Tip nonanimal

[buckshotshoey]

If a cuemaker wants to test, I would start with 70 Shore A durometer polyurethane. Probably available through McMaster. Maybe this question belongs in Ask the Cuemaker. Maybe as a plastics guy, I should actually put more than 30 seconds of effort into this. I should actually try something out.

Maybe even hemp fibers. Hemp is tough as nails, and grows incredibly fast. Synthetics will almost always be derived from petroleum.

Anyone that knows their history knows that hemp was instrumental in helping win WW2. It was used for rope, GI clothing, parachute cord, and many other things. Hemp could reduce our demand for wood products by 50% or more.

There is only one problem....our politicians. But their sphincter is so tight they have to shit out of their mouth. Explains a lot, DOESN'T it.

 

[MitchAlsup]

The citizenry at large doesn't kill animals at all. For those of us that do it depends on the animal. Deer, Elk, Sheep we're putting in the freezer. Coyotes, Racoons, Badgers etc. aren't getting eaten.

Nor do Coyotes,... hides used for pool cue tips.

 

[muskyed]

Hemp was a big product for farmers where i grew up. I remember when I was 16 or so and at a friends parents farm and he asked us what we thought of what looked like a weed was. We didnt know and he said it was left over wild hemp from the war time. We were supprised but he said it wasnt like what real pot was at the time.

 

[buckshotshoey]

Hemp was a big product for farmers where i grew up. I remember when I was 16 or so and at a friends parents farm and he asked us what we thought of what looked like a weed was. We didnt know and he said it was left over wild hemp from the war time. We were supprised but he said it wasnt like what real pot was at the time.

Look in Indiana. It pops up everywhere. They call it Indana Ditch Weed. Indiana grew a lot of it in the 40's

 

[evergruven]

Bravo... you pulled the same trick out of you hat that all leftist do. And thats to take a worst case scenario and apply to to everyone in the group you have an agenda against. Just like they do to gun owners.

Most farmers, no matter what you hear from the shit stained lips of AOC, take very good care of their stock. They treat them as the valuable asset they are.

that's not the worst-case scenario.. read my post above, I'm not a politician and I don't have an agenda, unless you count genuinely caring for our collective fate as that.

I've personally met many good farmers, and I get food from farms when I can. again, I'm just asking, what if we depended less on animals for our needs?
we have an idea of what that would look like, because many folks are doing just that. and it doesn't look bad, at least not to me. potentially less pollution, less heart disease, more innovation. yes, life would be different, because currently as a society we do depend quite a bit on meat and dairy for our food and drink, leather and other fibers for clothing and other products, cue tips and wraps, etc.- but is there really anything wrong with considering animal alternatives to these needs?

 

[buckshotshoey]

that's not the worst-case scenario.. read my post above, I'm not a politician and I don't have an agenda, unless you count genuinely caring for our collective fate as that.

I've personally met many good farmers, and I get food from farms when I can. again, I'm just asking, what if we depended less on animals for our needs?
we have an idea of what that would look like, because many folks are doing just that. and it doesn't look bad, at least not to me. potentially less pollution, less heart disease, more innovation. yes, life would be different, because currently as a society we do depend quite a bit on meat and dairy for our food and drink, leather and other fibers for clothing and other products, cue tips and wraps, etc.- but is there really anything wrong with considering animal alternatives to these needs?

Not time to debate you about it. Squirrel season starts tomorrow. Get it?

 

[jason]

I am searching for a medium hard tip made from nonanimal materials.

Why?

 

[evergruven]

Not time to debate you about it. Squirrel season starts tomorrow. Get it?

I've been hunting before anytime you want to debate, I'm around. enjoy-

 

[Sheldon]

“If you want to be successful in this world, you have to develop your own idiot detection system. The best way to spot an idiot — look for the person who is cruel. Let me explain. When we see someone who doesn’t look like us or sound like us, or act like us or love like us or live like us, the first thought that crosses almost everyone’s brain is rooted in either fear or judgement or both. That’s evolution. We survived as a species by being suspicious of things that we aren’t familiar with. In order to be kind we have to shut down that animal instinct and force our brain to travel a different pathway. Empathy and compassion are evolved states of being. They require the mental capacity to step past our most primal urges. This may be a surprising assessment because somewhere along the way, in the last few years, our society has come to believe that weaponized cruelty is part of some well thought out masterplan. Cruelty is seen by some as an adroit cudgel to gain power. Empathy and kindness are considered weak. Many important people look at the vulnerable only as rungs on a ladder to the top. I’m here to tell you that when someone’s path through this world is marked with acts of cruelty, they have failed the first test of an advanced society. They never forced their animal brain to evolve past its first instinct. They never forged new mental pathways to overcome their own instinctual fears and so their thinking and problem solving will lack the imagination and creativity that the kindest people have in spades. Over my many years in politics and business, I have found one thing to be universally true: The kindness person in the room is often the smartest.” — Governor J.B. Pritzker

 

[hang-the-9]

that's not the worst-case scenario.. read my post above, I'm not a politician and I don't have an agenda, unless you count genuinely caring for our collective fate as that.

I've personally met many good farmers, and I get food from farms when I can. again, I'm just asking, what if we depended less on animals for our needs?
we have an idea of what that would look like, because many folks are doing just that. and it doesn't look bad, at least not to me. potentially less pollution, less heart disease, more innovation. yes, life would be different, because currently as a society we do depend quite a bit on meat and dairy for our food and drink, leather and other fibers for clothing and other products, cue tips and wraps, etc.- but is there really anything wrong with considering animal alternatives to these needs?

