Chalk wars

That's really interesting.

I use the Great White chalk, primarily because I love the magnetic holder. It leaves little white chalk dots all over the cue ball: I wonder if there are any downsides to that?
 
Chicago RJ, who sells Magic Chalk, will love Dave's findings. I chalk after almost every shot so I have absolutely no problem with good old Master Chalk.
 
philly said:
Chicago RJ, who sells Magic Chalk, will love Dave's findings. I chalk after almost every shot so I have absolutely no problem with good old Master Chalk.
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Well, yes, yes I did ;) But the story is that premium chalks are just better in general.

If I can go 30 shots with extreme English, after only chalking once, my confidence level is really HIGH if I just chalked before the shot. I've seen SVB miscue with Masters in the COC event that was just on ESPN, and he JUST chalked. He even laughed about it and said, " I thought I chalked". The he grabbed the chalk again and really "drilled" his tip with it. And replay's on my DVR in slow mo showed he did NOT miscue because of his stroke or hitting the table first. Almost cost him the game.

But it's also the mess. Less staining on your shafts, hands, cue ball, and your table. I practice at home a lot. If you can shoot dozen or more times with any premium chalk, thus the chalk is "sticking" to the tip, less chalk everywhere else. (except Kamiu, that stuff is the messiest chalk on the planet)

But, it's like anything else, use what you like, and just keeping shooting pool. Just like Maple vs LD, or custom vs production, custom case vs production, Leather vs Linen, shoot with what makes folks enjoy the game :grin-square:

Just bought my first custom case, yep, from JB ;)
 
ChicagoRJ said:
Well, yes, yes I did ;) But the story is that premium chalks are just better in general.

If I can go 30 shots with extreme English, after only chalking once, my confidence level is really HIGH if I just chalked before the shot. I've seen SVB miscue with Masters in the COC event that was just on ESPN, and he JUST chalked. He even laughed about it and said, " I thought I chalked". The he grabbed the chalk again and really "drilled" his tip with it. And replay's on my DVR in slow mo showed he did NOT miscue because of his stroke or hitting the table first. Almost cost him the game.

But it's also the mess. Less staining on your shafts, hands, cue ball, and your table. I practice at home a lot. If you can shoot dozen or more times with any premium chalk, thus the chalk is "sticking" to the tip, less chalk everywhere else. (except Kamiu, that stuff is the messiest chalk on the planet)

But, it's like anything else, use what you like, and just keeping shooting pool. Just like Maple vs LD, or custom vs production, custom case vs production, Leather vs Linen, shoot with what makes folks enjoy the game :grin-square:

Just bought my first custom case, yep, from JB ;)
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Nice concise explanation and a good pitch. To be honest RJ, I was one of the guys that won a two pack in a drawing you held and I tried it for a very little while and didn't notice a difference. I gave one piece to a friend so I still have one piece left in my case. I have a tournament tonight and maybe I will try it again.
 
Most miscue's are from a BAD stroke period. Notice I said "MOST". I prefer a chalk that is not too messy so I stick to the Masters brand.
 
While science is not as sexy as conjecture, anecdotes, and hearsay, it is real and true.


Thanks for all your hard work Dr. Dave!
 
SFC9ball said:
Most miscue's are from a BAD stroke period. Notice I said "MOST". I prefer a chalk that is not too messy so I stick to the Masters brand.
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Have you tried Russian Magic?
For me the advantage of RM is what you may be looking for. For those who chalk every shot most of these chalks will do.
The Russian magic chalk I have been buying from RJ is by far the cleanest chalk I have tried. Table,hands and pool balls are much cleaner.
 
Cuebuddy said:
Have you tried Russian Magic?
For me the advantage of RM is what you may be looking for. For those who chalk every shot most of these chalks will do.
The Russian magic chalk I have been buying from RJ is by far the cleanest chalk I have tried. Table,hands and pool balls are much cleaner.
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No I have not, tried the Magic chalk, I have a box of Masters (144) that I have to use up first. But not opposed to trying different chalk. I tried Kamui and it went on nice but the mess isn't worth 50 cents to me, thank god I didn't purchase that stuff.
 
Great video. It's incredibly informative and we're all a little wiser because of it. I do love Kamui products but after using Kamui chalk, had a hard time justifying purchasing more. It's just so damn expensive and I never felt Master chalk was *bad*. This video proves that sticking with the house-provided Master isn't a compromise in your game.
 
ChicagoRJ said:
Well, yes, yes I did ;) But the story is that premium chalks are just better in general.

If I can go 30 shots with extreme English, after only chalking once, my confidence level is really HIGH if I just chalked before the shot. I've seen SVB miscue with Masters in the COC event that was just on ESPN, and he JUST chalked. He even laughed about it and said, " I thought I chalked". The he grabbed the chalk again and really "drilled" his tip with it. And replay's on my DVR in slow mo showed he did NOT miscue because of his stroke or hitting the table first. Almost cost him the game.

