Elk Master tip
- Thread starter JE54
- Start date
Earl stirckland swears by em. At his exhibition he couldnt recomend them enough.
soft, cheap, single layer
They are a soft cheap single layer tip. Some people play with them as they are, some press them or make milk duds out of them. Many great players use them. After playing with the layered tips awhile I will be returning to the Elk Master tips as soon as I get around to changing my tips. I played my best pool with Elk Master tips many years ago. No idea that the tip was the reason but I do think it was a factor. The big thing is that I will have a tip on my shaft that I have faith in.
Hu
They are a soft cheap single layer tip. Some people play with them as they are, some press them or make milk duds out of them. Many great players use them. After playing with the layered tips awhile I will be returning to the Elk Master tips as soon as I get around to changing my tips. I played my best pool with Elk Master tips many years ago. No idea that the tip was the reason but I do think it was a factor. The big thing is that I will have a tip on my shaft that I have faith in.
Hu
Jose Parica
loves, Elkmaster,
he has this little tool like a vice that will compress the tip and hardens it, this is common among the Filipino's.
loves, Elkmaster,
he has this little tool like a vice that will compress the tip and hardens it, this is common among the Filipino's.
the blue
They definitely seem to have chalk or dye on them now, probably chalk. However I believe the tanning process they use turns the leather a lighter shade of blue anyway. My memory of them from the seventies is that they were blue without being able to rub what appears to be chalk dust off of them. Perhaps someone else with a better memory than mine can chime in.
Tweeten's owns them now, I don't know if that was always true.
Hu
srs314 said:
They definitely seem to have chalk or dye on them now, probably chalk. However I believe the tanning process they use turns the leather a lighter shade of blue anyway. My memory of them from the seventies is that they were blue without being able to rub what appears to be chalk dust off of them. Perhaps someone else with a better memory than mine can chime in.
Tweeten's owns them now, I don't know if that was always true.
Hu
JE54 said:
uh oh here we go
do a search on millkduds.
a quick rundown
Pressing them simply means compressing them in a vice or something similar. Best results are gained by using a tool that maintains the shape of the tip since they come preshaped and I like to compress them to about 3/4 of original height or a little taller.
Milk duds refers to soaking them in whole milk or cream for up to 24 hours before compressing them. This makes them swell and some people only compress back to the original height, some people take them down a little lower as I do. They can also be soaked in mineral oil and various things, I have only used whole milk or cream and can not comment on how well other things work.
As mentioned above, a lot of information available concerning milk duds if you do a search but I think that it will boil down to pretty much what I say here.
I like a mildly compressed milk dud. It will need shaping a few times in the first weeks or month and then will last for a year or more the way I play. I have used one for several thousand hours of play years ago.
Hu
JE54 said:
Pressing them simply means compressing them in a vice or something similar. Best results are gained by using a tool that maintains the shape of the tip since they come preshaped and I like to compress them to about 3/4 of original height or a little taller.
Milk duds refers to soaking them in whole milk or cream for up to 24 hours before compressing them. This makes them swell and some people only compress back to the original height, some people take them down a little lower as I do. They can also be soaked in mineral oil and various things, I have only used whole milk or cream and can not comment on how well other things work.
As mentioned above, a lot of information available concerning milk duds if you do a search but I think that it will boil down to pretty much what I say here.
I like a mildly compressed milk dud. It will need shaping a few times in the first weeks or month and then will last for a year or more the way I play. I have used one for several thousand hours of play years ago.
Hu
As I was hitting balls on my table just now, I was reminded that the tips currently on the newer shafts on my Dishaw my be Elkmasters. Sammy Jones thinks so and, after some thought, so do I.
I was talking to a guy at the local one night about needing tips on the newer shafts. He offered to sell and install two Moori mediums for a great price. He said that they were all he used himself, he bought them by the box, and had two left. I gave him my shafts and he returned some time later and gave me the shafts, tips installed. I didn't pay too much attention to the tips. The shafts themselves horrified me. He had put the tips on by hand, it seems. He had sanded the both shafts several inches from the ferrule. They were unplayable!! I tried working on them myself but didn't accomplish what I wanted, which was completely smooth shafts. I finally had to have two cue smiths work on them before I could play with them again. {apparently, the first one did not seal them well enough and I had to have them done again, at a cost I really couldn't afford}
After playing with both shafts for a while, I came to examine the tips and, lo and behold!! The were not Mooris. They were seemingly blue tinted, single layer tips! They seem to hold shape well, play pretty well, though a bit harder than the Moori mediums I've played with. I haven't confronted the guy who sold\installed the tips, he's a nice guy who I thought, knew enough about tips to know what he had.
