Dime vs. Nickel radius tip

What curvature do you prefer your tip to have?

  • Nickel

    Votes: 87 38.8%

  • Dime

    Votes: 125 55.8%

  • Other...explain in thread

    Votes: 12 5.4%
  • Total voters
    224
Quatsch83

Quatsch83

Learner
Silver Member
Can anyone enlighten me on the pros and cons of both camps, assuming that the tip used is the same?

Currently I am playing with a 13mm tip and keeping it a nickel radius. Unfortunately I don't know what kind of tip it is.

Anyway, it seems to be working well for me. I am a beginner but have been playing a lot of pool recently doing drills and trying to improve.

So I am just curious, what do you prefer and why?

Also, how does the size of the tip affect what radius you choose?

Cheers!

Q
 
Nickel for me.

I can't really give a detailed reason other than that is just what I have always used.

I would think that the type of tip would affect your play more than the radius.

Russ.....
 
IN My opinion a nickels roundness is better with a dime you create smaller areas on your tip to touch the cue ball and can make it a little tougher to be very exact on where you hit the ball and it can create more miscues and unwanted english.
thats just my opinion though, if i was you i would try it both ways for a couple months each and try diffrent tips. aswell i think its all personal prefrence.
 
Thanks for the responses guys. I will probably stick with what I've been using...perhaps at some point I will try a dime radius...but that would require buying a new shaping tool

Still, if anybody from the dime camp would like to chime in I'd be very interested in why you prefer dime vs nickel:)
 
iused both, and I prefer the nickel. Its been my experience that the dime radius requires a lot more maintenence. I was always having to reshape it due to it flattening out. Maybe It would have stopped eventually, but I got frustrated and just went back to the nickel. Of course that was with a one piece tip(le pro). I have not tried the dime with my new wizards, because I dont see the need, the nickel controls the ball plenty good enough for me.
 
Trent:
[a dime shaped tip] can make it a little tougher [than a nickel shaped tip] to be very exact on where you hit the ball and it can create more miscues and unwanted english.
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None of these are true.

pj
chgo
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Tom in Cincy:
You don't think it could be true for the guy that posted it?
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Maybe until he actually tried different shapes...

pj
chgo
 
The radius tip I play (on my play cue) is about 1/3 rd of the way from a nickle towards a dime. This is the best comprimize between my cue tip positioning accuracy and my control of the cue ball before and afte impact.

As the tip becomes smaller, you need less offset for the same amouont of spin imparted to the cue ball, thus your stroke must be more pure. As the tip becomes larger you can make larger stroke errors and survive (for a while).
 
MitchAlsup said:
The radius tip I play (on my play cue) is about 1/3 rd of the way from a nickle towards a dime. This is the best comprimize between my cue tip positioning accuracy and my control of the cue ball before and afte impact.

As the tip becomes smaller, you need less offset for the same amouont of spin imparted to the cue ball, thus your stroke must be more pure. As the tip becomes larger you can make larger stroke errors and survive (for a while).
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By smaller I assume you are talking about the curvature, given that the size of the tip is held constant.

So stroke errors would be magnified w/ a smaller tip?

It makes sense that if less of the tip is coming into contact with the ball, there would be greater pressure and it would be easier to achieve spin. I guess that also means that you definitely could impart a lot of unwanted spin if your stroke is not pure...but that is true with any tip if you have a poor stroke.

So how did you arrive at the size you use currently? I guess I will really have to try smaller tips to see if I can feel the difference compared to what I'm currently using. Maybe once my games improves a bit and I have some time or more cues to mess around with :)
 
I tend to play my tip into about 7 1/2 cents - halfway between. Just works out that way.
 
I play mostly with a LePro-med dime shaped tip. I find I can get much better action on the QB with much less effort. I'm an Allen Hopkins poker so I useally hit where I want to hit on the QB. Johnnyt
 
dime because someone said it results in less deflection. perhaps, the less contact area means less friction so it bends towards the ball less which is one part of deflection. it only does this for an extremely short amount of time before it bends away from the ball.

its contact point is closer to where i point.

also i only have a dime shaper :p
 
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Quatsch83 said:
By smaller I assume you are talking about the curvature, given that the size of the tip is held constant.

So stroke errors would be magnified w/ a smaller tip?
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A shorter radius on the tip puts more english/draw/follow per unit of offset from dead straight onto the center of the cue ball. Which is great if that is what you want, and not so much if you did not want so much. So the contact point error (where you wanted to hit the cue ball minus where you actually hit the cue ball) is part of the equation. Those with very pure strokes can get away with shorter radii; while we of more average capabilities cannot get away with it often enough.

It makes sense that if less of the tip is coming into contact with the ball, there would be greater pressure and it would be easier to achieve spin. I guess that also means that you definitely could impart a lot of unwanted spin if your stroke is not pure...but that is true with any tip if you have a poor stroke.
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With a given hardness of the tip, and a given speed of the stroke, the tip will deform to create an area of contact that is independent of the radius of the tip (first order).

Consider the extremes of tip radii: An absolutely flat tip will not impart draw/follow/english no mater what the offset. A tip with a very small radius (say 1/2 a dime) will miscue very easily at little offset. So, something in the middle is prescribed.

So how did you arrive at the size you use currently? I guess I will really have to try smaller tips to see if I can feel the difference compared to what I'm currently using. Maybe once my games improves a bit and I have some time or more cues to mess around with :)
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My cue came with a nickle radius tip. I played with it for a couple of weeks. Then, I took a nail file and decreased the radius towards a dime, played with it for a couple of hours. I was impressed with the added amount of english I could impart, and unimpressed with how easily (and how often) it would miscue.

I then, took the nail file and increased the radius a little, played with it again, and over a few trials and error sessions, I found out that a Nickle was a little dead on the spin side and forgiving of gentle massé, while the dime was imparting more spin than I really wanted and miscued more than I wanted. So, once again something in the middle was in order.

The above is not such a good tip-radii search strategy. A better strategy is to slowly decrease the radius until the cue starts to impart more spin and/or starts to miscue too often, then increase the radius just-a-tad until the tip is performing at your level of stroking. Your tips will last longer with this strategy than going all the way to a dime and backing back off.
 
Quatsch83 said:
Can anyone enlighten me on the pros and cons of both camps, assuming that the tip used is the same?
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It's complicated, but if all else is equal, a flatter curvature (i.e., nickel or quarter vs dime) should produce slightly more squirt. However, as MitchAlsup indicated, it can help you to be a little more accurate with tip placement. Both of these ideas are based on the fact that a flatter tip requires more sideways displacement of the shaft to change the actual contact point with the cueball by some fixed amount.

I doubt that you'll see any measurable difference in your overall game using either curvature, at this point. If you enjoy obsessing about equipment, by all means, but you're probably kidding yourself. From what I've read here on the forum, some players just let the tip assume its "natural" shape according to their style of play...and maybe how they chalk up, which is what I do. As one poster, BillyBob, has pointed out several times, it should help to keep the tip curvature consistent as much as possible.

Jim
 
I prefer a dime shape, but am currently using a nickel, because that's all I have to check with. :(
 
jal:
... if all else is equal, a flatter curvature (i.e., nickel or quarter vs dime) should produce slightly more squirt. However, as MitchAlsup indicated, it can help you to be a little more accurate with tip placement. Both of these ideas are based on the fact that a flatter tip requires more sideways displacement of the shaft to change the actual contact point with the cueball by some fixed amount.
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I think it should be pointed out that, between a dime and nickel curvature, these are negligible differences with negligible practical effect.

pj
chgo
 
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