This is going to go way off topic LOL, it's more an NPR post.

Eating animals is what enabled our species to thrive and evolve into the big brained hairless apes from the small brained haired apes. Less worry about calorie intake, more time to work on things. That is why I think our modern 1st world is such a mess, we met every basic need so fully, that people are bitching about every useless thing under the sun. It's a crisis if some worker at McDonalds forgets to take the pickles out of the burger now. Or complaining about how expensive table time is in NY or that we have to have the right to drive giant trucks and own 20 guns. Who really gives a F about any of that? It's all fluff. Our personal freedoms are all made up, we all have exactly one right, to be born and then to die. What happens in between is just shit we made up to keep us alive without the neighbor bashing your head in at random because your sheep peed on his plants.

We should not worry that we are being mean to the food, but that that we are upsetting the balance of nature so much that we are not likely to survive as we are for more than another couple of hundred years without devolving into a Mad Max type planet.

 

[evergruven]

Eating animals is what enabled our species to thrive and evolve into the big brained hairless apes from the small brained haired apes.

dig around and you'll find plenty of founded doubt to this idea. regardless of what's happened over the past few million years, what were doing now is what's now at steak...

we met every basic need so fully, that people are bitching about every useless thing under the sun. It's a crisis if some worker at McDonalds forgets to take the pickles out of the burger now. Or complaining about how expensive table time is in NY or that we have to have the right to drive giant trucks and own 20 guns. Who really gives a F about any of that? It's all fluff.

I can relate, but don't think it's all fluff, as not all our basic needs are met- I think many of us (especially those with enough/plenty) struggle with this, and that rather than coming together and working together to solve problems, we take the easy way out, often indulging ourselves, and at others' expense.

it doesn't seem like meat has anything to do with this, but it does- in medical, social, political, economic and environmental ways- upsetting the balance of nature, as you put it. there is much evidence that depending on consuming animal products as much as we do is upsetting this balance. and we're consuming not just for survival, but so much for pleasure. anytime, we can change our minds to be better and do better, for ourselves and each other. if there weren't alternatives, ok- but there are. so. many. let's come together as much as we can and try to make things better, for now, and for later. and of course cutting down on eating/using meat is just one way. there are lots of ways.

 

[Ģüśţāṿ]

I don't expect to ever see a tip not need chalk. I do believe though that they could develop a non leather tip perform as well as a leather one, maybe even remain at a hardness level as when installed, but with use it would still need to be chalked as it would slowly build up with what ever transfered to it from the balls. That could be food, cleaning solotions, wax, and hand oils. Synthetic tips, probably easy to accomplish, chalkless probably not. Chalk is cheap.

See post #4 for chalkless tip.

 

[Icon of Sin]

You know cows aren't really killed for Tip Leather... they just use a hole punch on them and pop a few out at a time...

 

[spktur]

Years ago I made some tips from a super ball, first off they weren't worth a damn for breaking and then for shooting you had absolutely no control at all. You would stroke the shot and then then the ball just disappeared.

 

[DynoDan]

byproduct ok. but even if some entity isn't paying for the "meat," they're also paying for the byproduct, tho almost certainly less.
my point is, even byproduct commerce is contributing to the demise of the animal, even if only in some small way. it all adds up.
but yea, if we could reduce our reliance on animal consumption overall, then animals would have more of a chance to live.
and the likely quality of life bump we'd get would be a happy byproduct ^_^

Multifaceted philosophical issues:
Prehistoric humans hunted the mastodons (to extinction?) largely for meat. The ivory tusks then were a ‘byproduct’. African/asian natives that killed water buffalos likely wouldn’t have wasted the hides anyway (not realizing they made the best poolcue tips). The amazon rain forest isn’t being cleared just to make mahogany guitars (of which certain species are now banned). Doing away with livestock farming would certainly be environmentally & medically beneficial (in the short run), but I have to wonder how raising the plant foods needed to replace those calories would affect the water table. The qualities of the animal-based products we’ve come to rely on can be replaced, but seldom duplicated. ‘PROGRESS’ (inevitable/hard to accept) is often a double-edged sword.

 

[evergruven]

Doing away with livestock farming would certainly be environmentally & medically beneficial (in the short run), but I have to wonder how raising the plant foods needed to replace those calories would affect the water table. The qualities of the animal-based products we’ve come to rely on can be replaced, but seldom duplicated. ‘PROGRESS’ (inevitable/hard to accept) is often a double-edged sword.

appreciate the response. definitely not expecting to replace something that can only be replaced by itself, and agree "progress" is a double-edged sword- but I feel comfortable erring on efforts to be more independent, sustainable, and healthy. explain what you mean about the water table, pls?

 

[DynoDan]

explain what you mean about the water table, pls?

I live in a rural area surrounded by corn & soybean fields (interspersed with grazing cattle & hay meadows). When I moved here 40 yrs. ago, you could hand-drive a pipe into the ground to get water. Now, since all the adjoining farms have mobile irrigation systems, my well goes nearly dry in a real hot summer, and I will soon face the enormous cost of installing a deep/submersed-pump well facility. Much of the corn/soy/hay goes to livestock feed. Do the math.