Inconsistency in Kamui tips??

S

Shooter1

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I bought a used shaft a couple years back that had a Kamui clear black super soft on it and liked it a lot. I then re-tipped my two shafts with the same SS tips and they have played just great for that last two years or so.

The tips were getting a little thin and starting to play a bit hard so I bought 2 new SS's and had them professionally installed. Both of the new tips are CONSIDERABLY harder than the other SS's I've used. You can hear it when striking the cueball compared to the old tips.

I understand that there can be some difference from tip to tip in terms of hardness but there is and extreme difference in the new ones I got installed. They were marked "SS" on the tips so they were sold as super softs. Even the OEM layered tip on my Schon Hybrid shaft, (that I rarely use) plays much softer than these new Kamui's. Very disappointed with them.


Anyone else have an issue with Kamui's like this? Just curious.
Thanks
 
I thought the same thing.It must be just poor or no quality control.I had the new
ones taken off and will not use any kamui products.They were very expensive
to be so inconsistent. imho
 
simco said:
I thought the same thing.It must be just poor or no quality control.I had the new
ones taken off and will not use any kamui products.They were very expensive
to be so inconsistent. imho
Click to expand...


Yeah I switched tips just because of that... I think they are a lot more consistent tips out there.
 
Any chance they were counterfeit Kamui's that you bought?
A while ago I had purchased a few Kamui's from dealers on the internet and even from a couple of places
around here so I could keep a few in stock, they all turned out to be fake. Not because anyone was trying
to scam me, but it turns out these tips had been purchased from resale dealers and suppliers who
probably got them from another dealer.
Anymore I will only get Kamui's from the Kamui USA website. I figure it's the only way to
be sure, you know
 
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Ehhh I have found the same issue with Kamui black tips, but the brown ones seem to not glaze as quickly and hit much better in my opinion. With all this being said, everything can be very subjective when it comes to pool. I also am no a super soft tip person so what do I know. I'll just stick with good old triangles, blue diamond, le pro, WB non layered, and Milk duds for now on :grin-square:
 
HueblerHustler7 said:
Ehhh I have found the same issue with Kamui black tips, but the brown ones seem to not glaze as quickly and hit much better in my opinion. With all this being said, everything can be very subjective when it comes to pool. I also am no a super soft tip person so what do I know. I'll just stick with good old triangles, blue diamond, le pro, WB non layered, and Milk duds for now on :grin-square:
Click to expand...

We have a winner. Layered tips are inconsistent. Single layer Triangles are all I play anymore. Work on a Triangle maybe once a month is all that is necessary and the price is right.

https://www.seyberts.com/cue-tips/triangle-cue-tip/

Old school.
 
Celophanewrap said:
Any chance they were counterfeit Kamui's that you bought?
A while ago I had purchased a few Kamui's from dealers on the internet and even from a couple of places
around here so I could keep a few in stock, they all turned out to be fake. Not because anyone was trying
to scam me, but it turns out these tips had been purchased from resale dealers and suppliers who
probably got them from another dealer.
Anymore I will only get Kamui's from the Kamui USA website. I figure it's the only way to
be sure, you know
Click to expand...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
THIS

I have had nothing but great experiences with Kamui tips and will only get them from where I know for sure they are genuine.

There's way too many knockoffs out there.

best,
brian kc
 
I did some research and learned about the knock off tips. Mine had serial numbers on them and shipped from Kamui USA in Long Beach so I feel fairly comfortable that they are originals.
I talked to the seller and he confirmed they were originals, and said it's possible the tips were burnished too much. They were installed on a lathe, (and they were burnished) at I suspect a high speed that may have built up heat and hardened the sides too much taking away some of the softness. I'm speculating here but it does make some sense.
As a test, I very carefully taped off the ferrule and clear plastic base and used 800 grit sandpaper and a rectangular rubber eraser as a sanding block, and uniformly sanded the sides of the tip until all the burnishing was gone. This made a noticeable improvement in the hit of the tip but it's till not as soft as the tips I had installed a couple years ago.
I'm not a big fan of Kamui's or layered tips but the first pair I bought 2 years ago were just fantastic and I want to duplicate that again, using Kamui or another tip.
Thank for the replies Gents.
 
We got some from Seyberts and they were all glazing over. They didn't last long. I cut mine off after about 2 weeks. Nothing but Triangle tips now.
 
