> Back in the early 90's,there was a guy named Bill Howard in Chicago that came out with a brand of synthetic tips under the Future brand. They came in a soft,2 different mediums and a hard. The hard one really breaks the balls great,and bites the cue ball as well,making it easier to squat the cueball. They were pre-domed,and came with grooves cut into them similar to what you see on certain phenolics. They STUNK when cutting them down,ever melt a piece of black electrical tape? Material-wise,I think it was some kind of really dense PVC,hence the smell. I remember cutting one down before I had a lathe,using one of those Porper pencil-eraser cutters it peeled like an apple. You had to rough up the back on these with at least 100 or 80 grit paper,and glue them twice. I always cut mine down really thin,and eventually they would develop stress cracks in the edges,but if you left them the original thickness it would never be an issue. They are HARD,but not so hard they sound like breaking glass or couldn't be shaped/scuffed/tapped for chalk to stick. I still have a couple,and MIGHT part with one. Tommy D.
> I got to thinking about if after I posted,and wanted to add this. At the time these tips were fairly common,the BCA,PBTA,WPBA,APA and McDermott Tour all had it worded in their jump cue rules that the tip had to be leather or an accepted synthetic leather. These tips fit that criteria 100%,and were accepted by all tours. One of the reasons for the eventual jump cue ban was the "tire buddy" version,which was a 15-20 inch rod of aluminum or wood that looked nothing like a cue,more like the stick you use to beat on your tires to see if they are flat or not,LOL. They had a great big,chalkless PHENOLIC tip on them. There was also a thing Allen Hopkins marketed called a Jump Tip,which was a oversized joint protector with one of these tips on it.
