Types of Cue Tips

C

carlosprimero

Registered
I would like to ask what's the difference between a layered/laminated cue tip and a non-laminated/leather cue tip. Based on what I read, layered/laminated cue tips are better because it's durable and it doesn't mushroom out or flatten. It's also reliable especially if you prefer to use a lot of English.

I just want to know what you think based on your own personal experience. Thanks.
 
the best part about single layer pressed triangles is they hit the same over their entire life.. they don't require "gear" or "maintenance"

I'm going on 2 years playing several hours per day and my tip still looks like new..
 
Cue tips are made from scrap leather. To find animals with skin thick enough to make tips you need Elephants,Rhinoceros,Hippopotamus orWater Buffalo . That could get expensive so they use other skins and glue them together, up to 20 layers. A layered tip will hold its shape better do to the added glue. What a tip does is hold the abrasive “chalk” that is made of sand, aluminium oxide and glue.
Any tip will give you good service if cared for.
 
Laminated tips are made from lots of layers (like 13) shaved thin and processed thin, before being laminated (glued) together and pressed into a stack (of sheets. After the pressing and the glue has cured, the tips are punched out with a punch.

Nonlaminated tips are made from thicker leather, tanned and processed as a single hide. Individual tips are punched out and sometimes pressed afterwards.

If you take a finger nail (coarse) file to a laminated tip and stroke upwards towards the crown, you will likely cause a separation between the glued layers, This is called delamination--it is bad and harms the tip greatly. So, overall it is best to perform tip maintnaence by stroking down from the crown towards the edge. Don't use a tip pick on a laminated tip.
 
Laminated tips can and will mushroom. Its my opinion that lamination is just manufacturing process that makes it easier for the manufacturer to control quality.
Same could be said for pressing single layered tips (milk duds), or taking a box and sorting them out with a durometer. You either spend the effort in labor, material selection, or manufacturing process to achieve consistency.

A laminated tip is believed to be more consistent. So, if you been playing with a medium from maker X, and replaced it with another medium from the same maker, it should play about the same.
 
Last edited:
carlosprimero said:
I would like to ask what's the difference between a layered/laminated cue tip and a non-laminated/leather cue tip. Based on what I read, layered/laminated cue tips are better because it's durable and it doesn't mushroom out or flatten. It's also reliable especially if you prefer to use a lot of English.

I just want to know what you think based on your own personal experience. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Let me briefly tell you my personal experience about layered and non-layered tipps.

1) One special type of tipp - layered or non-layered - does work better or worse combined with different types of shafts. Better or worse includes mechanical as well as audible/sensitive criterias (sound, hit, feedback, grip, chalk-holding, consistency of the period of use ...)

2) Each player defines his own criterias to decide about tips to call them good or better.

3) Depending on 1) + 2) one player calls a special type of non-layered tipp as the best one, and another player, using the same cuestick and shaft-type, calls a layered tipp as the best one.


Let me give you an example: My former all day player hat a 12,2 mm wood shaft without any special LD constructions. It played pretty hard and stiff, and a Triangel milkdud did perfectly harmonize with it. So with this cuestick the non-layered tipp in the milkdud-variation was the best for me.

But that type of tipp does pretty bad harmonize with my other playing cusetick, a mezz AXI-K with the 12,5 mm WD700 shaft. For that cuestick I have to put on other tipps to satisfy all my criterias. I am not ready with experimenting, but the pre-result is: A layered tip is probably better for this cuestick. But why????

One reason is that the WD700 plays much more flexible than my other shaft before and thus the tip takes less energy and deforms less than at my stiffer shaft, harder playing. So the same tipp "feels" harder. Also the sound is very different which is affect also by the ferruls construction.

Another experience that I've made over the years of playing and experimenting, installing tipps for others etc., is that it is pretty hard to get soft non-layered tipps for small shaft diameters (with pretty flexible taper) that perform consistently over a longer playing period, means that they show no or less mushrooming and keep their hardness / flexibility. With this combination you find more "well" or "better" working tipps under the layered tipps than und the non-layered ones.

From my point of view "very good" layered soft tipps do mushroom very little, have much flexibility and keep this soft playing characteristic + their flexibility over a long period. Possible is this by using different types of tanning methods + different types of impregnating chemistry. In principle it should be possible to impregnate also non-layered tipps with these special chemistries, bit maybe their are a few or no companies that have tried this consequently, or the market is too much fixed on layered tipps. Don't know.


Just my 2 cts to this interesting question.
 
carlosprimero said:
I would like to ask what's the difference between a layered/laminated cue tip and a non-laminated/leather cue tip. Based on what I read, layered/laminated cue tips are better because it's durable and it doesn't mushroom out or flatten. It's also reliable especially if you prefer to use a lot of English.

I just want to know what you think based on your own personal experience. Thanks.
Click to expand...

I would not compare laminated vs non laminated, i would compare soft tips, medium and hard tips, as well as size

The smaller the tip the less miss cue

miss cue with Soft tips is less likely than hard tip

Hard tips seem to give you more accuracy than soft ones, i go with medium

That is my 2c worth.
 
When you think of a laminated tip, think of a piece of plywood. When you think of a single-layer tip, think of a board.
Size for size the plywood is generally stronger than the board. The same holds true for the laminated cue tip versus the non-laminated cue tip. :smile:
 
Buddy said:
Go with a Kamui Black soft you will love it
Click to expand...

+1, if you are just looking for a tip to try, Kamui Black Soft is great. I have gone though several tips and these have been my favorite so far.

On a general note, laminated tips get more spin on the cue ball, me and a friend did some testing with LD and standard shafts and layered and solid tips. The most spin from what we had available was from a layered tip on a Predator 314-2.
 
The main difference between solid tips and laminated tips is kind of like the difference between solid wood and plywood. As with any natural material, there are flaws in leather. When the solid leather tips are stamped out of the hide, the manufacturer will avoid using the obvious flaws, but will be unaware of any flaws below the surface. Most solid tips are just fine, but every now and then an internal flaw in the leather will make for a bad tip.

Laminated tips are made with thinner layers of leather which eliminates far more internal flaw possibilities. As far as mushrooming, the laminated tips tend to mushroom less because the individual layers can only spread out so much. The drawback to laminated tips are the glue layers. If the glue fails, the tip delaminates.

Which is better? Well, that's up to each player to determine. It's the same reason why they make vanilla and chocolate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top