Do good players play with full Ivory ferrules?

[mel_smOg]

Me and my friend who is also here on az had discussion the other night about high deflection shafts and especially heavy ivory ferrules that deflect like crazy.

I personally cannot make a ball with fat high deflection shafts eventhough I like the feel of them. I started from snooker so all my shafts are thin and either LD or just around 12 mm to deflect less.
I had 12.3 mm old growth mottey shaft and actually could play with it(regret selling it now)

My question is, who plays with ivory from top players. I know pretty much all of them have contracts and play with LD shafts.

Is it because of contracts or they too cannot play well with high deflection shafts?

 

[JoeyA]

Me and my friend who is also here on az had discussion the other night about high deflection shafts and especially heavy ivory ferrules that deflect like crazy.

I personally cannot make a ball with fat high deflection shafts eventhough I like the feel of them. I started from snooker so all my shafts are thin and either LD or just around 12 mm to deflect less.
I have 12.3 mm old growth mottey shaft and actually could play with it(regret selling it now)

My question is, who plays with ivory from top players. I know pretty much all of them have contracts and play with LD shafts.

Is it because of contracts or they too cannot play well with high deflection shafts?

Efren Reyes has a cue stick that he plays with. I tested it a few years back and while I don't remember it having an ivory ferrule, it could have. It deflected the cue ball a GREAT DEAL, but as Alex Pagulayan said, "That's why he is the KING."

Some American players do not play with low deflection shafts but most European players seem to use low deflection shafts.:idea2:

JoeyA

 

[NY9912]

deleted - 7/25/2020

 

[Shooter08]

Non LD, Standard Maple Shaft

I talked to Larry Nevel recently and he likes standard maple shafts, not sure on what type of ferrule he prefers.

 

[one stroke]

Toney at Black Boar had assured me sticking the ivory ferruled shafts in storage and getting a ferrule less LD shaft from him will take my cue from a olds 98 to a Ferrari


1

 

[JB Cases]

I just got a Searing shaft which has an ivory ferrule and I don't know about deflection but it plays lights out.

 

[Black-Balled]

I have a James white shaft with an ivory ferrule and it plays great.

I dont really notice a difference in deflection from my other ferrules...mad of what I do not know.

 

[lfigueroa]

Me and my friend who is also here on az had discussion the other night about high deflection shafts and especially heavy ivory ferrules that deflect like crazy.

I personally cannot make a ball with fat high deflection shafts eventhough I like the feel of them. I started from snooker so all my shafts are thin and either LD or just around 12 mm to deflect less.
I had 12.3 mm old growth mottey shaft and actually could play with it(regret selling it now)

My question is, who plays with ivory from top players. I know pretty much all of them have contracts and play with LD shafts.

Is it because of contracts or they too cannot play well with high deflection shafts?

I think there was a guy named Mosconi that shot with ivory ferules. He could play.

Lou Figueroa

 

[mel_smOg]

I think there was a guy named Mosconi that shot with ivory ferules. He could play.

Lou Figueroa

As I understand they did not have many options bank in the day when Mosconi was playing, and he was a genius

I am talking about our time with all new technologies available

 

[trinacria]

I talked to Larry Nevel recently and he likes standard maple shafts, not sure on what type of ferrule he prefers.

u just wanted to name drop larry nevel, :lmao:uttahere:

 

[Lucky_Lew66]

its all in what you get used to,your brain eventually makes the adjustment to allow for deflection,the more you play. A great player is going to play great with anything you put in his hands,its getting used to the equipment you play with and play on .

 

[overlord]

Ivory is a fantastic substance for use in pool cue ferrules as it does not blue up. It is very hard and dense. If you want to back up the cue ball from across the table straight in it is harder to do in my opinion with an ivory ferrule.

For one pocket or straight pool ivory is fine. For nine or ten ball controlling the maximum draw shot is harder in my opinion. Plus defection on a 7.5 foot shot is more of an issue than shooting at balls that are close to the hole. World class players can play world class with any cue they get used to. Efren at the height of his powers beat everybody in the game world wide with a 12 dollar Pinoy cue. I have never seen Efren playing with a cue that has an ivory ferrule. A lot of the best one pocket players thrive on ivory ferrule cues with a lot of deflection.


Deflection is something you get used to. Ivory because it is a heavy material is going to deflect more than the lighter plastic type of ferrule. Now with the new ivory rules from the federal government we are going to see less ivory anyplace on custom cues. If ivory ferrules were a determining factor in winning pool tournaments then all the pros would require them. This is clearly not the case. Myself I shoot most of the time with my SW cue which has an ivory ferrule. I play one hole most of the time.

 

[Shooter08]

Only Pro that I have had a chance to ask. So yeah I guess I'm name dropping, but if he likes standard maple that would make ivory ferrules a option.

 

[lfigueroa]

As I understand they did not have many options bank in the day when Mosconi was playing, and he was a genius

I am talking about our time with all new technologies available

Yeah, you're right. Couldn't have any possible bearing on the topic. Greenleaf, Hoppe, all dem guys.

Lou Figueroa
what was
I thinking

 

[KMRUNOUT]

Yeah, you're right. Couldn't have any possible bearing on the topic. Greenleaf, Hoppe, all dem guys.

