New Layered Tip from Kamui :: KAMUI Clear

Jive

Jive

Professional Racker
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Was at the Chinese Expo a few days ago and was told that Kamui's launching a brand new tip soon. I actually learned that from one of JoeyA's thread a while back but didn't think i would see it that soon for myself.

Anyway this stuff ain't available in the market yet, but here's some pictures to share with AZ.

For details and reviews, please refer to Joey's thread here:

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=314272&highlight=Kamui+Clear

On first look this tip is thick, on my calliper it reads 9.52mm (0.375 inches). I took a picture of this tip beside my regular playing tip, G2.

Second thing you'll notice is the top and bottom plastic. The top part has all the Kamui branding, hardness and size and that part is meant to be shaven off. The bottom part is a clear layer of plastic which is meant to be glued onto the shaft WITHOUT sanding.

I have to say it looks pretty cool and have been told that these are not just regular KAMUI Black with plastics on the bottom. Apparently they changed something about the glue and compression inorder to compensate for that plastic being at the bottom.

I'm gonna ft this tip onto my shaft in a few days time, from how i see it this tip change can't be done without a lathe considering how tough it'd be to cut through that plastic at the base and that the top has a plastic laminate too.

Here are pictures to share.

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JohnPT said:
What is the supposed benefit of having the clear plastic?
Click to expand...

You can check out Joey's thread as he has a pretty thorough write up in there.
One main point is to prevent glue from sipping into the base of a tip during change as everybody uses different glue so what Kamui did was control that process and that the hardness will remain consistent no matter what kind of glue you use for the tip.
 
I was hoping that KamuiTips.com would pop in and give an explanation.

Your explanation seems to be the most obvious one. Consistency of installation.

Altho, as I said in Joey's thread, repairmen have several preferences re installs. Mine as well others happens to be prepping the tip with thin Cyno.

Any tip, Mooris specially will wick up at least one layer of glue during the prep.

I don't know that any player would notice that the bottom layer of tip is harder than the rest of the tip.

After all, the tip is installed on top of a hard surface that is the ferrule.

Same difference, yes, no?

Keep in mind that altho most ferrule material is Cyno friendly, not all are.

You get the odd material that doesn't and tips like to pop. This requires the repairman to experiment re installs.

Not all break tips are Cyno friendly either, which is usually the problem over ferrule material.

I would assume that the clear material that Kamui is using has been extensively tested.

Just makes me wonder if the clear material is going to cause the odd problem during an install.

Probably not but I would like to have one tip to see what the material is made of.

I also mentioned that one fellow is experimenting with both the clear cd protective disc that comes on top of a package of cds and the cds themselves.

So far, I believe he has had good luck and he is testing the difference in hit with and without a disc as a pad.

When he is finished, I think he will post his results which hopefully will give members here a reasonable idea of why they will or will not like them or if they will give them a likeable difference in hit.

Tip pads are necessary for some installs. OB wood ferrules, ferruless shafts and ivory ferrules and break shafts. OB uses carbon fiber pads and other pads are a fiber material. They are both quite thin and I don't know what the thickness of a Kamui pad is but it does look thicker than a normal pad.

It has been discussed many times in the Ask the Cue Maker Forum as to whether using a pad will soften or harden the hit.

If it does change the hit, then I believe that using the clear pad will definitely change the hit to some degree and most likely the same either way as if the bottom layer of the tip was prepped with thin Cyno. Think about it. One hard layer on the bottom of the tip whether it be Cyno or a hard pad.

Many people are comparing the new Ultra Skin tips to being basically the same or better than Kamui Blacks. Is this an innovative idea on behalf of Kamui or an innovative gimmick? I do know that the Skins do not glaze over which seems to be a slight problem for some Kamui users.

Ultra Skins are a fraction of the cost of a Kamui. If I were a tip maker and trying to keep on top of the market, I believe that a tip like the Ultra Skin would have me re thinking.

As a side note, Royce, I wish you would make available, the carbon pads in pretty red and blue. JK.
 
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Blue Hog ridr said:
I was hoping that KamuiTips.com would pop in and give an explanation.

Your explanation seems to be the most obvious one. Consistency of installation.

Altho, as I said in Joey's thread, repairmen have several preferences re installs. Mine as well others happens to be prepping the tip with thin Cyno.

Any tip, Mooris specially will wick up at least one layer of glue during the prep.

I don't know that any player would notice that the bottom layer of tip is harder than the rest of the tip.

After all, the tip is installed on top of a hard surface that is the ferrule.

Same difference, yes, no?

Keep in mind that altho most ferrule material is Cyno friendly, not all are.

You get the odd material that doesn't and tips like to pop. This requires the repairman to experiment re installs.

Not all break tips are Cyno friendly either, which is usually the problem over ferrule material.

I would assume that the clear material that Kamui is using has been extensively tested.

Just makes me wonder if the clear material is going to cause the odd problem during an install.

Probably not but I would like to have one tip to see what the material is made of.

I also mentioned that one fellow is experimenting with both the clear cd protective disc that comes on top of a package of cds and the cds themselves.

So far, I believe he has had good luck and he is testing the difference in hit with and without a disc as a pad.

When he is finished, I think he will post his results.
Click to expand...

Personally i really think it's all down to pure Marketing.

I haven't tried this Tip yet but i'm sure it plays good. My current G2 plays very lovely as well and i have no reason to change them, in addition to me liking the colour of my G2 tips more.

That said i have to say that the transparent pad at the base looks really cool. I can't wait to fix the tip on and see how it looks, i have a cue coming in a couple of days time, will fix it then.

