hairy tips

Solartje

Solartje

the Brunswick BUG bit me
Silver Member
This is not a post about what tip is best. More a general maintenance question about tips.

question 1:

What tipshardness glazens up the fastest? Soft medium or hard?

question 2:

When you install them, how many layers do you cut off/ keep?

Question 3:

Ive been using sniper and kamui mediums all my life. I usually cut of 2-3 layers when installing them. To big tips just dont feel comfortable.
Now all the tips i had glazen up fast. If i roughen them up once every 20 racks i have 2 problems:
A/ My tips last not more then 3 months (avg 10h play/ week)
B/ once down to 2 layers they feel like a rock.
I dont mind muschrooming (i usually have to remove some very slight mushrooming once after the first day, and once before the end of the tip), but im having ALOT of problems with tips glazing (humidity?).

I feel like i shouldnt be placing new tips every 2-3 months with only 10h play per week. What am i doing wrong? If i roughen them op less often, they glaze to fast and i miscue. If i do roughen them up when glazed, im replacing tips more often then normal...

The first tip i used was hard tip, and it lasted almost a year, but it glazed up VERY fast and never really gripped the ball like a soft tip. A tip that compresses more logically? grips a ball more right? So why do many people prefere hard tips? is it only for the less muschrooming (wich i dont mind?)
 
Something is not right Solly. I practice about the same amount as you do and my tips will last almost a couple of years. They will not glase but about every 3 months I will rough them up with 300 grit sand paper. I am wondering if you use a wax on the balls that may be ending up on your tips. Diesel smoke or wood smoke also can build up on the cloth and the balls and cause the tips tp glaze. What ever it is tips should last longer then 3 months at your rate of use.:confused:
 
I prefer hard tips. I don't have a problem with glazing. It is very rarely that I have a tip replaced. I don't do anything to my tip except apply chalk and wipe the chalk off before putting the shaft in my case.

Try using a different brand of chalk don't keep messing with the shape and constant "roughing".
 
i knew there was something wrong. :(
I have tried 5 different chalks, and bouth each tip from a difference person.
thinking they might come from a bad batch or something.
They keep glazing up every time.


I also use 200 grid to roughen them up, but i after 3 matches i have to redo it.
maybe im over roughening them up, but i want them hairy... is this to much asked? am i overroughening them?

ill take a picture of the new tip, play 3 hours and take another picture at the moment where i would roughen them up. Maybe you can tell if i should have left the tip alone. Think its the only way to know if I am the problem or the tip :embarrassed2:

im not using wax and dont think the tournament balls have wax either. no wood or diesel smoke in my livingroom either :D
 
instead of scuffing, try getting a tapper. It will hold chalk and save your tip. Personally, I scuff, but very rarely and very lightly.

Or you could do what I tell my wife... "tip is gone, better buy a new cue." ;)
 
cleary said:
instead of scuffing, try getting a tapper. It will hold chalk and save your tip. Personally, I scuff, but very rarely and very lightly.

Or you could do what I tell my wife... "tip is gone, better buy a new cue." ;)
Click to expand...

hehehe :)

it worked the first time with the wife.
the second time she got suspicious.
The tird time... she'll pack my bags i think :D

CLeary, ill try to use a tapper instead. How about tippick? does it safe the tip better then a scuffer?
 
Tips

I am die hard on the kamuis also and I only have one bit of advise. Get rid of the sandpaper. Seriously. I use a willards shaper and a tip pick and I have med tips last about 9 months to a year depending on which cue it is on. I play in a league that requires a leather tip on break cues so i use a hard kamui on that one and it requires a little more maintenence (like once a day of play). The tip pick will be your best friend in the end, it will actually pull the shape of the tip back up if used properly and that tip will hold chalk better than ever. I hope this helps:thumbup:
 
Solartje said:
hehehe :)

it worked the first time with the wife.
the second time she got suspicious.
The tird time... she'll pack my bags i think :D

CLeary, ill try to use a tapper instead. How about tippick? does it safe the tip better then a scuffer?
Click to expand...

Yes, tippick will do the job. There are some tools that you can scuff and tap with. If you scuff lightly every once in a while and use a tap all the other times, it will work the best.
 
ok thanks for the advice guys :)
im a dy hard kamui too. I prefere them over sniper (even if sniper aint bad at all either)

ill trow the sandingpaper away, and find a tapper and a tippick.

woody: i love the way a tip comes with a new cue. Not hairy ofc :grin-square: but i dont know what other word to use. very tiny pieces of leather sticking out that grips the CB. i can get the same result with sandpaper but it wears my tip out far to fast.