If they are, indeed Elkmasters, as Sammy thinks, they seem to play pretty well for me.
Sorry for the long post, as I said, this just occurred to me.
I was talking to a guy at the local one night about needing tips on the newer shafts. He offered to sell and install two Moori mediums for a great price. He said that they were all he used himself, he bought them by the box, and had two left. I gave him my shafts and he returned some time later and gave me the shafts, tips installed. I didn't pay too much attention to the tips. The shafts themselves horrified me. He had put the tips on by hand, it seems. He had sanded the both shafts several inches from the ferrule. They were unplayable!! I tried working on them myself but didn't accomplish what I wanted, which was completely smooth shafts. I finally had to have two cue smiths work on them before I could play with them again. {apparently, the first one did not seal them well enough and I had to have them done again, at a cost I really couldn't afford}
After playing with both shafts for a while, I came to examine the tips and, lo and behold!! The were not Mooris. They were seemingly blue tinted, single layer tips! They seem to hold shape well, play pretty well, though a bit harder than the Moori mediums I've played with. I haven't confronted the guy who sold\installed the tips, he's a nice guy who I thought, knew enough about tips to know what he had.
If they are, indeed Elkmasters, as Sammy thinks, they seem to play pretty well for me.
Sorry for the long post, as I said, this just occurred to me.
Splitting hairs
If they seem harder than Moori mediums they have almost certainly been treated in some manner as a standard Elk Master is considerably softer in my experience. If you like the way they play I think you will be very happy with them over time. I find single layer tips to be more consistent as they are worn down than the layered tips.
Somebody not knowing what they were doing or trying to make a quick buck installing the much cheaper Elk Masters may have done you a favor, at least concerning the tip itself. I haven't seen it all but I have never seen a Moori that looked blue.
Hu
If they seem harder than Moori mediums they have almost certainly been treated in some manner as a standard Elk Master is considerably softer in my experience. If you like the way they play I think you will be very happy with them over time. I find single layer tips to be more consistent as they are worn down than the layered tips.
Somebody not knowing what they were doing or trying to make a quick buck installing the much cheaper Elk Masters may have done you a favor, at least concerning the tip itself. I haven't seen it all but I have never seen a Moori that looked blue.
Hu
Pushout said:
Pushout said:
unless i trust the guy i wait and watch while my tips are being installed. i got screwed over once and i want to make sure it doesn't happen again
Compress immediately, dry a few days to install
I compress them wet immediately after soaking and leave them under pressure compressed for 12-24 hours, maybe more. Once dry I install them, often straight out of the vice. Many people do things many different ways. I doubt that there is one "best" way of making milk duds. Over compressing them can damage the fiber in the leather so I strongly recommend using something to prevent this even if it is a simple plate with a 9/16" hole drilled in it for the 14mm Elk Masters which are what I usually start with. Putting a few hard spacers in flat vice jaws with the milk duds will do the same thing but it is a little harder to hold everything in place to get started.
A quick measurement of a new Elk Master tip shows it to be .170 thick at the edge and about .240 thick at the crown. A plate between an eighth inch and three sixteenth can be used. I'd favor a 5/32" plate but that would probably be a little harder to find. A 4mm plate might be easier to find and would work well I believe.
Hu
JE54 said:
I compress them wet immediately after soaking and leave them under pressure compressed for 12-24 hours, maybe more. Once dry I install them, often straight out of the vice. Many people do things many different ways. I doubt that there is one "best" way of making milk duds. Over compressing them can damage the fiber in the leather so I strongly recommend using something to prevent this even if it is a simple plate with a 9/16" hole drilled in it for the 14mm Elk Masters which are what I usually start with. Putting a few hard spacers in flat vice jaws with the milk duds will do the same thing but it is a little harder to hold everything in place to get started.
A quick measurement of a new Elk Master tip shows it to be .170 thick at the edge and about .240 thick at the crown. A plate between an eighth inch and three sixteenth can be used. I'd favor a 5/32" plate but that would probably be a little harder to find. A 4mm plate might be easier to find and would work well I believe.
Hu
