Linen vs Leather Wrap

C

cyork2

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I'm looking for your stories on switching from linen to leather wraps. Did you like the leather wrap immediately or did you have to get used to it?

Has anyone ever had a cue with a leather wrap that they had changed to linen? If so any issues / lessons learned from doing that? (are linen wraps and leather wraps the same thickness)

I just got my new Ariel Carmeli 4 point - it was supposed to have a linen wrap but they made a mistake and it has a leather wrap. I can return it - dealer is willing to do whatever I want - but I don't really want to wait another 2+ months. My first reaction to the leather wrap is that I don't like it. The leather has a bit of texture to it which is fine but it feels tacky - like wearing shorts on a leather car seat and having the skin on your legs sticking to the car seat. Within minutes of just holding it / dry stroking my cue hand is sweaty which I never noticed with my old cues. Conversely the linen wrap feels cool to the touch.

Any thoughts / advise?
Thanks,
Craig
 
cyork2 said:
I'm looking for your stories on switching from linen to leather wraps. Did you like the leather wrap immediately or did you have to get used to it?

Has anyone ever had a cue with a leather wrap that they had changed to linen? If so any issues / lessons learned from doing that? (are linen wraps and leather wraps the same thickness)

I just got my new Ariel Carmeli 4 point - it was supposed to have a linen wrap but they made a mistake and it has a leather wrap. I can return it - dealer is willing to do whatever I want - but I don't really want to wait another 2+ months. My first reaction to the leather wrap is that I don't like it. The leather has a bit of texture to it which is fine but it feels tacky - like wearing shorts on a leather car seat and having the skin on your legs sticking to the car seat. Within minutes of just holding it / dry stroking my cue hand is sweaty which I never noticed with my old cues. Conversely the linen wrap feels cool to the touch.

Any thoughts / advise?
Thanks,
Craig
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Try giving it a coat of wax to slick it up and/ or use leather polish on it. I love leather for wraps. Lizard is also very good.
 
I also really like a leather wrap. However, what is most important is how comfortable it is to you. If you are bothered by the grip & feel of a leather wrap, then bite the bullet and go back to linen if that is more comfortable to you. I went from linen to a leather stack wrap (put on by tiger at super billiards expo). I loved it right away. I didn't have to "get used to it".

- Steve
 
i recently went from Linen to a Bison wrap that Steve Lomax just put on, but I am going to get a lizard wrap, to me lizard feels the best. I know dennis hatch plays with a bison wrap as well..
 
randallt6 said:
i recently went from Linen to a Bison wrap that Steve Lomax just put on, but I am going to get a lizard wrap, to me lizard feels the best. I know dennis hatch plays with a bison wrap as well..
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I can second the suggestion of Steve Lomax for wraps. He put a leather wrap on one of my cues and I love it.
 
I Have A Cue Being Built

Great question.........I'm struggling with it right now. I am having a cue built that I designed and I left the wrap unspecified. I'm hoping the cue-maker will offer some ideas or suggestions because I don't want to go just for handsome looks. Leather wraps win that race hands down over Linen wraps. However, all of my current cues have Cortland Linen wrap except for my Palmer which has Irish Linen. Ergo, leather wraps are basically still foreign to me.

I've never played with a leather wrap pool cue that I liked the feel of and I'm trying to remain open-minded on the final selection of a wrap. It's probably because Cortland Linen has become so scarce, and the color selection especially scant, that Irish Linen is what I'm leaning towards. I've enjoyed playing with Linen for over 40 years and so the idea of changing only has merit provided that the leather alternative is superior in feel.

After all, why bother changing if you're already accustomed to the feel and reliability of Linen wraps. Just as a side bar, I still play with original cue-maker shafts instead of using a low deflection version. I figure if squirt was good enough to attain "526" back in the 50's and there still hasn't been a better player ever born than Willie., then original shafts are absolutely fine with me.

I've got some time to decide about the wrap question and like you, I'm open to changing but I'd like to get it right the first time. From what I've seen and read, it sounds like lizard, elephant ear and bull or bison leathers get the highest ratings in looks and feel but I do not know that to be true. That's my impression after seeing lots of cue photos and thread posts on AZ Forum. Naturally, I'll be following your thread with great interest.
 
I got 2 cues this week with leather. One was linen to leather. The other was a wrap-less converted to leather. I now have 4 leather wrapped cues. I enjoy the feel and love the look. I like linen also. I do not prefer one over the other.
Buy & use what you are comfortable with.
 
I appreciate -all- of the comments. I remember touching leather wrapped cues at tournament booths and didn't get that instant 'tacky' feel from it. This is the first time I've really held and stroked with a leather wrapped cue. I'm going to try cleaning / conditioning it to see if that helps (and it doesn't cost anything so I might as well give it a shot).

thanks guys,
Craig
 
Real lizard is the best IMO. Not ringtailixard just regular real lizard. Try to find it, you'll love it .
 
Shermanscs said:
I also really like a leather wrap. However, what is most important is how comfortable it is to you. If you are bothered by the grip & feel of a leather wrap, then bite the bullet and go back to linen if that is more comfortable to you. I went from linen to a leather stack wrap (put on by tiger at super billiards expo). I loved it right away. I didn't have to "get used to it".

