Do Phenolic tips damage pool balls

[xidica]

Very good point and post....Thank you sir!

 

[Black-Balled]

...I am not 100% because I am not expert in balls.

..Thank you.

Richard

No, thank you, or;
That's not what I heard, or;
I think you will be soon, or;

Oh God, I have to stop...

 

[xidica]

No, thank you, or;
That's not what I heard, or;
I think you will be soon, or;

Oh God, I have to stop...

LOL! Someone had to grab that wide open beauty

 

[inthezone]

Excessive throw seen in billiard halls
is the result of playing with dirty balls

 

[MikeJanis]

Has anyone performed a test on break cues, tips and damage to balls ?

I'm curious and might do an independant study myself unless there is one already out there. Anyone know for sure ?

I took a careful look at the Viking Tour balls which are provided to us by Aramith. I know they are not fakes because they are shipped to me directly from Aramith. After inspection I found that almost all of them had the small circular cracks in their finish like the ones in the pics provided by Cheez Dawg below. I would like to know for sure what causes this.

In the next few weeks I am going to compare different CB's and different Break Cues. Tips, etc.. along with testing the balls hitting each other to try an determine what the cause may be.

It's probably going to be quite costly so again if anyone has any data from previous tests please contact me. At a minimum I would like to compare test results.

In the meantime, would any break cue makers be willing to send me one of your cues to use in the test ?

To verify my results I will present a comprehensive report along with a video verifying the results.

I would like to test many different styles (tips, cues, CB's).

Additionall, I will contact Aramith directly to see if they have any insight.


Who's in ?

Mj

I've had a measles cue ball for about a year and a half, and it's full of cracks. It has NEVER hit anything other than another ball. I'm not sure what happened here.

 

[manwon]

I spent some time at the Viking Turnament in Duluth,While I was there I herd complaints about the condition of the pool balls mainly the cue balls being damaged.I want name anyone but the complaint was that phenolic tips where damaging the cue balls and causing players to miscue.Has anyone else noticed a problem with the balls and phenolic tips.

Hey Guys, I have read this entire thread, and I have not heard anyone ask or bring up that the balls are also made from Phenolic. Most Phenolic tips are made from linen or Canvas Phenolic.

Which means that linen or a canvas material is added to the Phenolic Resin to give the material a greater flexibility and overall strength.

The Phenolic material used in balls is solid Phenolic Resin that is much harder than the tips / ferrules used today.

Many times balls will crack for a unseen reason, while substandard materials can be the cause, many times it is due to a lazy table mechanic who did not insure that the Tack's, Nails, or Screws that are used to secure the pockets are properly recessed.

If you are having these problems I would suggest that you feel around the inside of the pockets to see if there is anything sharp sticking out that a ball could hit.

Just some observations, I have seen both problems occur over the year's, however forget about the tips being the problem, this is not possible due to the materials used.

I hope this helps, and have a great night!!

Manwon

 

[inthezone]

I took a careful look at the Viking Tour balls which are provided to us by Aramith. I know they are not fakes because they are shipped to me directly from Aramith. After inspection I found that almost all of them had the small circular cracks in their finish like the ones in the pics provided by Cheez Dawg below. I would like to know for sure what causes this.Mj

Mike - have you checked the 1-balls? If the 1-balls are fine I am thinking that would point to the impact from the cue tip causing these "compression fractures".

I have some of those red and white practice balls that I use exclusively for break technique practice (with a speed meter) - I have only hit them into a bean bag and they are covered with those little cracks.

-steve

 

[cueman]

Has anyone performed a test on break cues, tips and damage to balls ?

I'm curious and might do an independant study myself unless there is one already out there. Anyone know for sure ?

I took a careful look at the Viking Tour balls which are provided to us by Aramith. I know they are not fakes because they are shipped to me directly from Aramith. After inspection I found that almost all of them had the small circular cracks in their finish like the ones in the pics provided by Cheez Dawg below. I would like to know for sure what causes this.

In the next few weeks I am going to compare different CB's and different Break Cues. Tips, etc.. along with testing the balls hitting each other to try an determine what the cause may be.

It's probably going to be quite costly so again if anyone has any data from previous tests please contact me. At a minimum I would like to compare test results.

In the meantime, would any break cue makers be willing to send me one of your cues to use in the test ?

To verify my results I will present a comprehensive report along with a video verifying the results.

I would like to test many different styles (tips, cues, CB's).

Additionall, I will contact Aramith directly to see if they have any insight.


Who's in ?

Mj

Mike,
A few years ago when the red circle was the cue ball in almost all events. I put a phenolic tip on and broke with it. It put little yellow scratch marks all over the cue ball. So my conclusion is yes phenolic tips damage the smooth surface on cue balls. At least they do on the yellowish red circle cue balls that were popular a few years ago.
Chris
www.hightowercues.com
www.internationalcuemakers.com

 

[xidica]

Doesn't affect playability (unless those cracks mess with you, and if the red dots don't mess with you, they shouldn't either). It's just the finish.

 

[bigpocket]

I asked Larry Nevel why he don't use phenolic tips on his break cue?? He said it's because he breaks cue balls with them . He told me that he broke 3 or 4 cue ball's in a single tounament. No BS. LOL he does have a weak break lol.

 

[TATE]

Hey Guys, I have read this entire thread, and I have not heard anyone ask or bring up that the balls are also made from Phenolic. Most Phenolic tips are made from linen or Canvas Phenolic.

Which means that linen or a canvas material is added to the Phenolic Resin to give the material a greater flexibility and overall strength.

The Phenolic material used in balls is solid Phenolic Resin that is much harder than the tips / ferrules used today.

Many times balls will crack for a unseen reason, while substandard materials can be the cause, many times it is due to a lazy table mechanic who did not insure that the Tack's, Nails, or Screws that are used to secure the pockets are properly recessed.

If you are having these problems I would suggest that you feel around the inside of the pockets to see if there is anything sharp sticking out that a ball could hit.

Just some observations, I have seen both problems occur over the year's, however forget about the tips being the problem, this is not possible due to the materials used.

I hope this helps, and have a great night!!

Manwon

I agree with you there. In have an Aramith super pro ball (with the red aramith logo) 4 years old and practice my breaks with several differenet phenolic tipped cues - no damage at all to the ball except for usual nicks.

I also don't believe that a hard tip would cause the damage we're seeing. I suspect it is the balls impacting each other causing this damage - maybe the phenolic allows for a little more speed on the break and the extra speed is stressing the balls on impact. Could also be that whatever process Aramith used to make the "measles" ball was different and resulted in a surface that cracked.

Chris