But it's also the mess. Less staining on your shafts, hands, cue ball, and your table. I practice at home a lot. If you can shoot dozen or more times with any premium chalk, thus the chalk is "sticking" to the tip, less chalk everywhere else. (except Kamiu, that stuff is the messiest chalk on the planet)

But, it's like anything else, use what you like, and just keeping shooting pool. Just like Maple vs LD, or custom vs production, custom case vs production, Leather vs Linen, shoot with what makes folks enjoy the game :grin-square:

Just bought my first custom case, yep, from JB ;)
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Yes, it's obvious that high end chalks improve the performance of the chalk.

It is also obvious that its benefits are lost to those that chalk regularly.

But it's also the mess. Less staining on your shafts, hands, cue ball, and your table. I practice at home a lot. If you can shoot dozen or more times with any premium chalk, thus the chalk is "sticking" to the tip, less chalk everywhere else. (except Kamiu, that stuff is the messiest chalk on the planet)
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Save for that. If I get a chance I'll try some magic chalk, my concern is that it will be as messy as any other chalk.
 
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Twisted

What pro player shoots 8 hard English shots in a row without chalking up ?
Which pro player only chalks up once every 3 racks ??

The only way to judge chalk is by its performance, does the chalk give you more spin ?how messy is it ? how easy is it to apply and how much does it cost.


Honestly speaking, if I am playing for money I will be chalking up at least every other shot or third shot, but most of the time I chalk up every shot ........................
And I am not willing to change these habits.


Common sense,

Who is going to miss cue the most ? the player who normally shoots center ball.
Or the guy shooting massive English shots.

So the players who have a sloppy stroke needs the best chalk .
The players who use hard English allot need the best chalk .
The players who shoots center cue ball doesn't .

The players who shoot center cue ball normally have worked hard to train there stroke to be more accurate .

My point is It might have little to do with the difference in chalk but rather the persons stroke
 
pocket said:
Yes, it's obvious that high end chalks improve the performance of the chalk.

It is also obvious that its benefits are lost to those that chalk regularly.
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Yes, tell that to Shane who had just chalked and almost lost a game. Non premium chalk does not have the consistency , and thus do not get applied the same way each time, nor stay on the tip as well.

When you need to use extreme English, which one is gonna let u cheat just a little bit more in a game of millimeters :thumbup:

But if you like your Master chalk, you can keep your master chalk. ;)
 
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ChicagoRJ said:
Yes, tell that to Shane who had just chalked and almost lost a game. Non premium chalk does not have the consistency , and thus do not get applied the same way each time, nor stay on the tip as well.

When you need to use extreme English, which one is gonna let u cheat just a little bit more in a game of millimeters :thumbup:

But if you like your Master chalk, you can keep your master chalk. ;)
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Are you saying you will never miscue with Magic Chalk (or insert any premium brand here)? The question is redundant of course, but makes my point. Miscues are going to happen.

Dr. Daves test confirm (to me at least) that as long as you chalk regularly (which most players do in my experience) there is no difference in chalks.

Now if it could reduce the amount of chalk on my table, hands and cue that would be a benefit I could sink my teeth in to.
 
pocket said:
Are you saying you will never miscue with Magic Chalk (or insert any premium brand here)? The question is redundant of course, but makes my point. Miscues are going to happen.

Dr. Daves test confirm (to me at least) that as long as you chalk regularly (which most players do in my experience) there is no difference in chalks.

Now if it could reduce the amount of chalk on my table, hands and cue that would be a benefit I could sink my teeth in to.
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I've already said there are other benefits such as being much cleaner/less messier.

The only time I've miscued is when I'm trying to see how far I can go on one chalking, but during a game, nope, not yet. And you don't really know how far you can go when applying english, but if someone can miscue after chalking just one time with a masters type brand, I'm guessing the chances are they are gonna miscue more often and certainly when using extreme english.

But if you like masters, that's cool. No worries.
 
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Cuebuddy said:
I just saw this posting from Dr-Dave on Facebook. It looks like Dave has tested more brands of chalk now and added them to his earlier results.

Thanks Dave, very interesting.

http://billiards.colostate.edu/threads/chalk.html
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For those interested, here's the contents of the Facebook posting:


For those of you who have seen my pool chalk comparison video, I finally got around to testing more chalks. All of the results can be found in the follow-up quotes beneath the original video on the chalk comparison resource page here:

billiards.colostate.edu/threads/chalk.html

All of the brands I have tested to date now include: Master, Master pre-flag, Lava, Blue Diamond, Kamui, Silver Cup, Magic Chalk, Predator, and Great White.

My bottom-line conclusions still hold:

If you chalk before every shot, it doesn't seem to matter which chalk you use. They are all equally effective when the chalk is applied properly before a shot. I have not been able to measure a difference in performance among any of the chalks tested when the tip is chalked before a shot.

(Magic Chalk has surpassed all other chalks in all of the tests concerning how long the chalk remains effective on the tip. So if you don't chalk properly or well between shots or games, Magic Chalk might offer an advantage over other brands.)


For those interested, there are some comments and replies in the Facebook posting here:

www.facebook.com/DrDaveBilliards

Enjoy,
Dave
 
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