Difference in Chalk brands, and connoisseurs of chalk

CocoboloCowboy

CocoboloCowboy

Cowboys are my hero's
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I am not a connoisseur of chalk I am curious if there really is much difference between Master, Silver Cup, Triangle, National, and Balabushka brand chalk.

I have even used in a pinch Wal-Mart Chinese Chalk that seem to work O.K. for 6 pieces for $.96.

Getting ready to buy some Chalk, and thinking of switching to the Silver Cup Spruce Green, from the Master Lighter shade of Green as it is the closet to the Green Cloth I most play on.
 
Most of the pros like master blue, and only the blue color for some reason. The National and Silver Cup are both soft, in my opinion.
Triangle is made by the same company that makes Master and is a little more gritty than Master blue. I like either one.
I own a pool room and was given a couple of Silver Cup gross recently, tried it out and gave both gross away to a billiard supply dealer. Just too soft.

Danny K
 
I find that Master Chalk holds to the tip the best. The best chalk ever was the pre american flag Master chalk. I have several cubes of it and I have a good friend that has a whole gross of it. It holds to the tip perfectly. Silver Cup is not a bad brand of chalk either.
 
Danny Kuykendal said:
Most of the pros like master blue, and only the blue color for some reason. The National and Silver Cup are both soft, in my opinion.
Triangle is made by the same company that makes Master and is a little more gritty than Master blue. I like either one.
I own a pool room and was given a couple of Silver Cup gross recently, tried it out and gave both gross away to a billiard supply dealer. Just too soft.

Danny K
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Don't blame you for giving it away. IMO, that stuff is useless.
 
I inclined to agree with Danny... the Master Blue is my preference. I always carry a couple of cubes, just to be sure I don't have to use other brands.
 
The Longoin chalk is suppose to be the nuts. Has more lead in it or something. they were buying it up like crazy at VF last year. Stuff aint cheap but It;s suppose to be the best.:D
 
i agree with the masters blue people. there is a bar that i play at once in a while that has master green and it is a little different than the blue. also, by using blue, you can tell when there is a lot of chalk laying on the table and it need cleaning.
 
Strokerz said:
The Longoin chalk is suppose to be the nuts. Has more lead in it or something. they were buying it up like crazy at VF last year. Stuff aint cheap but It;s suppose to be the best.:D
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i have a 1/2 dozen cubes of it and it is better than masters. but i dont know if its betterness is worth the extra $3 per cube. i once found a barely used cube on a bar table that always supplies silver cup so i knew it wasnt theirs. i replaced it with a master cube. thought i hit the jackpot.
 
I still have some 80 year old national tournament chalk that had a lot of lead in it and I like it better than masters cause it don't come off the tip onto the shaft or fingers.
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I played with Master (blue), Triangle (light one), Brunswick and Silver Cup. If I got the chance, I will try Gold Star and Blue Diamond.

First of all, yes there is a major different between those chalk. Some are heaving really fine chalk, some gross, some chalking well, some not. When I play pool, I use a lot english. I need chalk that stays good on the tip.

You can pot every ball with every kind of chalk. Even without chalk, you can pot some balls. But when using english, you need to have grip. The more grip, the lesser miscue, the more spin you can transfer.

For example, I don't like the new Silver Cup (the old one with plastic around the chalk is much better) or the Brunswick. It chalks very difficult, and stays really bad on the tip. Triangle chalks well, but don't have the grip. I'm using Master right now, it's not a bad chalk, I like it so far. Gold Star is the finest of all. To me, you will not find a better chalking chalk than Gold Star. Move it once over the tip, and it stays on the tip. Haven't played it, but it looks really good. I also hear good stuff of the Blue Diamond chalk, haven't tried it yet.
 
