some old timer i know swears that ivory cue balls play that much better. can anyone verify this for me and tell me what the best set of balls out on the market is. thanks again
ivory cue balls
- Thread starter theoneandonly
- Start date
i bet they would be real cheap......it seems like the weight and density would be a little off to play well???
theoneandonly said:
I've run into this point of view once or twice, but ivory cueballs can chip and crack and lose their roundness and ther color. Old timers I've talked to suggest that as an ivory cueball is both more expensive and less durable as the cueballs of today, it's not a very practical choice.
I knew a thee cushion player in the late 1970's that carried his own set of three ivory billiard balls, and swore by them, but they looked pretty beat up to me.
I feel the best set of balls on the market is the Brunswick centennial set.
they are definately more expensive. im wondering if it is because they are much more rare today. i looked on ebay and found a gew sets of 3 billiard balls for around 150. the old guy says they played much better and were much easier to get draw on. thanks for the quick replys though
ivory balls
There is definitly a different sound when ivory balls are used.They kinda click.now having said that i dont see much difference between the best sets and even the cheap ones.Maybe if your on the pro level a better set of balls would be noticable.theoneandonly said:
Ivory balls play differently. I have a set that I sometimes use to demonstrate both big cue ball problems for pool players as well as how inelastic balls work. Ivory is much less elastic than the standard phenolic balls like Aramith, and the cue ball does not stop dead on a stop shot but instead goes through some like a big bar-table cue ball , but not quite as extreme. It is harder to draw ivory balls but easier to follow with them.theoneandonly said:
Ivory balls go out of round and have to be re-trued. The last time I checked, the one place I know of in the US -- Schmidt in St. Louis -- that can true ivory balls charged $80/ball, and the guy who did the work was in semi-retirement.
A playable set of ivory carom balls is fairly rare -- usually the balls are small, or cracked or out of round -- and will probably cost over $300 on eBay. The last set of ivory pool balls I saw (all 16 balls were ivory) sold for over $5000.
As for the best pool balls, those would be the ones with the simplest design, which is the solid red/yellow/black set for eight ball. The more complicated the design, the more than can go wrong in manufacturing.