I got to believe a layered tip last much longer, and holds its shape much better than a single layer tip, based on veneers and such. Look at a piece of plywood, why do they layer wood together to create plywood?, because it is stronger and will last longer, and hold its shape better. I believe the same principle applies with a layered tip as opposed to a single layer.
If you take the thoughts about plywood a little further, plywood often has low quality wood, especially the inner layers. One reason for spliced shafts was to use up wood that didn't make the cut as a single piece shaft. Are layered tips using up low quality leather or leather from areas of the skin that wouldn't be suitable for single layer tips?
Wonder how they make a single layer tip, though. A pig's skin isn't that thick, right? Is it just remnants mushed together into blocks and then cut up?
Is a layered tip actually pieces of leather or also layers of munged-together leather?
Like cattle and horses the breed of the livestock can come into play but hogs may have skin thicker than that of much larger animals. Single layer tips aren't some kind of composite. They originated hundreds of years ago.
One reason I favor single layer tips, they are one piece of leather from one place on the animal. Layered tips, you don't have that assurance. One justification for the pricing of layered tips, one bad layer and the tip above that layer can go zinging off into space. No fault of the installer but he usually eats the cost of a tip. I have had a layer come off just chalking a cue too.
One layer tip, I can test the leather and I only have one glue up that I do myself. Multi layer tip I have to trust somebody else's leather selection and glue up of the layers. The manufacturer generally has a strong reason to create a quality tip but they also have the demand to use as much of the leather from a hide as they can to cut production costs and increase profits.
Pros and cons to all tip manufacturing processes and issues from the jump. Stock insurers expect the farmer or rancher to do all they can to mitigate damages. This includes skinning stock found dead in the fields or pastures if the farmer or rancher deems it fit to salvage. With some of the huge properties the worker may have no real idea how long the animal has been dead and they tend to err on the side of salvaging hides. One of author Louis Lamour's job listings is skinner of dead cattle. This wasn't fresh killed clean animals but range found cattle. If the owner didn't have insurance the pressure to salvage hides is even greater.
Even fifty years ago I thought we should have better options for tips than leather. I still think so. Until a really good substitute is found I prefer to take my chances with one piece of leather instead of five to nine pieces or more stacked together from an unknown number of hides.
Hu
