The Great Chalk Bake Off

CocoboloCowboy

CocoboloCowboy

Cowboys are my hero's
Silver Member
When it hit 110 DEGREES earlier this week, I took my MASTER CHALK out to the garage for some Drying Out.

This is the first summer of trying this experiment, and after about 4 days into the 105’s Plus Heat.

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The Chalk has not appeared to change color, but seem to produce less dust when chalking.

I have always wanted to try, and shall we say Dry Out some Pool Chalk to see if it works better, or differently. So far the results are positive.

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Arizona is a DRY HEAT, and we got a lot of 110 DEGREE PLUS TEMPERATURES .
 
i bake all my chalk, i fell onto it years ago in Vegas, works best on Kamui .98 and masters, Great plan!!!!!!
 
I bake my Master's chalk in a convection oven at 375* for 45 min.

I LOVE IT! I can absolutely tell if I absent-mindedly pick up an unbaked Master 's and even slightly dress my tip without looking. I immediately put it down and grab my personal baked one.

There is one catch. The paper turns a slight brown, which is normal, since you're heating up paper. The chalk itself turns a slightly darker blue. The process also causes the paper to get loose. So, what I do is that I bake the chalk. Let it cool for a bit, which doesn't take long. Then I take a magic marker and I put my initials on every side of the cube, including the bottom......except the American flag. I don't write on it. Just doesn't feel right. (yes, I know I just heated our flag up, but I'm not burning it. Lol.)

Then I take clear tape, trim it up and tape the outside of the cube. I make sure to pull it tight and that holds the paper to the chalk better. It only takes a minute.

This way my chalk is easily identifiable and players know that it's mine. I'm less prone to forget it. People are less prone to steal it (which isn't a huge deal, since I keep 3 pieces in my case at all times, plus I bought and split an entire gross with my best friend recently).

Anyway, it feels great.

My pre-match routine is to put a nice, even coat of Kamui on the tip....and put that pricey stuff back into my case. Then I'll dust it with baked Master's. I use the baked for the rest of the match and I'm good to go. I might miscue once a month. That usually happens when I'm trying excessive draw using my off-hand during a shot from a bad position on the table. That's a stroke flaw and I'm keeping note of it.

For the other 99.999% of my game, it's the nuts. And it's cheap and easy.

Plus, I'll notice that opponents will pick up my chalk and either quickly put it down or they'll chalk with it.....then look down, give it a weird look and search for a common piece to chalk with. Since they notice that it feels weird, they automatically assume that they don't like it.

And if that sharks my opponent, that's not on me. That's on them. :)

Oh yea, baking one piece isn't a big deal. Baking 15 pieces in a common aluminum pie pan.......reeeeeeally smells up the house. Lol. No harm, tho. The smell goes away in about 2 days. :)
 
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Odd. I prefer my chalk not dried. I have a big box of Masters at home and it's dry. The Masters at the poolhall feels a bit softer when applied whereas mine feels more like sand. I prefer the "wet" chalk from the poolhall.
 
I'm curious as to whether a Food De-hydrater would
remove all moisture from Chalk ?

Oven at 170 degrees or so is probably the quickest.
 
Dry Chalk works better imho, it was clogging my tips when wet or mositure got in it, so the fix helps. Pitty the players in HUMIDITY LAND. Like Florida, Phillipines, and other place with HIGH HUMIDITY.
 
I'm going to try this with predator chalk


Reading my posts means you consent to my incorrect spelling and poor typing skills.
 
Can't they just put chalk out in the sun to dry? Or offer sell and ship Arizona Sun dried chalk.

CocoboloCowboy said:
Dry Chalk works better imho, it was clogging my tips when wet or mositure got in it, so the fix helps. Pitty the players in HUMIDITY LAND. Like Florida, Phillipines, and other place with HIGH HUMIDITY.
Click to expand...
 
Has anyone tried putting their chalk in a dehydrator like the ones used to dry fruits and meat?
 
Well the chalk is still drying in the garage that has stayed for the most part over 100 DEGREES the last couple of weeks. Some days it hit 115 Degrees. Played with some Master GREEN Yesterday out of the Garage,. Worked flawlesslee.
 
