Yuck!
I read three pages and jumped to the end so this may all have already been said, probably has been in other posts.
Very good local players that I respect wipe their cue tips on the carpet. I gave it a try a few times. It gets the chalk off and in a real pool room it is so common that the owner would never call you on it. Most owners are long term players and may do it themselves.
I never got comfortable doing it. It didn't seem respectful of the pool room to me. At some level we are guests wherever we go except our own home. I try to behave as a guest wherever I go even if it is a low dive bar.
The ultimate decider was thinking about all of the things that were already in that carpet. If you are germaphobic there are the germs from countless sneezes and coughs in that carpet. Countless shoes have been on the bathroom floor and then have tramped on that carpet. Beer, coke, puke, deliberate spit, maybe including a little tobacco, we can all add to the list of things in the carpet. Do I really want to drag my tip through all of that? Do I want to handle my tip and ferrule after dragging it through the carpet?
I quit making my cue tip far nastier than when it had my nice clean chalk on it. I use a paper towel or napkin to clean my tip. If nothing else is handy, I flip the cuff of my jeans inside out and clean the tip on the inside of my jeans.
A couple of side notes: I always go to the restroom to wash my hands after laying the pool balls on my table of choice. I bring the damp paper towel I dried my hands on back to the table, maybe a dry one too. Then I wipe down the rails getting most of the things I said were on the floor off. The tar and nicotine from places that allow smoking are the biggest thing I see on the paper towel. Not a big deal, just feels better for the rails not to be sticky or filthy. They aren't really clean but they are a lot cleaner usually!
Efren has been mentioned several times in this thread. He has been known to mine for gold and when that wasn't what he found he used the table rail as a place to deposit his spoils. Shark move or habit from playing on tables in truly bad conditions since he was eleven years old or was it nine? Perhaps he was just jacking with the other player because he found the fastidious behavior of players from the US and europe funny! Efren is a great guy but he was raised in conditions most of us can't imagine.
I'll end with the tip of the day: The application of snot and the softer boogers to your tip will make it hold chalk better. For those with big noses and little tips you can bypass getting boogers and snot on your fingers by just jamming the tip and first inch or two of cue shaft in your nose and rotating firmly. Remember you heard it from me first! Soon everybody will be jamming cue tips in their noses across the pool world! I learned this from an old doctor who told me that a cue tip could be used to clean your nostrils. Pretty smart old doctor, must have been a pool player!
Everyone have a great day!
Hu
