I don't want to come off as one of those know-it-all jerks, but the cueball doesn't know where you are hitting the object ball. So the degree of cut shouldn't matter to wether you are miscueing or not. Three possibilities:
1. You are jerking your thin cut shots. Very common thing to do.
Solution: Don't do that. You can practise it by closing your eyes before the final forward stroke. Concentrate only on the stroke being smooth.
2. You are loading up with spin on your thin cuts:
Solution: Unless it's absolutely necessary (close to limit of cutability, or even beyond 90 degrees), don't do that either, or consider taking a little bit off of your english, to keep you within the miscue limit.
3. You're doing both:
Solution: Absolutely do not do that!
As far as I know, there is no way to soften a tip that is not detrimental in the long run. Taking the tip down will expose a softer strata of the tip, but will accellerate the hardening of the remainder of it. It is a necessary thing to do to take off a glazed portion of the tip, but doesn't actually solve the problem long term. Adding substances to it...I'm not a fan, unless the goal is to press it harder in a cue press. If you soak it in milk (for instance) and don't press it, the tip will usually fall apart sooner rather than later.
I should've added that part in, my mistake, but I do add a lot of spin to those particular cut shots I mentioned. It's usually to put a ball in the side pocket, although sometimes I'd do the same when I'm trying to shoot the CB diagonal from a ball by the corner pocket so that the speed and and spin off the CB swith.[/QUOTE] usually take a little bit off the cue tip after I install it so I can "feel" the ball more, but like you said, with triangles it just makes them harder. I wanted to try milkdudding a triangle but it just seemed like it would make the tip harder, which is what I don't really need.
Yeah, put on an Elkmaster. It will eventually play like a Triangle then you can change it again. Put on tall takes at least a year to get that way.
I can see the appeal of that bit I "fiddle" with my tips too much to wait for it to get pounded into shape for so long. I shape them as soon as they lose the dime radius, plus I play some dingy tables and the tip gets glazed over fairly quick, like maybe 2-3 racks, so I'm always scufffing them which also grind them down some.
I made a really, really nice tip before by boiling an elkmaster to get it to expand, then when it dried I popped it into a vice, compressed it, and hit it with clearcoat so that when I let the vice go the tip acted as a sponge and absorbed the clearcoat. Then I pressed it a little more and once it dried it was a great tip, but I don't have any more elkmasters to play with.
Not a great hardness comparison, but when I was playing WBs I found that picking them deeply would get them almost perfect with respect to feel, grip, and zero miscuing. As expected I had to work the sides often since that much picking there was mushrooming, and they'd also would wear out pretty fast. But improvement to playability, and as a result, my confidence, was huge.
As I transitioned softer I tried the same thing with Triangles (I also found that 14s were a lot better than 13s) and while I never liked them as much, I did like them a whole lot better than un-picked Triangles which always felt a little dead to me.
I'm onto Triumph now which I love, but most others seem not to. And with these I rarely have to pick or otherwise hassle with.
Picking them is okay for the time being but like you said, it tends to mushroom and wear out quick.
The way I see it, the triangle is a hard tip, but it's made of leather, plus its dry. So I figure if I can "moisturize" the tip some, maybe it'll be softer, so that's why I put it in some coconut oil and then pressed it when it expanded a bit just to kind of bind everything together. I'm going to put it on my cue today and see how it plays, if it does everything I think it'll do I'll let you guys know.
