Tip Burnishing
- Thread starter 9 ball
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9 ball said:
A Tip Burnisher is used to smooth off the sides of your tip. Often times, 1-piece tips can mushroom after some use. A Tip Burnisher will compress the tip again, making it flush with your shaft.
Personally, this is more than I would want to worry about. I use a layered tip and never ever burnish it. The other thing to do is simply get a razor and shave off the mushroom.
Burnishing a tip is polishing the side by excessive heat. A piece of leather (rough side of it) does the job nicely. I've heard a dollar bill suits it well too. Just moisten the edge a bit with water or saliva and rotate the shaft rapidly holding leather or a bill wrapped around the tip.
A burnished tip has a nice neat look. And like Jude says it prevents single-layered tips from mushrooming.
A burnished tip has a nice neat look. And like Jude says it prevents single-layered tips from mushrooming.
Vahmurka said:
Yeah, moistening the sides a bit works well but seriously, you should only do this when you're done for the day and IMO, such tip maintenance has zero effect on play.
that's for sure, but when I played with my tip not burhished (and I play with Triangle, it's non-layered) there was a danger of ripping the cloth on good follow-though. With burnished sides it is out of question, so it could have an influence on one's playJude Rosenstock said:
Vahmurka said:that's for sure, but when I played with my tip not burhished (and I play with Triangle, it's non-layered) there was a danger of ripping the cloth on good follow-though. With burnished sides it is out of question, so it could have an influence on one's play
I have yet to see ANYONE rip a cloth with a cue. Seriously, I've been in poolrooms for 20 years, worked in one for 2 years and I've never seen this happen.
Vahmurka said:
I believe you. I just think it's funny because every other skit about pool has some guy ripping the cloth and I've never seen this.
As has been said, burnishing helps to prevent mushrooming and it makes the tip look good... nice and shiney around the edge and I like that. I hate a dirty shaft, or ferrule, or tip and simply wrapping a piece of leather, or a dollar bill, or a piece of brown paper towel or sack around the tip and squeezeing tightly while rotating the cue will get you a pretty tip. Try it! You'll like what you did and it might lead to a career in cue making.... or not. 
Burnishing with moisture is necessary to keep the leather from becoming dry. Over time old dry leather cracks, splits and deteriorates. The moisture added helps to harden and protect.
I can't disagree more with the notion that this is a purely asthetic practice. My Moori-medium tips become 'dead' after a while.. they simply don't grab the cueball like they once did. Burnishing the sides of the tip, as explained above using moisture and leather, always brings the tip right back to where it was when new. I'm not sure if it's due to drying of the tip or what, but man what a difference it makes. This could be regional, due to effects of humidity and temprature changes, which would explain why it is needed for some and not for others.