Phenolic cue tips

Agreed on the white diamond. But did the polycarbonate at least feel similar to a phenolic? Or was it something all its own?

Add........
Looked them up. Bulletproof does not say they are polycarbonate.

"BCA Rules state “The cue tip must be composed of leather, fibrous, or pliable material.” Our tips are made from a pliable polymer that is much softer than the pool balls, wont scratch, dent or damage the cue ball and can be scuffed to a fibrous texture and feel"

Might not be to your liking, but might be a good fit for some. I don't think they'll jump better than a white diamond. But I don't know that. I guess I'll just have to try one.

The bulletproof tips are made of bulletproof glass material (at least that is what I remember reading about their whole marketing thing), which I am 95% sure is polycarbonate plastic.

They hit just about like phenolic tips, was not a fan.
 
I have yet to cause any damage to a cue ball with a phenolic tip. But I only break at 18 to 20 mile an hour.... TOPS.
Far more damage is caused by me when the cue ball leaves the table... Ends up hitting tables, chairs, concrete floor....

I don't take this the wrong way, I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but I fail to understand how a phenolic tip hitting a phenolic ball does any damage. After all... Phenolic cue ball hits phenolic object ball in the rack. Yet I've never heard of any damage of ball-striking ball. And both (tip and ball), as far as I can imagine, have the same contact area when they hit each other. Unless phenolic tips are actually harder then phenolic balls, I am a bit skeptical.
Basically chalk is abrasive, it gets pounded between the phenolic tip and phenolic balls. The chalk can actually get embedded into the CB surface, like a tattoo, it won't come off without enough polishing to reduce the diameter of the CB.
 
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A phenolic tip leaves the impression of the chalk grit in the surface of the cue ball. A leather tip does that much less, if at all. If your game is such that you're fine with a cue ball with a sanded surface, then it is not a problem.

You have to know what to look for and how to look for it.

It does make a difference.
 
I can confirm that cueball will take damage from phenolic break tips. We had 2 new sets of Duramith and many people are using phenolic tips and now over time cueballs start get bad and need to be replaced soon... I actually used my playing cue to breaking due that and took out phenolic what came to my breaker and changed it.
 
It appears White Diamond break tips are the answer for those wishing to have a tip harder than leather that would be safe for a cue ball's finish. I've been using the White Diamond for about a month now and am very pleased with it. In all fairness, I have no idea what it's made of.
 
It appears White Diamond break tips are the answer for those wishing to have a tip harder than leather that would be safe for a cue ball's finish. I've been using the White Diamond for about a month now and am very pleased with it. In all fairness, I have no idea what it's made of.
Water buffalo hide tips are really hard, consider those as a replacement
 
Slap a Cueball with a sponge then slap a Cueball with a piece of metal.
Check Dr Dave's website. He did an experiment on this. This is a quote from his website...

"Another set of more careful experiments documented in the Cue and Tip Testing for Cue Ball Deflection (Squirt) video and “Cue Tip Squirt Testing” (BD, June, 2014) seem to imply that tip type, hardness, and height have very little effect on shaft squirt. Among the wide range of tips tested in the video, the harder tips did result in slightly more squirt. This makes sense because the harder tips are denser and heavier, creating more “endmass.” The shorter contact time seems to be less of a factor than the added weight."
 
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Many have said that unless yo can really smash the cue ball you don't need phenolic. Most likely true. I have a phenolic break cue. It is easy to miscue, but for the most part I get good action. Better action? With my milk toast break probably not. Anyway, I spent the money so I use it. I also don't want to wear out my regular playing cue.
 
i couldnt notice damage to the cueball when i used a phenolic tip
maybe i just wasnt hitting it fast enough. come acoss plenty of half moon marked cueballs, but the ones i played with the damage was very minimal if any, coming from a machinist thats trained to notice surface flaws
The half moon marks that appear on a cue ball from a phenolic tip, in my opinion, are generally the result of a high velocity break attempt combined with an off center hit, but not necessarily a miscue.

As I clean / polish all the sets of balls (brought out and used exclusively for our 9-ball tournaments) the following morning after our tournaments, including doing the cue balls by hand to remove the miscue marks, I’m noticing some half moon permanent scars showing up on our new red circle cue balls. This is the only thing I can attribute it to.
 
The half moon marks that appear on a cue ball from a phenolic tip, in my opinion, are generally the result of a high velocity break attempt combined with an off center hit, but not necessarily a miscue.