I have always used Master chalk, but recently I switched to Triangle, becuase it doesnt EXPLODE off the tip as bad, or to put it another way, My table has less chalk on the playfield and Im not misscueing. to me it is a cleaner alternative, for both the table and the ferrule. it took me a long time but Ive finaly found Chalk that is as good as Masters and not as messy.

That cheap wally world chalk is awful, I absolutely hate it, its worthless IMHO..


SPINDOKTOR
 
Blue Diamond Billiard Chalk

I've been trying out the Blue Diamond Billiard Chalk that I bought from Tony Rudi (tonyrudi@comcast.net) for the past few days and it's the best I've seen for staying on, for draw shots and using English.
I would highly recommend it even though it's not cheap. I'm just sorry I haven't been using it in the past.
 
To reply to bomber's message: Fred Agnir (cornerman) called Tweeten to know if they had changed te recipe for Master chalk: post/after American flag. They didn't, it's supposed to be the same damn thing!

I use Triangle because that's what every good player use here. But I think Master is as good.
 
Alot of folks have said it already, but I'll chime in as well. Master Chalk, and blue is my preference as well (which really sucks since the wife just decided that we have to have the camel colored cloth on the new table) the other colors seem to have a different consistency. I may be wrong, and you may chalk it up to superstition (please forgive the pun) but the non blue colors of Masters Chalk just don't seem to stay on the tip as well as the blue.
 
SPINDOKTOR said:
I have always used Master chalk, but recently I switched to Triangle, becuase it doesnt EXPLODE off the tip as bad, or to put it another way, My table has less chalk on the playfield and Im not misscueing. to me it is a cleaner alternative, for both the table and the ferrule. it took me a long time but Ive finaly found Chalk that is as good as Masters and not as messy.

That cheap wally world chalk is awful, I absolutely hate it, its worthless IMHO..


SPINDOKTOR
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True, the Master chalk is really messy.
 
Sensation said:
To reply to bomber's message: Fred Agnir (cornerman) called Tweeten to know if they had changed te recipe for Master chalk: post/after American flag. They didn't, it's supposed to be the same damn thing!

I use Triangle because that's what every good player use here. But I think Master is as good.
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I got the same response from Tweeten.
They started using the flag after 9/11, but the lead content was lowered some time before that.
 
I trried the expensive stuff Longoni?, it was ok but made my hands sticky and real dirty fast, it worked good but I didnt like how my hands felt, I had to wash them eveery 10 minutes. So I stopped using it.

I like Master blue, I have some that is 20 years old and it is the same as the new stuff, i have compaired alot of cubes of the old stuff to alot of the new and its good, ocassionally there is a batch that comes out kinda gray and gritty and I dont like that, I have some thats 20 years old like that and seen new chalk like that too. In Europe there is alot of that, it might be factory seconds they are dumping off over there as most of the Master chalk is gritty and gray-in Germany.

The Green Master chalk is powdery and dosent seem to stick as nicly but I can play with it,

All other chalk sucks...
 
If I was going with 'production' a chalk , it would be Masters.

Otherwise it's only old growth , hand packed and color tinted custom chalk for me.

Nothing plays better than a finely tuned cube of an artisan crafted custom , IMO.

;)
 
I know I'll hear many opinions to the contrary, but I like Balabushka best. It seems drier, harder and less "creamy" than Masters or Triangle. It takes a little more care to chalk, suits "wipers" better than "drillers". But I do swear that it tends to work itself into the leather better than anything else I've tried. I'm not the most disciplined about chalking when I'm into a nice run, but I just can't remember my last miscue. And if you saw my stroke you'd think it's a miscue waiting to happen.
Bill
 
I like the master blue the best. The others I have tried either don't stay on the tip and cause me to miscue more often, or they are really fine and powdery and cause my tip to glaze over prematurely. The master blue is a perfect happy medium for me. The master tan is good also, and the master green works halfway decent in a pinch. I've tried as many kinds as I could get my hands on, and IMO the silver cup blue was the worst, even worse than the wal-mart stuff.
 
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