I miscue ALOT (especially on shots where CB is close to the rail, and i want to use a level cue) i never feel comfortable playing these shots, as im scared as hell that i'll miscue. :mad:

Here is a pic of the the "hairy" part that im looking after in a tip, but this never last longer then 10 racks, before the tip is totally flat and looks glazed like the sides of the tip.
attachment.php

picture is from end of octobre, im down to the last layer and its march...
 
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If you really have that much trouble with miscues, the problem goes farther than your tip. Miscueing that much with shots off the rail tells me you need to work on your bridge, stroke, or both.

Your on the right track by striving to keep your cue as level as possible, but that is not the only component of a good stroke off the rail.

When on the rail do you make a normal closed bridge and then place your hand on the rail? If so this raises the cue and makes it hard to be level and still get enough contact with the cueball using a level cue. A saying I learned a long time ago is "if your hand is on the rail so is your cue". Meaning that the cue should be laying on the rail and your bridge is formed around and over the shaft.

If I were guessing I would say you may be putting your hand on the rail and laying the cue on your hand (very common). The problem is in most cases people drop their elbow and raise the tip of the cue into the air right after (sometimes during) the shot. This causes the tip to slide up and off of the cueball. If you dont drop your elbow (not looking to start that debate in this thread) and follow through you will find that the tip actually finishes on the table, or close to it.

If you want to keep your tip hairy, thats fine, but you will go through tips much quicker than most people. But you dont have to have a hairy tip to cure your miscue problems.

Woody
 
After looking at the stats in your sig, I see you must be a pretty good player. Please dont take offense to my suggestions. I could be way off on my assumptions. Just going off of experience that most miscues are stroke or bridge related.

Woody
 
try a milk dud, they are hairy as hell. so much infact you can't really burnish them, not that they mushroom anyway.

i rub my tip on the carpet when i'm done, since I put on a milk dud, i end up with hair/carpet fibers stuck to it.
 
I really need to try out one of these milk duds. I am going to look further into making these.

I play with a sniper and miscue if my tip isn't in perfect condition. I am having the same problem that the OP is. I think I just hit a little too low on the cue ball.
 
woody_968 said:
After looking at the stats in your sig, I see you must be a pretty good player. Please dont take offense to my suggestions. I could be way off on my assumptions. Just going off of experience that most miscues are stroke or bridge related.

Woody
Click to expand...


my rail bridge is ok. I lay my cue on the rail, and place my hand over it. cue in between index and middlefinger, thumb inside as a ruler for the cue (just a break bridge of the rail). I do drop my elbow on folow shots, and might be doing it on railshots too !! I'll double check with some video's of training i have laying around. Might not be it :) but it certainly could be.

milkduds:
i never tried a milkdud, and when i talked about it on the belgium forum asking if someone used them or had some i could try, people laughed at me, like if i posted the most stupid thing ever. Ignorance...
ill do a search here on azb, and i'll try to make some :D I don't have a vice (sp?) though.
- Anyone knows of a video that clearly shows how to make them? (if not, there should be one made :D)
- what kind of vice is needed? (picture would help)
 
Solartje said:
ok thanks for the advice guys :)
im a dy hard kamui too. I prefere them over sniper (even if sniper aint bad at all either)

ill trow the sandingpaper away, and find a tapper and a tippick.

woody: i love the way a tip comes with a new cue. Not hairy ofc :grin-square: but i dont know what other word to use. very tiny pieces of leather sticking out that grips the CB. i can get the same result with sandpaper but it wears my tip out far to fast.

I miscue ALOT (especially on shots where CB is close to the rail, and i want to use a level cue) i never feel comfortable playing these shots, as im scared as hell that i'll miscue. :mad:

Here is a pic of the the "hairy" part that im looking after in a tip, but this never last longer then 10 racks, before the tip is totally flat and looks glazed like the sides of the tip.
attachment.php

picture is from end of octobre, im down to the last layer and its march...
Click to expand...


Do you think you have enough layers on that tip? :eek:
Maybe you need four or five more. Really, I've never seen anything quite like that. I'd call that a "skyscraper" tip. Seems to me you would have to lose some feel for the cue ball with all those layers between the ball and your hand. My suggestion if you want to be a better player, is to remove about three layers of foundation. A shorter tip may be just the ticket. Take a look around and see what the best players in your area are playing with. Seriously, what's up with all those layers? I just don't get it.
 
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