Lou Figueroa
what was
I thinking

Lou I believe the point he was trying to make is that if someone plays with an ivory ferrule today, it is because they *chose* that out of all the other options available. There were no specifically LD shafts back in Mosconi's day (or the day of any of the others you mentioned). Therefore, they most likely didn't select their ivory ferrule based on its deflection characteristics. It was more likely because it was "nice", or because it hit solid.

I understood the OP's post to mean "given all the LD options today, are there any pros using ivory ferrules, which are very high deflection?"

KMRUNOUT

 

[branpureza]

Me and my friend who is also here on az had discussion the other night about high deflection shafts and especially heavy ivory ferrules that deflect like crazy.

I personally cannot make a ball with fat high deflection shafts eventhough I like the feel of them. I started from snooker so all my shafts are thin and either LD or just around 12 mm to deflect less.
I had 12.3 mm old growth mottey shaft and actually could play with it(regret selling it now)

My question is, who plays with ivory from top players. I know pretty much all of them have contracts and play with LD shafts.

Is it because of contracts or they too cannot play well with high deflection shafts?

Ivory ferrules are generally found on the shafts of higher-end cues.

I suppose you would get a similar answer if you asked how many top players played with cues that cost above the $3000 mark.

I don't really think it matters what a top player uses, high or low deflection. They can adapt to anything and make small adjustments in their game better than the rest. Not saying I'm a top player but I've been using ivory ferrules for over a decade and I'll miss a wide angled inside english 3-rail position shot by almost a diamond with an LD shaft because I'm not used to aiming without compensating. I could get used to an LD shaft, I just don't want to.

Toney at Black Boar had assured me sticking the ivory ferruled shafts in storage and getting a ferrule less LD shaft from him will take my cue from a olds 98 to a Ferrari


1

Probably because that's what he's selling. I like the hit of his ferrule-less shafts better than his ferruled shafts but to me the hit of my ivory ferruled Ginacue shaft is far superior than either of them. It's all subjective.

 

[PaulieB]

As I understand they did not have many options bank in the day when Mosconi was playing, and he was a genius

I am talking about our time with all new technologies available

I'll say it again, just because I like to listen to myself type. Back in the day, before the world of LD, pool players learned to shoot like demons with the equipment they had available to them. Even in today's age, some players learned to play without LD shafts and can play like monsters with a "HD" shaft. It's just a regular shaft that has been used by many people for ages and ages, but for some reason newer players look at them as if they are playing with an antique mace style of cue.

If you learn to play with an LD shaft I feel it hastens the learning curve and is a wonderful tool to have available. However, people who are used to regular shafts, or as I like to refer to jokingly as "HD" shafts, can still shoot the wings off a mosquito ... because that is what they learned on. I find it amazing that people that use LD shafts think they have a huge advantage over people that don't use them. The comparison I come up with is golf related, because equipment seems to matter so much to golfers. I always wonder if the general corporate golfer/hacker with his keg sized driver head thinks he can play better than Hogan, because he has such a HUGE advantage with his equipment.

Skill, dedication, natural talent, time commitment, and about 15 other things all matter more than equipment, in my opinion. I love LD shafts and think they help people that are learning the game to have to adjust less to a difficult aspect of the game. I, however, will never think that a person can "play better" with an LD shaft vs. a regular shaft. If you have played for decades with a regular shaft and play lights out, the only thing an LD shaft is going to do is make you miss more often until you get used to it.

 

[$TAKE HOR$E]

All of these companies making LD shafts have basically proven that the shafts will improve someone's game. If that wasn't the case then why would people like Mika, Dechaine, Alex, Corey...etc be using them. They aren't Tiger Woods so it's not because they are getting millions per year. That being said, if all these companies thought that ivory was the best thing to use then they would. In reality it's not all that expensive considering they are getting $200+ per shaft. I have had every different ferrule out there including the shafts with no ferrule and I would definitely put ivory on a highend cue for resale. Ivory is nice and clean and brings a certain higher status to cues but almost everyone I have talked to says, "if you like a lot of squirt play with an ivory ferrule"

To each his own really

 

[Lesh]

Cornerman tried to explain to me about the science behind the shape of a cue shaft and its resonant frequency shaped by the materials used in its construction.... yeah, I got the glazed over look. Dudes an engineer and I remote control troubleshoot blue-hairs through WiFi problems.

I think that it would take someone on the caliber of Dennis Searing (if one is well-heeled) or another cue maker that has the spare seconds to share their wisdom in layman terms to people like myself about what the goal is for a really smoking hot solid shaft that will hit dead balls lights out. What are its characteristics, what do I look for in a shaft? Do I really need to hook up a hunk of wood to lab equipment to know for sure if its a really consistent shaft that manages energy well?

I think temperature, humidity and more importantly, the tip material and shape have a great deal to do with how the shaft will perform from one moment to the next. Over the course of a night I have started out being able to really micro-manage whitey into some wicked sickness, only to find myself readjusting to it after the room filled up with 40 people or so. Weird eh?

Lesh

 

[ctran]

I think ivory only results in higher values of cues. I myself don't like any ivory/elephant on my cues, and that's not because of playability.

Ivory or not, the cue maker has to know how to do it to make it work. I tried some ivory ferrule cues out there and some play awesome, some dont.

I like deflection also, and I can say there are cues without ivory ferrules but still deflect like hell.