As for the base of leather absorbing glue, personally i've not seen glue sip past 1 layer of my tip and it's very obvious on tan/nude colours layered tips like the G2 i'm using. On top of that i won't ever go past the second last layer of the tip without having a new tip fixed.

Anyway i'm not here to judge...i like the looks of the Kamui Clear alot but i'm too much in love still with my G2 still. We'll see....
 
I've not had a lot of experience with Kamui tips myself, my personal choice re Kamui, but from what the skinny is, the G2 is a very fine tip.

I have never had a tip absorb more than one layer of glue. Some less but never more. It wicks up one protective layer and thats all. You can put an entire bottle of glue on the tip but it won't go anywhere once it has its one layer.
 
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Tips been out about a year to some top players. I've seen it on Robb SARS cue and Manuel chats, looks cool. it just was not out to the public yet I guess.
 
i just got one put on at SBE,kamui's letting me demo it for my area.. they selected a few citys and handed a few out i was just lucky bc i had a issue w my older kamui origanal.... they look sick, available to public next month.. they claim that no glue ever touchs the tip so the final layer or 2 plays the same as the first. the clear "pad" is attached to the tip without glue and you glue on the clear pad to ferrule, not the leather..on mine is a ob2 so i had to keep the carbon pad on to keep warranty so its like double padded.. still looks amazing on, and catches your eye especially under lights
 

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also, it feels EXACTLY the same as the regular kamui blacks.. from what he told me is the only change was the pad, not what i read above about something differant, its all for consistancy at the end of the tip
 
I have one on my szamboti. I was at the Tunica event last summer and I met John Bertone. I showed John a kamui black that I had been playing with and near the end of the tips life I shot a ball with alot of draw and the tip disintegrated with a big chunk of the tip flying off the cue on that shot. He told me that it was because of the glue used in the install, it degrades the leather and when you get to the end of the tip that degradation can result in what happened to me. He said they knew of this and they had a tip that was in beta testing. He gave me one to try (thanks again for that John) and I had it installed there at tunica. Im still playing with it and it hits just like a kamui black. The theory on the prototype is that you glue the plastic part to your ferrule and in this manner no glue contacts the leather and you get a very consistent hit without the risk of having your tip break apart on a critical shot near the end of its life.
 
A pad is suppose to protect the ferrule but primarily with just leather
tips.The bottom layer of the layered tip acts as a pad in itself.
This configuration is just an added potential problem.More layers
more glue and more glue.Bad idea IMO.
Marketing is slowly taking away from quality.
 
I have never heard of a tip breaking apart toward the end of its life span.

Break tips, phenolics, yes.

Must have been pretty thin, as in ready to be changed. I did 2 last night that were thinner than a dime width.
But ya know what also. I bet that there are lots of things in life that I have never heard of or have seen too. Life is a learning experience.
And the interwebs make it all possible. I can go sky diving in Hawaii and never leave the chair. Way better than playing Pong on
the old Atari.

It does look very cool tho, I'll give them that.

Pad attached without glue. Thats pretty wild. I'm definitely going to dismantle one now.

They need to put some color in the pad so when you turn it, it looks like
one of those Kaleidoscopes.

Look man, my cue tip is on acid.

Oh wow, thats freakin me out man, go play at another table.

K, the guy that I mentioned that is testing pads made from CD discs is also pretty well
versed in other areas such as different adhesives etc. He developed a screw on tip (don't laugh, its way cool)
made out of aluminum. One can change out a tip to a different one in seconds. It works and looks cool too.
Think about it, you can have several different tips in your bag and change a tip to another without changing a shaft.
Yes I know that there are screw on tips. These are cheap house cue replacements and his are not.
We'll see if he can figure out how you can attach a pad without using an adhesive. I bet he can.
 
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On the pictures you can see clearly 3 plastic layers.

- 1st plastic layer: the top one with all the printing
- 2nd plastic layer: the black layer between the leather and the bottom layer
- 3rd plastic layer: the transparent bottom layer

I only assume th 2nd layer beeing a plastic layer, but it strongly looks like. Does anybody know the reason for this 2nd "intermediate" plastic layer??

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A marketing guy once told me "a fishing lure doesn't have to catch fish as long as it catches fisherman"

But innovation is what drives the world so its cool they are trying new things.
 
The pads sure sparkle nice don't they. Hope the over head light doesn't make them sparkle too much and cause a distraction.

Could have made them black. All the other tip pads are either black or flat blue or red.
 
Blue Hog ridr said:
The pads sure sparkle nice don't they. Hope the over head light doesn't make them sparkle too much and cause a distraction.

Could have made them black. All the other tip pads are either black or flat blue or red.
Click to expand...

It doesn't sparkle. They have zero reflective properties. Black would be fine. Red would be distracting, imo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
when Kamui sent us unmarked samples (more than a year ago) there were two kinds of pads, transparent white and transparent burgundy. White looked more cool so that must be the reason they didn't make any more other colors.
 
I think Kamui tips are just fine-better than many, just as good as many, not the be-all-end-all. I appreciate their attempting to make a new product, but a "cool looking" clear pad won't make you shoot any better. They definitely got the buzz going, so on that front they succeeded.
 
If The Clear Play Better Than....

If the Kamui Clear plays better than the Kamui Onxy tips, then I can't wait to try one. I love the Kamui Black Onxy tip in medium hardness and I've tried 15-20 different brands of tips, including the new UltraSkin version.

Kamui Onxy Rocks!
 
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