Pre-Flag Master, Kamui or Blue Diamond, what's best?

I found an old box with three pieces of blue in it last night and thought I would compare the two before ever reading this thread. The "genuine" preflag is a lot smoother than any flag chalk I've bought in the last ten years and that's something I can feel and see. I use Kamui Black S tips and a Samsara Break tip. I didn't notice a huge difference while chalking my playing cue because the fibers on the tip were grabbing chalk regardless of the brand or batch being applied. However, the preflag easily covered the break tip where as I would have to put some effort in with the post flag cube to make sure the chalking was sufficient.

As far as performance goes, I feel more confident seeing the chalk cover the entire surface of my tip.


I used the original Balabushka chalk and it was complete crap but that was quite a very long time ago and from what I've heard it has improved.

Blue Diamond and Predator seem to be the same exact chalk IMO and the performance may be slightly above Masters. Still at bay testing the Predator.

We won't even start on chalk that costs $20+ per cube.

How much would you pay to avoid a miscue?
 
The problem with comparing old and new is that we already know that chalk is extremely sensitive to humidity and atmospheric conditions. Unless you have old chalk that's been kept sealed in a fully controlled environment for the last 5/10 or whatever years, you don't know what your comparing.
 
skip said:
I have used them all, winner Blue Diamond.
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Makes my hands sticky-works well tho

Master is the best, some pieces are better than others. Kinda like.....:eek:

Triangle for snooker is the best

Silver Cup is cat litter at best

Predator-going to test it for the first time in a couple hours, from what i have used of it, seems good, love the shape, feels good in my hands.

Kamui love it, used the regular color and light green(prototype stuff a friend had) prefer the 0.98 and set it on your dash board in your car in the sun for a week during the summer and its even better.

Manhattan Club its like 100 years old, used it a little once and it was great, but to collectable to use-it also had 8 sides, I have a round piece too never used it.


there are a couple other ones i cant recall, John Broomback uses one, cant recall the name its real good too, 20+ years old.

the worst of the worst was the "Miz" chalk at K-Mart a few years back it was the sandiest gritty junk ever, the cubes were a hair smaller than normal, they cut corners on everything possible on that stuff. Miz told me his K-Mart deal was "A real sweetie , the best thing I have going", he told me that at Arbys in the Sands in 85 or 86. I didnt tell him his chalk was shit, super nice guy.


thats my chalk tails for the day....:)
 
I think you are missing one critical chalk from your list: predator chalk.

Dollar for dollar I think predator is the best. I would describe it as between kamui and blue diamond.

Overall I think kamui .98 is the best if money is no object.
 
Pre-Flag Master said:
I wrote this Standard Pre-Flag Blurb as a brief overview of the entire situation...

There is a noticeable difference between older Master chalk and today's Master Chalk. The people who observed the difference initially, say they noticed it in the mid to late '90's. The flag was added to the label after 9-11, 2001 by Tweeten as a patriotic gesture. So there is not even close to a perfect correlation between the change in the chalk and the time frame the flag was added. And they still make "non-flag" labeled chalk today, I believe for foreign markets. I do think it's an unfortunate misnomer to call it "pre-flag".

A lot of people can tell the difference using this chalk, myself included. It is definitely different. It's grittier, holds on the tip better, less miscues, less cast off, and lasts longer. Tweeten says they made no change to the chalk itself, just the flag added to the label. Hence it became, and still is, a controversial issue. My theory is that something inexplicable changed in their formulation, ingredients or process. Hey, $h1+ happens.

The change in the chalk has no correlation to WHY the flag was added to the label and a very imperfect correlation to WHEN the flag was added. It definitely can be hard to say for sure that you are getting the real deal until you actually use it. If you want to buy "genuine pre-flag", try to ensure it was made before 1995-ish if you can.

For what it's worth, today's Master is perfectly good chalk. It's a matter of perspective. If you use center ball or minimal spin, you probably wouldn't see any difference from chalk to chalk in terms of playability. If you use extreme spin, I think you will miscue less with better chalk.

You can find more info about "Pre-Flag" by searching the AZ forums for "master" "chalk" and "flag". Here's one thread to check out...

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=126352
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all good points, just wanted to add a bit of info that nobody ever seems to pay attention to,

Tweeton who makes Master Chalk still manufactures "No Flag" chalk and sells it to countries that dont want American flags on their chalk. The Tweetin director of manufacturing told me so personally at the BCA trade show in 08. Think they want to see our flag everywhere in the world? of course not so they never stopped production of the original wrapper, they added the flag after 9/11. So just cause it don't have a flag isnt a guarantee its a old piece of chalk.


best
eric
 
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pwd72s said:
Anybody ever hear of "NTC"? National Tournament Chalk...made in Macon, GA.? I have one piece of it in a box of chalk I bought back in the early 70's. Dunno where it came from. I also have a few pieces of "championship" chalk..in the same box. Says "stays on top longer" on the paper...also from the early 70's. I put a piece of that in my pocket chalker..works pretty good tho I suspect it was made in Taiwan back then..
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yes horrible stuff, saw it often in the 80's
 
Always thought Masters or Triangle were best. However I just tried my first piece of Predator chalk that a friend gave me and its better.

It kinda leaves a film on your tip and if your not someone who like to chalk after each shot, like me, then it works cause it lasts longer than Masters or Triangle.

Never tried Kamui.
 
I find that the recent trend of resurrecting year old (and more) posts annoying.

...probably just my OCD kicking in, though.
 
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