Someone please settle this for me.

smokey777

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Aside from popping a tip off. What is wrong with breaking with your playing cue? The old timers did it, and didn't seem to have a problem, what makes this age different?
 
Aside from popping a tip off. What is wrong with breaking with your playing cue? The old timers did it, and didn't seem to have a problem, what makes this age different?

:smile:


You need to buy a Jump/Break cue so dealers like myself can pay the rent.:lmao:


While you are at it, you'll need to buy a larger case...I just happen to have some in stock.
 
Nothing except you might damage the cue. Crack a ferrule who knows. I'd say for me it stems from playing in tournaments you don't want a tip falling off your player in the middle of a match.

Plus a well designed breaker might give you and advantage
 
Some tips, especially soft and/or layered can be prone to mushrooming. Breaking with that sort of tip will cause the mushrooming that much quicker. Other than that, I'd say break away!

-Larry
 
Some tips, especially soft and/or layered can be prone to mushrooming. Breaking with that sort of tip will cause the mushrooming that much quicker. Other than that, I'd say break away!

-Larry

We have sticks for everything now it seems. Very specialized market. Good stuff.
I suppose you can't go wrong buying a break stick so that you don't have to break with your playing stick.

If I ever bought me a nice cue I would definitely buy me a separate stick just for breakin'. :grin-square:
 
My Z2 would probably shatter if I lay into the break like I do sometimes hence the break cue. Besides that, the break cues really break harder/faster.
 
I play with a $4k Samsara, with an LD shaft, and a Moori tip. I also break with this cue...and have for years with no mushrooming tips and no damage to any part of the cue. Mostly it's about breaking technique. Do it wrong and you can damage your cue...do it right and not much you can hurt. Cuemakers have told me if you can't break with your cue, it's probably not a great quality cue.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
 
Several reasons for the break cue and they are not all about damage...

1) Energy transfer... Break cues from Mez, Predator and OB are engineered to transfer more energy to the cue ball... If I swing my playing cue, which transfers 72% with the tip/ferrule combo I choose for playing, at 27mph I get a speed of roughly 19mph... Same break with a bk2 which transfers 90% I get a break speed of 24mph.....

2) Most tips compress... You buy a soft or medium and you want to keep it that way the last thing you should be doing is hammering the break with it...

3) Ferrules and tenons tend to take a lot of abuse breaking the balls if you hit them hard... You really want to damage your shaft on your playing cue? If you break with it and you don't break like Scott "Alice" Lee you run that risk...... Yes that was a jab but in humor :wink: I have broken several tenons over the years and losened up a ton more ferrules....

4) Did you know Maple shafts have spines??... If you are continuously bending the crap out of the shaft on the break you will break down the spine of the cue over time.. I'd rather it be the spine on my break cue because I love my playing shaft more and the break shafts are usually stiffer to start with so they will be harder to break down.... When I used to play and break with my 314s A shaft lived about 12-16 months before it started playing flat... While the engineered shaft didn't have a spine the glue joints would eventually say enough is enough and I'd have a spaghetti noodle.... I break around 24mph these days but I'd hazard a guess that back then it was closer to 27.....

The only games I would ever think about using my playing cue for on the break would be 1pocket and 14.1..... Or if I have to break 8,9, or 10ball with my player you would be thinking man that Corey guy really lays into them compared to this guy!!!

Chris
 
Don't break with a low deflection shaft whatever you do.

I cracked mine good. Old timers didn't have those.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Don't break with a low deflection shaft whatever you do.

I cracked mine good. Old timers didn't have those.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I shattered 3 314s when they came out.... I think I may have led them to the removal of the long ferrules or I would have bankrupted them LOL
 
Aside from popping a tip off. What is wrong with breaking with your playing cue? The old timers did it, and didn't seem to have a problem, what makes this age different?

Who said the old timers didn't use a different cue to break with. Most players would just take a cue from the rack to break with and some of the more serious players had break cues. I would say more players then no did not break with their own cue.

Today though there are definite advantages to using a break cue starting with the tips. Also, if you ever watched players like Mike Sigel break they "REALLY" abuse the cue to an extent you would never do to your playing cue.
 
Breaking!

Aside from popping a tip off. What is wrong with breaking with your playing cue? The old timers did it, and didn't seem to have a problem, what makes this age different?

Breaking is the most violent shot with your cue. Why take chances. I only break hard in nine ball anyway, and use a breaker. Otherwise I use my player. As far as old timers and the good old days, I doubt there were dedicated break cues back then. I think breakers and jump cues came about at the same time whenever that may have been.
 
Ok, you mention " the old timers did it and didn't seem to have a problem ", ok, what were the old times shooting with??, if your talking old timers as in great pool players in the century, they were playing with top hand made cues that were high quality of the day. Not trying to be smart, but, send me high quality price for a high quality cue and I'll provide a letter right from the cue maker that will state on his letter head paper that their reply will be " why not break with it, you paid enough for it ".
I have heard this from some cue makers who expect their cues to break racks. But, your going to pay for it !!!
 
My Break/Jump developed some joint fitting issues, so I put it aside for a while to avoid compounding the problem, and I broke with my playing cue for about 4 months. I have no idea when I cracked my ferrule, but sure enough I did. Before I noticed it there was a crack going down opposite sides of it, which I had mistaken for blue chalk residue until a more observant player took a glance at it and said, "Looks like ya' cracked your ferrule."

Wasn't the worst thing to ever happen, turned out to be a simple fix, but it was enough to convince me that a break cue is a wise thing to have if you highly value your playing cue, as I'm sure we all do.
 
I used to break with my playing cue. I starting using a 2nd cue (Bar cue, break cue, what ever) after I noticed some of my inlay had cracks in it, not to mention ferrules too! (I never popped any tips off though, but I could see that happening with the glue breaking down over time.

I feel like I do get a better break, and never have to worry about the tip shape, or mushrooming. But this biggest reason of all for me is Peace of Mind!

I know that my "Break shot" involves a little added speed & force, and over years of games breaking, I'd rather have the "Break Cue" take the abuse! (Plus mine is also a Jump/Break, so I have that option too!)
 
Shane used to break with his playing cue but I noticed he switched to a break cue now.

I think for some cues, if done properly, it's probably ok. The R360 might be one of those.
On the other hand, Shane doesn't have to pay for a cue if he breaks it. Cuetech will just provide him one.

Typical Predator and OB's are probably not great to break with. I've never seen anyone "shatter" a shaft.
But developing a crack along one of the seams between the pie slices is possible.
And the ferrules are short and easily cracked, there's another thread recently on here complaining
about how easily these ferrules get hairline cracks.
 
Aside from popping a tip off. What is wrong with breaking with your playing cue? The old timers did it, and didn't seem to have a problem, what makes this age different?

Nothing, if that's your preference.

My playing cue has a 12.75mm shaft with an 18" pro taper and medium layered tip.
My break cue has a 14mm shaft with a conical taper and phenolic tip.
Two different cues, for two different uses.

I break with my player sometimes, but not very hard.
 
I'm not worried about damaging my lambros breaking with it. The fact is I like a different hitting cue and a harder tip when breaking then my playing cue.
 
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