thread in "ask the cuemaker". LOL!!!
While phenolic tips are all the rage, canvas resin is a better option. I've seen many, many, phenolic tips, tip/ferrule crack. Phenolic is very hard, but somewhat impact brittle, plus it doesn't hold chalk that well. The canvas rod is more like a fabric with resin rolled into a rod. The canvas looks almost like phenolic except you can see larger patterns of the canvas when finished where as the phen. finishes more uniform. When shaping the tip, canvas will fuzz up and look a lot like leather. When combined with some machined grooves this allows the canvas to hold chalk extremely well. So well in fact that I can if desired put extreme english on the cueball without fear of miscueing. The canvas is just as hard, if not harder. With the canvas tip I (or any decent player) can jump a full ball from less than 1 inch. In fact, I've won thousands by placing the cueball next to the object ball with just my business card or a dollar bill placed thinwise between the two...and jumping the whole ball...and clearing it by 6,7, 8 inches. Of course this was a shaft only jump.
Like I said...I've seen many phenolics break/crack. I have yet to see one single canvas resin tip or tip/ferrule have any problem whatsoever.
One bit of advice...the tip/ferrule 1 pc combo is bulletproof and probably the way to go. If you want the canvas tip on a ferrule...make sure your maker, makes the canvas tip with a threaded stem that will then thread down into the ferrule. Thats the only way you can rest assured it will stay together.
To sum it up...canvas is basically the same as phen. except its more durable and holds chalk much better. Hope this helps with your questions.
Oh...and maybe you'll receive some comfort in knowing that Allison has a canvas tip on her Cuetec JB cue.