Shooter1 said:
I bought a used shaft a couple years back that had a Kamui clear black super soft on it and liked it a lot. I then re-tipped my two shafts with the same SS tips and they have played just great for that last two years or so.

The tips were getting a little thin and starting to play a bit hard so I bought 2 new SS's and had them professionally installed. Both of the new tips are CONSIDERABLY harder than the other SS's I've used. You can hear it when striking the cueball compared to the old tips.

I understand that there can be some difference from tip to tip in terms of hardness but there is and extreme difference in the new ones I got installed. They were marked "SS" on the tips so they were sold as super softs. Even the OEM layered tip on my Schon Hybrid shaft, (that I rarely use) plays much softer than these new Kamui's. Very disappointed with them.

Cueman recently pointed out to me that a super soft or soft tip is in RELATION to the manufacturer's other tips. Since Kamui's seem to run a grade or so harder than labeled, a super soft tip to feel like a medium tip wouldn't surprise me.
Click to expand...
 
Shooter1 said:
I did some research and learned about the knock off tips. Mine had serial numbers on them and shipped from Kamui USA in Long Beach so I feel fairly comfortable that they are originals.
I talked to the seller and he confirmed they were originals, and said it's possible the tips were burnished too much. They were installed on a lathe, (and they were burnished) at I suspect a high speed that may have built up heat and hardened the sides too much taking away some of the softness. I'm speculating here but it does make some sense.
As a test, I very carefully taped off the ferrule and clear plastic base and used 800 grit sandpaper and a rectangular rubber eraser as a sanding block, and uniformly sanded the sides of the tip until all the burnishing was gone. This made a noticeable improvement in the hit of the tip but it's till not as soft as the tips I had installed a couple years ago.
I'm not a big fan of Kamui's or layered tips but the first pair I bought 2 years ago were just fantastic and I want to duplicate that again, using Kamui or another tip.
Thank for the replies Gents.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can't install any layered tip using a high speed. I found that out the hard way.
Too much friction, too much heat and the tip pretty much exploded, it was great.
I think it also depends what you burnish with. You don't wanna make a surface that just
too hard and inflexible. I think it needs to be pliable so it will hold chalk and won't
glaze over.
 
Celophanewrap said:
Yes, you can't install any layered tip using a high speed. I found that out the hard way.
Too much friction, too much heat and the tip pretty much exploded, it was great.
I think it also depends what you burnish with. You don't wanna make a surface that just
too hard and inflexible. I think it needs to be pliable so it will hold chalk and won't
glaze over.
Click to expand...

I have installed tips for 20+ years and have never had an issue with burnishing layered tips adversely effecting anything (granted I don't use super high speed). In my opinion I have been an authorized kamui dealer/installer for years and honestly feel their quality has went down in the past year especially. just my .02
 
Celophanewrap said:
Yes, you can't install any layered tip using a high speed. I found that out the hard way.
Too much friction, too much heat and the tip pretty much exploded, it was great.
I think it also depends what you burnish with. You don't wanna make a surface that just
too hard and inflexible. I think it needs to be pliable so it will hold chalk and won't
glaze over.
Click to expand...

I've installed tips for a good 10+ years including Kamui's and have not had any issues with burnishing. I have had problems with an occasional bad tip. Recently I've had a few customers comment about Kamui getting hard but more so as its worn down a bit.
 
or1pkt said:
I have installed tips for 20+ years and have never had an issue with burnishing layered tips adversely effecting anything (granted I don't use super high speed). In my opinion I have been an authorized kamui dealer/installer for years and honestly feel their quality has went down in the past year especially. just my .02
Click to expand...

You're not the first one I've heard that from, but frankly I haven't had a bad one yet.
I too have been an authorized kamui dealer/installer for several years, so just lucky, I guess.
The exploding tip thing has happened to me a couple of time but with cheaper tips. When
I brought the speed down there was no problem. I have found that for me, the burnishing
compound, or other commonly used fluids didn't work out so well on the layered tips, but some
did OK. When they didn't work so good they were pretty quick to glaze over. After experimenting
for a while I narrowed it down to burnishing. Another thing that I found was that it didn't seem to
happen so fast on the thicker layered tips, but of course nothing I was experimenting with was a
real high quality. I suppose we have all developed methods that seem to work out well for us
 
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