As I clean / polish all the sets of balls (brought out and used exclusively for our 9-ball tournaments) the following morning after our tournaments, including doing the cue balls by hand to remove the miscue marks, I’m noticing some half moon permanent scars showing up on our new red circle cue balls. This is the only thing I can attribute it to.
Do you think (since they're u shaped), it could be from jumping?
 
I changed a few missing tips in the clubhouse. Did one piece tip ferule combos. One was a white g-10 and the other was polycarbonate.
How much damage can these 60-80 year old guys do. They seem to like how they break
 
This brings up the break cue I’ve owned for 20+ years. Mike Gullassy sledgehammer jump break cue . Furell & tip is one piece? ( resembles carbon fiber)
20 years ago many pro’s used this cue .
Always knew about the leather tip rule .
Apparently exempt?
 
Again, I'm not saying it doesn't happen. I just don't understand how it happens. Unless the phenolic tip is actually harder than the material the phenolic balls are made from. I've never seen ball to ball contact cause any damage , or even heard of it happening . I sure like to know the science behind it. Dr. Dave?
There are a number of factors to consider. Relative hardness, velocity of the cue, mass of the cue and contact area are the major ones.

Not all phenolics are made the same. Often plastics like this are reinforced with glass or mixed with other plastics, so you can have mismatches between cue tip hardness and phenolic ball hardness that may result in scratching the cue ball surface. For a polyester ball that is much softer, it just becomes almost a certainty. I suspect that is what might be going on with the G10. The last time I tried an experiment to find if there were non-organics in a product I tried burning it and weighing the results. It just made a mess and didn't resolve anything, but I would almost guess that the G10 is glass reinforced.

Scratching or dinging the surface is not the only way to damage the cue ball. If you have a very high velocity and high mass, hence a large kinetic energy transfer, a slight miscue where a sharp corner of the tip impacts the cue ball on a flaw, you may very well chip the cue ball. The kinetic energy transfer at that point will be converted to heat and a shock wave, so you may have momentary local temperatures of several hundred or a couple thousand degrees, enough to deform the plastic locally or maybe chipping it, depending on if you happened to hit a micro crack just right and fracture a piece (local stress is inversely proportional to square of the crack or defect diameter, basic fracture mechanics). For local temperature effects, note all the burn marks near the head line from cue ball acceleration on breaking.

Can you shatter a cue ball with a tip of equal or lower hardness? Think lead bullet and hard pool ball, so yes, but it is unlikely that any human can achieve those velocities. If there is a flaw in the ball, maybe, but I sure can't hit that hard. Might be an interesting experiment to do with old balls, an air gun, and some semi controlled condition. I've got boxes of those I would willingly donate to the advancement of science.
 
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I tried the White Diamond for a while. It was better than the tip it replaced. I wanted to love it, but I felt like I had less control, and I couldn't get into the feel of the hit. I recently switched it out to a Bulletproof tip, and I am loving it. To each his own just like the playing tips.
 
There are a number of factors to consider. Relative hardness, velocity of the cue, mass of the cue and contact area are the major ones.

Not all phenolics are made the same. Often plastics like this are reinforced with glass or mixed with other plastics, so you can have mismatches between cue tip hardness and phenolic ball hardness that may result in scratching the cue ball surface. For a polyester ball that is much softer, it just becomes almost a certainty. I suspect that is what might be going on with the G10. The last time I tried an experiment to find if there were non-organics in a product I tried burning it and weighing the results. It just made a mess and didn't resolve anything, but I would almost guess that the G10 is glass reinforced.

Scratching or dinging the surface is not the only way to damage the cue ball. If you have a very high velocity and high mass, hence a large kinetic energy transfer, a slight miscue where a sharp corner of the tip impacts the cue ball on a flaw, you may very well chip the cue ball. The kinetic energy transfer at that point will be converted to heat and a shock wave, so you may have momentary local temperatures of several hundred or a couple thousand degrees, enough to deform the plastic locally or maybe chipping it, depending on if you happened to hit a micro crack just right and fracture a piece (local stress is inversely proportional to square of the crack or defect diameter, basic fracture mechanics). For local temperature effects, note all the burn marks near the head line from cue ball acceleration on breaking.

Can you shatter a cue ball with a tip of equal or lower hardness? Think lead bullet and hard pool ball, so yes, but it is unlikely that any human can achieve those velocities. If there is a flaw in the ball, maybe, but I sure can't hit that hard. Might be an interesting experiment to do with old balls, an air gun, and some semi controlled condition. I've got boxes of those I would willingly donate to the advancement of science.
you an engineer or just stay at Holiday Inn last nite?
 
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