- Steve
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Back when I played before I ever bought a stick (or stole one), I carried a one piece house cue from room to room by bus. I remember the linen cues being the rage. It seemed all the big name cues were mostly linen wrap. I liked the way they looked but never really cared for the way they felt. I preferred leather. I actually liked cork even more. Even the one piece wooden house stick felt better to me than linen. Just adding my opinion here and thinking it's funny that this is brought up now when at the time I thought I was out of touch or something for not liking the linen. I never bought a cue that cost more than $50, which at that time seemed high enough to me. Even the $50 stick, I didn't buy it, I won it in a game where the guy I beat (a rarity) had no cash and gave me his stick instead. Actually, he gave it to my backer who took weeks upon weeks to give me my half of what he said the cue was worth. Anyway, I think a really good house cue is as good as any two piece, especially linen, it merely lacks portability. Not to me at the time though. It was embarrassing at times, funny too, riding on that bus with that single piece cue between my legs. But I did it. I remember the leather, the cork, and the single piece wooden cues, and I preferred them all to any linen cue I ever held. I think sometimes the price and the name gets to people, all of us, at times..

TJ
 
You paid a fairly reasonable price, I'm sure, for that custom cue. You should make sure you get exactly what you paid for. If you don't like the linen, don't accept it. I would pressure the seller big time to make the change over very fast. It is clearly unfair for you to have wait 2 months, after having already waited, because the other party made an error.

I like a wrapless for looks. That's another area you can show off beautiful wood or even a segmented handle. I like the feel least of all.

The looks of leather is generally very good, right behind wrapless. The feel is reasonably good but it can get kind of tacky.

I rarely like the looks of linen and really don't like the feel. One thing I do like about linen is that I like to hold my cue really loose on most shots to the extent you can feel it slightly slip through your grip. This is easy to do and easy to feel with linen. Not so much the case with wrapless or leather.

This has to be one of the more clear cases where personal preference is the overwhelming deciding factor.
 
I loved it compared to linen. I can't stand linen now, it's leather or wrapless for me all the way!
 
Used linen for many years until last 2 never go back. Nothing but thumbs up for all reasons!
 
leather wrap

I like the black bison leather myself. Kenny Koo aka flyingsnail.
My main player is linen.
And I have another back up cue that is wrapless.:thumbup:

But I have been thinking of snake.:eek:

It must mean I need to buy more cues.

MMike
 
While at the BCA this last week i handled quite a few cues and i didnt like the feel of the leather ones at all. Cant explain why, i just didnt care for them.



Bavafongoul said:
Just as a side bar, I still play with original cue-maker shafts instead of using a low deflection version. I figure if squirt was good enough to attain "526" back in the 50's and there still hasn't been a better player ever born than Willie., then original shafts are absolutely fine with me.
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I was thinking this very same thing the other day while browsing thru a cue catalog.
I understand technology makes things better and easier, but i feel its another marketing ploy to make more money, not that theres anything wrong with that at all.
 
Personally wraps serve a slightly more aesthetic purpose cos I'd pick different wrap with different cues. Like a classic bushka look cue would only be done right with Linen and something more modern would definitely call for an exotic leather wrap. I definitely favor Leather over Linen. However.....

Leather is tricky. I've come across cheap leather which have pressed texture and they're finished real glossy on top..those are the most slippery wrap ever and I hated them. It's so slippery that a wrapless cue would feel like it has blue-tac over them.. So do be careful when picking leather wraps. Most of the regular and genuine exotic stuff feels good and can absorb sweat as well as Linen.

Linen wraps are generally good but I've also come across cheap linen wraps done badly and they either come loose or start having those little "balls" protruding after some use.

All in all both are excellent choices depending entirely on what you like aesthetically as I'd say they both can deliver the same function.

For me these are the 2 factors for choosing:

- Aesthetics (What looks good with what)
- Who's installing for best result

Goodluck!
 
randallt6 said:
Real lizard is the best IMO. Not ringtailixard just regular real lizard. Try to find it, you'll love it .
Click to expand...

The not real lizard that looks like lizard is horrible, I was a linin guy for well over 20 years, endedp with a cue I liked how it played with real lizard, it was shiny at first, I could tolerate it. Now five years later it has a good bit of wear and feels like a million dollars, took well over 2000 hours of play to get it that nice, it was ok after I'd guess 500 hours and good after 1000, keeps getting better. It's expensive I'm sure, I didn't ask, I do have a brand new extra piece in case something happens, it will never wear out.

So IMO its what you like, took me twenty years to make a change, I can play the same with wrapless, elephant, etc. it's just a comfort thing for me. Years ago wraps did effect how I played, I got past that with time. What I can't get past is the diameter of a butt, too fat I steer the cue, different topic:smile:



Edit, I can't play with those shiny nylon wraps on Kmart cues, do they even make that wrap anymore. It's slippery and is on the cues with screw on tips, that wrap blows
 
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wraps

i like wrapless, but having said that, i played for 25 years with a linen wrap josswest. after i started building cues i did a lot of experments with different wraps, and found one that a lot of people seem to like. its a cross between a linen and stack leather wrap.
sounds funny, but i found some 1 - 2 mm round leather cord that i can buy in lengths of 25 feet. its installed like a normal linen wrap, but the larger diameter gives a bit courser feel and it can be sanded to varying degrees of smoothness, sealed, left rough or clear coated over.
i like it medium rough, just treated with a leather sealer.
 
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