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heat

CocoboloCowboy said:
Well the chalk is still drying in the garage that has stayed for the most part over 100 DEGREES the last couple of weeks. Some days it hit 115 Degrees. Played with some Master GREEN Yesterday out of the Garage,. Worked flawlesslee.
Click to expand...

It snowed yesterday does freeze dried count :eek:

MMike
 
I was intrigued by this so I gave it a try and put two new cubes in the oven at 375 for an hour as suggested. I baked them yesterday, let them cool, removed the master cover and wrapped them neatly in black duct tape. Holy cow, what a difference!

After several hours of play here are some of the positives I have noticed:
1) hand and shaft stay much cleaner and less frequent shaft wiping with a towel, and when wiping cleans much easier.
2) after several hours the table cloth had less chalk spots than it would have had within 30 minutes of play before baking.
3) after play last night, when vacuuming the cloth it cleaned much easier and in half the time as normal.
4) I swear it stays on the tip better and longer than before baking.

The negatives I can think of so far:
1) explaining to the wife when she asks why I have 144 pieces of chalk in our new convection oven.
2) people asking what kind of chalk I'm using since the master cover is removed.

Thank you to the OP and others for this valuable insight. I am sold and will be doing this from now on or until I find a reason not to........

Dopc.
 
The only flaw I find with this is that a piece of chalk is essentially a piece of compressed sand. Therefore, it's porous. You can bake the moisture out, but it'll eventually creep back in.

So don't just bake your chalk once, but repeatedly do it throughout the life of the cube! I put my chalks on the dash of my car to bake in the sun every so often.
 
wontonny said:
The only flaw I find with this is that a piece of chalk is essentially a piece of compressed sand. Therefore, it's porous. You can bake the moisture out, but it'll eventually creep back in.

So don't just bake your chalk once, but repeatedly do it throughout the life of the cube! I put my chalks on the dash of my car to bake in the sun every so often.
Click to expand...


thats what i do, i re-bake them from time to time.
 
wontonny said:
The only flaw I find with this is that a piece of chalk is essentially a piece of compressed sand. Therefore, it's porous. You can bake the moisture out, but it'll eventually creep back in.

So don't just bake your chalk once, but repeatedly do it throughout the life of the cube! I put my chalks on the dash of my car to bake in the sun every so often.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, I hadn't even thought about that. Maybe I'll just bake a few at a time. A cube don't usually last to long around here ( lots of pool being played ). Thanks for sharing the hot dash of a car idea.....

Dopc.
 
I've a royal crown bag that I place a hand warmer in with a few blocks of chalk..I always habe a few hot blocks chalk while I'm playing..lol.
 
I like my chalk cakey. I live in Louisiana, where it is very humid. It was 107* in the shop and about 80-90% humidity.

Dry chalk may work better in dry weather. A buddy of mine played out in Arizone once and came back to tell me how much different the tables really played. I was awestruck, it makes sense, but I didn't think humidity would affect it that much.
 
Dopc said:
I was intrigued by this so I gave it a try and put two new cubes in the oven at 375 for an hour as suggested. I baked them yesterday, let them cool, removed the master cover and wrapped them neatly in black duct tape. Holy cow, what a difference!

After several hours of play here are some of the positives I have noticed:
1) hand and shaft stay much cleaner and less frequent shaft wiping with a towel, and when wiping cleans much easier.
2) after several hours the table cloth had less chalk spots than it would have had within 30 minutes of play before baking.
3) after play last night, when vacuuming the cloth it cleaned much easier and in half the time as normal.
4) I swear it stays on the tip better and longer than before baking.

The negatives I can think of so far:
1) explaining to the wife when she asks why I have 144 pieces of chalk in our new convection oven.
2) people asking what kind of chalk I'm using since the master cover is removed.

Thank you to the OP and others for this valuable insight. I am sold and will be doing this from now on or until I find a reason not to........

Dopc.
Click to expand...

The long and Short of the equation is Dry Chalk Works beter than Wet Chalk, you need not use a Convection Over.

My Garage get to 110-130 Degrees, and is DRY HOT. After the Chalk was brought in the house it was place in a Zip lock Bag for storage as in a few week our MONSOON SEASON will come, and the area will get very humid, and the air wet.

The person who mentioned leaving his chalk in the Car hit a Home Run, as I think a Car Hot TRUNK that get like in the 150 Degree HOT Range on Hot Sunny Day could be the next best idea.
 
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