Did the old clay balls skid?

[Patrick Johnson]

"The ball skids like an ashtray when you hit it," Crane says. "It's not supposed to skid, it's supposed to roll.

What does a banger like Crane know?

I'd say sliding has added some versatility to CB control.

pj
chgo

 

[Nick B]

I don't think the cloth has any effect on skid.

I don't know about the balls, but I've always thought modern phenolic balls had smoother surfaces than old clay balls, which would create less friction and therefore less throw/skids.

pj
chgo

I'm with PJ. Cloth has zero effect or at least so small that you would need to go to 9 decimal places to measure it.

 

[Dead Money]

Skid is caused by a loss of fiction. It makes no sense to say that types of cloth and it's condition do not play into it. Certain road surfaces are more prone to skidding than others. I submit cloth is the same way.

 

[Patrick Johnson]

Skid is caused by a loss of fiction. It makes no sense to say that types of cloth and it's condition do not play into it. Certain road surfaces are more prone to skidding than others. I submit cloth is the same way.

Depends what you mean by skid...

Cue ball sliding before rolling: cloth has big effect.

Object ball throwing more than usual: cloth has no effect.

pj
chgo

 

[SBC]

Skids happen when the balls get dirty (usually chalk residue) and that dirty spot makes contact with another ball. Slower speed of the shot further magnifies the phenomenon.

Skids happen from losing friction with the cloth....yes dirty spots lead to this. Today's cloth and balls are slick and this is why it occurs.

You don't think clay balls were dirty?

 

[L.S. Dennis]

Re: Clay balls;

Here’s a quote from instructor and author Johnny Holiday (whose actual name was John D’Amato),

”I recall a two game set I played with Johnny Irish in the Ridgewood Grove Billiard Academy , Brooklyn Ne York. To accumulate 15 clay ballls of one dimension we looked at 20 to 30 balls. Clay balls were not uniform as present day object balls. Cue balls were always out of round, unless one was fortunate to be playing with a new one. That’s a hinderance unknown to present day players.”

 

[hang-the-9]

Both your and MikeMosoni’s points are well taken, although I think a set of clay balls could still be found albeit it difficult to be sure.

I'm sure you can find them, but why do tests on a old collectible set for something that really has no bearing on things now past curiosity? Anyone out there buying old Ferraris to do skid pad tests on them and compare their crash ratings to modern cars?

 

[Bob Jewett]

I played quite a bit with clay balls both at Cochran's in San Francisco and in a private club in the 1970s that had never upgraded their balls. My impression was the the surface of the clay balls was harder and more slippery than phenolic and may have stayed cleaner. I have a playable set but no real interest in trying them right now.

 

[garczar]

I played quite a bit with clay balls both at Cochran's in San Francisco and in a private club in the 1970s that had never upgraded their balls. My impression was the the surface of the clay balls was harder and more slippery than phenolic and may have stayed cleaner. I have a playable set but no real interest in trying them right now.

Seriously doubt they were harder than phenolic balls.

 

[Bob Jewett]

Seriously doubt they were harder than phenolic balls.

That may be but that is how they seemed to me. I have the impression they have a fairly high mineral content. I suppose I could find a hardness tester but I'm not sure which scale/tester I would want to use.