OK I tried the drywall last night.... Wiped the tip off hit some balls until I was miscuing every shot to make sure all of the chalk was wiped off and I can say that I think we likely won't see Softshafts rebuttal video....
I was using new drywall and trying to wipe it on the cue without scuffing the tip using the edge... I think I may drill a hole in a new piece and an old piece, not sure if it's preflag gypsum or not, and try again...
If i can actually get it to work watchout youtube!!!!!!
So in the "don't believe the hype" category we can pretty much eliminate dywall as a suitable substitute for any brand of pool chalk.
With that this thread has probably run it's course. Softshaft's claim is busted, there will be no video rebuttal and we all got to laugh at my horrible stroke. I will be accepting weight for small amounts of money from anyone who wishes to play me based on my YouTube videos. That is how I really play, really, actually it's better than I really play so make your offers accordingly....
Final thoughts, there is something to Kamui chalk. I figured out the basics of a homemade deflection tester that is easy and cheap to make that should be fairly accurate. So I might try it to see what happens - it would be useful for other things beyond testing the claims of Kamui.
Frankly I think that Kamui - and by Kamui I mean Hiraoka in Japan, not the dealer in the USA - has taken on an important subject and forced us all to think about something we generally take for granted. $28 dollar chalk forces you to consider all elements of the shot and what exactly is happening when you hit the ball.
I used to sell layered tip, they were marketed under the Instroke brand. They are now called Wizard tips, and Killer tips, and some folks know them as YTT tips. I didn't make these tips, I bought them from a Taiwanese supplier who bought them from another dealer who bought them from the maker. To this day I don't know which company made those tips. But they were great layered tips and I sold them well.
So my job was to market them against the other good layered tips out there as well as the single piece tips. A le Pro costs .50ct and $10 installed. An Instroke tip cost $12 and $25 installed. I was paying $3 a tip buying in bulk.
So the marketing slogan I came with was, "The most important thing between you and the ball". And then listed all my bullet points.....
Two years ago I sat down with Mr. Hiraoka and we just talked shop. We talked about counterfeiting problems, product quality, product development and so on. I told Mr. Hiraoka my slogan proudly and he said, "but there is one more thing between the tip and the ball."
And he told me that he was embarking on figuring out a better way to make chalk.
Admittedly I was shocked to see the product priced at $25 a cube. But knowing this man and his dedication to what he makes I refused to climb on the lynching bandwagon.
Now, I have the chalk that I paid for. I am not exactly sure why it's different or where the performance increase comes in based on initial uses. But it IS different, if feels different, it feels truly BETTER in some way. Just the very act of putting it on the tip feels much better.
100X the price better? Well, maybe, maybe if it really does have a 5-10% increase in performance then over time that translates into a better and more profitable pool experience. I guess at this point that is the leap of faith that some people have to take and then see the results for themselves.
The way I feel about it is that it's FINE if Kamui or anyone else wants to put out a product at any price. No one is forcing anyone else to buy it. There is a $300,000 Rolls Royce parked next to me downstairs. It's impressive, it's big, it appears to be very luxurious. The fact that it exists is because someone had the idea that there are some people in the world willing to pay for "the best". Kamui maintains that their chalk is the best and of course they are supposed to say this. Hiraoka has easy access to some of the best players in the world to test out his products. So I have a hard time believing that this is simply a money grab. There is too much at stake with the reputation and the tips. And frankly at $25 a cube no other chalk brand can feel the least bit threatened. Toyota could care less about Rolls Royce.
With most products that require significant development costs the initial offering is very high. Five years ago flatscreen tv's were 10k now you can get the biggest ones for 2k and most for less than 1k. Of course competition engenders this as well as simply the fact that making more of something lowers the prices all along the supply chain.
So I imagine that Kamui chalk will come down in price and I imagine that competitors will enter the market offering alternatives. At the end of the day all this means is more choice for the consumer and that is never really a bad thing.
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