Is there any harm in breaking with your playing cue?

Gogafem

Gogafem

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Most players avoid this, even if they don't have a breaker they grab a pool hall cue to break with. Is it really bad to break with your playing cue? What's the worst that could happen? Aren't shafts designed to withstand powerful strokes? I mean it's common to use a power stroke on some positional shots during a match... I am talking about games where a harder break is required, such as 8 ball and 10 ball.

Edit:
Another reason I am asking is explained in this thread: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=4055570&posted=1#post4055570
Also a lot of the time I don't carry my break cue around.
 
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Nothing wrong with doing it. I personally prefer a break cue, because I use a different weight/length/tip and I use a different stroke when breaking. My break shaft tends to bend more.
 
A lot of people like to use a harder tip on the break cue. A soft tip will flatten out pretty quickly if you break with it.

A well-made cue should be able to withstand the break shot without issue. That said, I wouldn't break with a cue that has an ivory ferrule or joint just because ivory is fickle and delicate.
 
The only damage you'll do is smash down your playing tip a little, and maybe ding up the clear coat of your cue against the table. Otherwise, if you can't break with a playing cue, what good is it?
 
I don't know if there is anything wrong with breaking with my playing cue, but I just don't do it. I have a break cue and if something happens to it , oh well. I would hate for something to happen to my Z-shaft.--Smitty
 
Gogafem said:
Most players avoid this, even if they don't have a breaker they grab a pool hall cue to break with. Is it really bad to break with your playing cue? What's the worst that could happen? Aren't shafts designed to withstand powerful strokes? I mean it's common to use a power stroke on some positional shots during a match... I am talking about games where a harder break is required, such as 8 ball and 10 ball.
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It's not the shaft, the tip is the thing they avoid putting extra wear on. Plus if you only have one shaft for the cue you like, why risk messing it up during the break?
 
shane van boening doesnt think there is anything wrong with it.

for me though, i use a break cue because i have snapped two shafts while breaking.
 
The only cue I don't like breaking with is a cue with a Z2 or OB2 shaft on it. It may not do any harm but seeing the shaft bend like crazy worries me a little. Just look at my avatar. If memory serves me correct that was a OB2.
 
DoubleD said:
But that will flex any cue. The old Johnny Archer style break. Bending the hell out of your cue after contact does nothing for the action you get on the break.

I've recently started breaking without putting any body movement into my break. I have lost a little bit in speed, but the breaks are working much better.

I always use my playing cue for breaking. I don't change tips very often at all. I don't find my tips changing shape much, even when I use lePros. A break cue is just another thing that I would have to carry around...pretty much sums up why I don't have a jump cue, also.

dld
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Geesh why do you have to ruin all the fun! :p
 
Meucci

Medina played and broke with his cue most if not all of his career. What I found surprising, especially if you have watched em play. The cue held up all those years. I always wondered who ended up owning that stick.
 
With most cues I would think the weak link is the tip / ferrule. I have also heard of Ivory Joints break especially if they are cold.

Andy Gilbert is a friend of mine and I had him make me a cue and I asked for a stainless steel joint. He made the cue with an Ivory joint because he said the cue was too fancy for a steel joint. I tried breaking with the cue and tried to break the joint so he would replace it with a steel joint but I never had any luck! I might of had better luck if I left it outside for a few hours in the Michigan winter but never went that far.

He was the smart one though because I ordered another cue and he made that one with a steel joint.
 
Your tip will get hard. Break cues normally have a much harder tip.

Break with what you want most players do not break hard enough to make much of a difference. When you get to breaking real hard you will probably have a break cue.

Break on brother.....
 
Here's something that happened to me. I have a cue that was made for me out of cored holly wood. I have three cues that have the same pin so occasionally I will take my player and break set and leave out the breaker and take the holly wood one. The breaker and player are identical butts.

A couple weeks ago I was playing with the holly wood one and decided I didn't want to play with it so I decided to put the break shaft on and break with it. I broke probably 5 times with it. When I got home I pulled it out of the case and noticed that the holly had split near the joint. I know holly is soft but it is cored with maple so the force that made it split have to come from the joint. Obviously there is some force being applied to the joint. Can it damage your cue? I'd say so.
 
Island Drive said:
Medina played and broke with his cue most if not all of his career. What I found surprising, especially if you have watched em play. The cue held up all those years. I always wondered who ended up owning that stick.
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:scratchhead:

Are you talking about the Meucci Cue? I thought he changed from Meucci to something else.

Meucci Cues break good....:speechless:
 
Any cue you can play with should withstand breaking without a problem.

My issue with breaking with my playing cue (and why I have a break cue) is that I tend to beat up any cue I break with. My break cue has dings all along the clear-coated part at the back end of the shaft and at the front of the butt. I may just have horrible form, but since I tend to ding it against the table, I just have an old beat-up cue with a hard tip as my breaker, so that my playing cue can stay in as good a shape as possible--especially nice since I tend to buy and sell cues a lot, so my playing cue of today might be on sale tomorrow...ding free!
 
The only time breaking with your playing cue is ok,is when the break shot speed is no more that what you would be doing during a game.
Anything more , and the 1st thing that happens is a flat spot on the tip. With extreme hard break shots, some shafts are just not designed to take those forces,as they are not the normal force a cue experiences in a normal game.
 
Gogafem said:
Most players avoid this, even if they don't have a breaker they grab a pool hall cue to break with. Is it really bad to break with your playing cue? What's the worst that could happen? Aren't shafts designed to withstand powerful strokes? I mean it's common to use a power stroke on some positional shots during a match... I am talking about games where a harder break is required, such as 8 ball and 10 ball.

Edit:
Another reason I am asking is explained in this thread: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?p=4055570&posted=1#post4055570
Also a lot of the time I don't carry my break cue around.
Click to expand...

Nothing at all wrong with breaking with your playing cue.

There are reasons why you would prefer to use a break cue...tip type/shaft taper/cue weight/tip longevity/etc. Perhaps if you use Ivory ferrules on your player you may not want to break with it.

But if your break cue can't handle breaking then it's certianly not much of a pool cue IMO.
 
bowiebill said:
shane van boening doesnt think there is anything wrong with it.

for me though, i use a break cue because i have snapped two shafts while breaking.
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I have snapped shafts and sticks at the joint cracked a few ferrules also
53 now with a torn up shoulder but if I hit them like MD or Larry V I would certainly not


1
 
Meucci

poolguy4u said:
:scratchhead:

Are you talking about the Meucci Cue? I thought he changed from Meucci to something else.

Meucci Cues break good....:speechless:
Click to expand...

No, Medina Boke the Balls as good as anyone in his heyday. My point was....I was amazed/suprised the cue never started to come apart, which is anther term for a broken cue from breakin' the balls sooooooooo hard for so many years. I'm not clear sometimes when I write and never will be. I'm a hellava typer but writing a long letter or? Its not my best suit, sorry I confused U.
 
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