Irish Linen wrap

T

tingen

Registered
Hey all(my first post on Az).

I currently have Joss and Mezz cue, both with irish linen warp and I'm wondering how I can improve the grip.

Since I'm dont get calm(spelling) on my hand irish linen is very slippy.
Used to play with Meucci before and it was almost liked it was clued to my hand.
 
tingen said:
Hey all(my first post on Az).

I currently have Joss and Mezz cue, both with irish linen warp and I'm wondering how I can improve the grip.

Since I'm dont get calm(spelling) on my hand irish linen is very slippy.
Used to play with Meucci before and it was almost liked it was clued to my hand.
Click to expand...

To get more tack, rub some parrafin (candle) into the threading, then use a hair dryer to bleed into fabric, also use hand cream (on your hands) an hour or so before you play.
 
On my linen wrap I use a sheet of wax paper. Rotate the butt and work the wax paper along the thread lines. Feels great afterwards. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks for the suggestions =)

I'll try the waxe.

Anyone tryed to use piano paint over irish linen?

In the end I'll proberly get leather on them both, so this is a temporary solution.
 
tingen said:
... Since I don't get sweat on my hand Irish linen is very slippy. ...
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Pretty much every top carom player uses a rubber grip. You can buy them for about $5 and they roll on and roll off.

Irish linen -- I think it is neither Irish nor linen -- makes a lousy grip if your main interest is proper function.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Pretty much every top carom player uses a rubber grip. You can buy them for about $5 and they roll on and roll off.

Irish linen -- I think it is neither Irish nor linen -- makes a lousy grip if your main interest is proper function.
Click to expand...

I read somewhere the proper way to install one of those rubber grips but due to my advanced age, I forgot. Does anyone know the easy way?
 
ArizonaPete said:
On my linen wrap I use a sheet of wax paper. Rotate the butt and work the wax paper along the thread lines. Feels great afterwards. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

I apologize to all - should have done a search before I opened my mouth. Here's the right way thanks to Bob Jewett:

It's done in the usual way Put your cue together. Slide the loose grip on the tip end and pull it down as far as you can get it without too much trouble, which will probably be somewhere below the joint. Start rolling it from the bottom up. You have to be a little careful to get it to roll rather than just slide over itself. Roll it up until it rolls off the tip. This grip will now be in the form of a donut. Turn the donut over, and start rolling it back down the shaft. Keep rolling it until you get just past the normal wrap area. Now roll it the other way, and it will unroll to form the wrap.

There is some danger of tearing the grip especially if the rubber is old. After some use, it's very likely to tear if you try to re-roll it to move it.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bob Jewett
SF Billiard Academy
 
Bob Jewett said:
Pretty much every top carom player uses a rubber grip. You can buy them for about $5 and they roll on and roll off.

Irish linen -- I think it is neither Irish nor linen -- makes a lousy grip if your main interest is proper function.
Click to expand...

Bob:

I agree. Unless Irish Linen is pressed (or better yet, double pressed), it makes a lousy grip for anything other than a standard slip stroke (e.g. Willie Mosconi, Cowboy Jimmy Moore, et al.). In fact, I'm wondering if that's how the slip stroke came about -- adaptation to Irish Linen, and exploiting its slippery nature?

I have a Joss model 828 that I won in a raffle at Turning Stone, and Joss's method of applying double-pressed Irish Linen wrap is good -- the best I've tried. But even then, it's still Irish Linen, and inherently slippery. It is good for sweat absorption, though, if that's a problem one experiences with the grip hand.

My preference is wrapless, or failing that, polyurethane-coated. Leather wraps are great, and I've usually taken my Irish Linen-wrapped cues to my local cue luthier to have the Irish Linen removed and replaced with a nice leather wrap. (I also keep some of those rubber grips in my case for those cues I have that still have Irish Linen [they're awaiting when I have the funds to get the Irish Linen replaced with leather :) ]. These rubber grips are great, and are easily installed and removed as ArizonaPete / Bob Jewett describe below.)

I'm d-y-i-n-g to get a stingray wrap! With those hard little boney nodules throughout the rubbery hide, it has an exceptional feel. I tried a stingray wrapped cue at this past year's Super Billiards Expo, and immediately loved it. However, stingray hide is not easy to work with (very few cue luthiers / repairman have the knowledge and the tools to work with it), and it's expensive. Ahhh, but one day, one day...

-Sean
 
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This continues to puzzle me. I've always had pressed linen wraps and they were never slippery. Unpressed linen, on most production cues, is indeed very slippery. Some custom makers don't appear to press linen wraps, either. I really don't get it.
 
Pushout said:
This continues to puzzle me. I've always had pressed linen wraps and they were never slippery. Unpressed linen, on most production cues, is indeed very slippery. Some custom makers don't appear to press linen wraps, either. I really don't get it.
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Pushout:

I think you answered your own question... er... dilemma. The key operative word "pressed" has a lot to do with the answer.

Do you posses (or use) a slip stroke, per chance? If so, that perhaps could be the reason why you prefer Irish Linen. One of the old-timers I play one pocket with, Gil Black Sr., tried one of my cues with the leather wrap, and although he loved the balance, hit, and well-maintained shaft, he didn't like the leather grip. When I asked him why, he said that he couldn't slip stroke with it -- the leather was too tacky and "grippy" in his opinion.

Wrapless is not a panacea, nor is leather, nor is Irish Linen, nor... (read: everyone's obviously got his/her own preferences). If you're using what you like, that's what counts.

-Sean
 
sfleinen said:
Pushout:

I think you answered your own question... er... dilemma. The key operative word "pressed" has a lot to do with the answer.

Do you posses (or use) a slip stroke, per chance? If so, that perhaps could be the reason why you prefer Irish Linen.
Click to expand...

No, not even close. I don't hold the cue as light as some, which may have something to do with it. Leather has never been comfortable to me. I personally think a lot of production cues with "linen" wraps actually are something else and that's why they are so slippery.
 
Pushout said:
No, not even close. I don't hold the cue as light as some, which may have something to do with it. Leather has never been comfortable to me. I personally think a lot of production cues with "linen" wraps actually are something else and that's why they are so slippery.
Click to expand...

If you're talking about cheapie cues, you're probably right -- that might be rayon or some other cheap man-made material. But I'm sure if one looks above the $200 mark on cues, it'll be real Irish Linen (which Bob Jewett pointed out isn't really "Irish" or "Linen" at all). That seasoned 1p player I mentioned I play in a previous message, Gil Black Sr., uses a Jackson cue, and that thar is the real stuff.

But I think the reason why a lot of the "linen" on production cues is as you mentioned in one of your previous posts -- that it's unpressed. One of the hallmarks of a custom cue (or a good production cue) is the attention to detail, and pressing the linen is certainly one of those details.

For me:

[+] "Pressed linen" = tolerable / not-so-so-bad

[-] "Unpressed linen" = intolerable -- I'll immediately break out the rubber wrap and roll it over the linen area.

-Sean
 
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