Tip Question

9 ball

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Since I started playing pool in 2005 I have always used a hard tip & I can make the CB spin but not as much as I'd like, so my question is which hardness of tip will impart more spin with a little less effort?
 
First, you'll find a lot on tips here.
As for your problem - a medium should do it.

Ultraskins or Kamikaze or G2 are en vogue right now and seem to offer a good price/performance ratio.

Regular scuffing in any case is needed. And finally use Magic Chalk :grin-square:
 
Most like a medium tip........ the tip is only responsible for some of you spin........ the rest is in your stroke......

Kim
 
It's not the hardness. That's a wives tale. If anything, a harder tip should spin the ball better due to not absorbing as much energy. The problem is that hard tips often get glazed over & cannot hold chalk as well. The brand of tip and the way you maintain it will have a lot more to do with how it performs than changing hardness.
 
There is some very good information here...

whammo57 said ; "the tip is only responsible for some of you spin........ the rest is in your stroke......"

qbilder said; "It's not the hardness. That's a wives tale. If anything, a harder tip should spin the ball better due to not absorbing as much energy. The problem is that hard tips often get glazed over & cannot hold chalk as well. The brand of tip and the way you maintain it will have a lot more to do with how it performs than changing hardness."

I would add that IMHO. A properly chalked tip is the most important factor in imparting spin, and equally important is the stroke and follow-through. The tip hardness is the least important factor.
 
That is an interesting thread.

9 ball, what you should try: Keep your hard tip and take another, “sharper” dome/curvature radius on it. CETERIS PARIBUS: The smaller this dome radius, the more you can go off center and the more you can transfer spin/effet (but maximum limit is dome radius = ferrule radius; you can’t go further and you can’t go on with ellipsis, that physically will not work).
Drawback: A “sharper” calotte radius is more unforgiving (I don't mean miscueing, I mean spinning the ball "accidental", when you don't want or need it).

So maybe a change from quarter to nickel or to dime (or even smaller) could help, ASSUMED your stroke is reliable and sure. As stated: Much depends on your stroke technique!

Changing tip shape is in any way worth a try and not very time consuming or effortful, assumed you (or your cue maintenance guy) have the right, adjustable tip shaping tools.

My English (I mean the language and the effet ;-); still learnng and working on both) is not the best, but I hope you understand or can at least feel/intuit what I mean.


My 2 Zlotys
Olaf
 
Last edited:
That is an interesting thread.

9 ball, what you should try: Keep your hard tip and take another, “sharper” dome/curvature radius on it. CETERIS PARIBUS: The smaller this dome radius, the more you can go off center and the more you can transfer spin/effet (but maximum limit is dome radius = ferrule radius; you can’t go further and you can’t go on with ellipsis, that physically will not work).
Drawback: A “sharper” calotte radius is more unforgiving (I don't mean miscueing, I mean spinning the ball "accidental", when you don't want or need it).

So maybe a change from quarter to nickel or to dime (or even smaller) could help, ASSUMED your stroke is reliable and sure. As stated: Much depends on your stroke technique!

Changing tip shape is in any way worth a try and not very time consuming or effortful, assumed you (or your cue maintenance guy) have the right, adjustable tip shaping tools.

My English (I mean the language and the effet ;-); still learnng and working on both) is not the best, but I hope you understand or can at least feel/intuit what I mean.


My 2 Zlotys
Olaf


Smaller tip radius giving more spin is a fallacy that is propagated throughout the billiard sport.............

I make shafts for local players that are 13.6mm in diameter and they like the tip almost flat............

They play for big money 9 ball and get full table draw and side spin that will go 7 rails..........

They also like pressed hard tips.................

It's in your stroke..... not a slim pointy tip

Kim
 
Smaller tip radius giving more spin is a fallacy that is propagated throughout the billiard sport.............

Kim, I do 100 % agree with your statement. And also one famous female pool player from Sweden (damn, her name don’t come to my mind right now)* once said, that most pros could play with a simple broomhandle as long as the tip shape is right.

And I don’t mean the shaft-radius or netto tip-dia resp. a slim tip; I mean the radius of the calotte/dome/curvature on the tip.
As I said, it is difficult for me to find the right words. But I agree with you.

Olaf

* (late but hopefully not too late): Ewa Laurance aka Ewa Mattaya
 
Last edited:
Smaller tip radius giving more spin is a fallacy that is propagated throughout the billiard sport.............

I make shafts for local players that are 13.6mm in diameter and they like the tip almost flat............

They play for big money 9 ball and get full table draw and side spin that will go 7 rails..........

They also like pressed hard tips.................

It's in your stroke..... not a slim pointy tip

Kim

That's a fact. I used a 14mm tip on a regular shaft for 50 years and it will do anything you need, if you have a stroke. I also used a nickel shaped tip instead of a more curved dime shape. I've drawn the ball so far that people have called me "monster stroke".
 
Back
Top