Constant Tip Shaping is annoying!

[Texas Carom Club]

Tf

 

[Sheldon]

Little Al Romero used to leave a small bare spot in the middle of tip that he never roughed up. He said it played better that way. And then there's Rafael Martinez. He played with a tip worn down to the nub, barely anything there, just a little bump at the end of his ferrule. And he could make any shot with that tip! Two very good players with unique perspectives on proper tips.

I have tipped Rafael's cue, he likes a squished Elk Master. I've also watched him scuff it pretty regularly, especially when he's shooting crazy stroke (trick) shots.

 

[Bob Jewett]

I have tipped Rafael's cue, he likes a squished Elk Master. I've also watched him scuff it pretty regularly, especially when he's shooting crazy stroke (trick) shots.

I saw his tip once when he had just gotten a new one. It couldn't have been much thicker than a nickel. And, boy, could he play the spin shots.

 

[SSDiver2112]

I think that link is broken. This one should work:

Post in thread 'Tip maintenance questions'

Mar 11, 2025

I'll just repost this from a couple years ago:

Ignorance of proper shaping techniques will lead to over maintaining the tip and "shortening" its life.

The combination of low knowledge and my first tip being a Kamui clear I totally misunderstood tip maintenance. I was shaping my tip every time I went out to play. Part of it was the Kamui which IMO "glazes" over too quickly. I was roughing it up regularly. I got tired of it and replaced it with a Thoroughbred Med tip. I no longer had to rough it up constantly. so that helped. Problem 1 solved.

Problem 2: Because I did not understand the...

• SSDiver2112

• 

Thanks Bob. I did fix the link. Sometimes the copy link doesn’t work on the phone.

 

[hello]

I saw his tip once when he had just gotten a new one. It couldn't have been much thicker than a nickel. And, boy, could he play the spin shots.

Efren said Martinez has the most powerful stroke he'd ever seen.Pretty good accolades, I'd say...

 

[hello]

I have tipped Rafael's cue, he likes a squished Elk Master. I've also watched him scuff it pretty regularly, especially when he's shooting crazy stroke (trick) shots.

Did you press or otherwise treat the tip..?

 

[hello]

All I want to do is take my cue out, tap it a little, and play!

I have the Willard's shaper and every single time I get ready to play or practice, I use the curvature gauge part to check the shape. Every single time I have to take a little bit off the sides because the whole tip has flattened out from the day before.

My medium layered tip only started holding its shape perfectly once I was down to about 2 layers on the side walls. Soon after I had to change the whole tip because I don't think the tip side walls should be less than the thickness of a penny. Because of this shape issue I opted for a harder tip or a Triangle tip. But its the same issue... I am more then half way through this tip and it still loses the nickel shape after every pool session.

Questions:

• Is it compressing in the middle because most shoots are center ball or near center? If so, is this normal for hard tips like Triangle?
• Is the the chalk actually wearing away the leather towards the center of the tip?
• Is the chalk getting under the leather fibers and expanding the parts of tip that don't take as much pounding?
• Will burnishing the sides of the tip every other day eventually stop the flattening of the tip?

The member pooldawg8 is said to make great playing milk dud's.People are raving about them.A tip to consider, especially since he does a good amount of compressing them...can't see them mushrooming...