Juan is a great guy to deal with. I ordered some j/b tips and got them within a few days. The tips arrived well packaged with tracking and delivery confirmation. I never recommend anything to my customers unless they're a proven product or I've tried them myself, so...
First thing I did was to cut the Samsara j/b tip off my BK2. I really like the Samsara tip. It's the one I use exclusively on my break cue and is the leather tip I recommend to my customers for their j/b cues.
Juan's tip glued up well and stayed put using cyano. When I install a tip I use the lathe tooling to trim it close to final size, then I use a Japanese right hand bevel knife to finish. I keep this knife EXTREMELY sharp at all times. The first indication of how hard Juan's tips are showed itself at this point. The knife normally shreds through leather tips with ease. I had to work a little harder with this tip, you could definitely tell it is HARD. In doing so I also had to pay extra attention to how it was cutting, I had to dig in without cutting a taper that I didn't want.
The sides were smooth after cutting, no jagged or shredded edges. Anyone that has cut a Moori vs a Lepro or Triangle knows what I mean. It finished beautifully and took a nice burnish.
The only drawback was this tip is tall. It went from a 3 layer to a 2 layer by the time I got it down to usable size. I'm no tip manufacturing expert but I would think you could save some money and material by making each individual layer shorter, thereby getting it closer to final height and retain all 3 layers.
Finally, with the tip installed, the hit... This tip hits hard! It rivals phenolic in hardness, with a slight edge to phenolic, but it gives a level of control not available with phenolic. It is every bit as good as the Samsara and a bit harder. It holds it's shape (as expected) and holds chaulk well. Not much else you could ask for in a break tip.
After a week of play and about 100 breaks, it is still on my cue. The hit/hardness hasn't changed and it hasn't popped off. I can fully recommend them now and I don't plan on taking it off my break cue. The only issue (and it isn't much of an issue) is the height of the tip and having to cut a full layer off for use.
I say try one for yourself, you'll be extremely satisfied. Thanks Juan.
