What makes a good chalk?

SUPERSTAR said:
I never had a preference of which chalk to use, and was always using whatever the pool room had.
Most of the rooms that i know use MASTER, which i never ever had a problem with until about 4-5 years ago.
Whatever they did to it completely changed the way it played.
ESPECIALLY that MASTER that had the FLAG printed on the side.
THOSE pieces were total junk IMO.
Some batches were just to soft and large grained. Kind of like Sand, and it wouldn't be uncommon for us to get a new piece at the beggining of say a 4 hour session, and have this HUGE hole whiddled into it by the end. A hole that you might think took maybe a week or so of constant play to achieve. Chalk would be all over your hands, and all over the table.
Some of those batches were the complete opposite, and were so hard, it was like trying to chalk your tip with a piece of granite!

I think that once the MASTER with the FLAG left the scene, that particular chalk has never been the same, for the same reasons. Too hard, or too soft.

The other thing that drives me crazy, is the fact that the MASTER that i use today, sucks up moisture like a sponge, and when i go to chalk, and it is humid out, it's not CHALKING the tip. It is for all intensive purposes, CLAYING the tip. Very wet, and streaky, and one swipe puts some on, and the very next swipe puts a new steak on and takes some of the old one off.

I end up either having to go ask the houseman to go toss the piece in the microwave for a minute (when i am gambling) as this heats it up, and stops the whole wetness thing from happening for maybe 10 minutes, or i end up having this wad of paper towels, in which i swipe the chalk with the towel, removing the wet clay surface stuff, until i get lower, and it starts to behave like chalk, and FLAKE/grain off, instead of streaking/claying off.
This might last about 4 or 5 shots in humid conditions before i have to do it again.

SILVER CUP on the other hand, is a chalk that i have NEVER had a problem with. It's never been too hard, or to soft, and has NEVER started to "CLAY UP" when the weather conditions got humid.
Personally, i feel that it is a much better, more consistent chalk then MASTER, and that the only reason MASTER is more popular, is cause it is one of the industry standards.
MASTER is the ONLY chalk that i have ever played with that i have miscued in the MIDDLE of the tip, and not on the edges. (usually when it is "claying") Which at the times it happens, completely baffles me, and leaves me with a big question mark over my head, wondering how on earth that is possible.

I have NEVER had that problem or any for that matter with SILVER CUP. It has never cost me any money, where MASTER i feel has cost me some $$$$ over the years.
Click to expand...

I would have to concur with your conclusions about Silver cup. I too have noticed a that masters can sometimes end up looking like toothpaste on the end of your cue. Silver cup is always consistant in it's texture and application. I also like it because it makes less of a mess on my ferral.

I use the Green Silver Cup most often, although I do still use masters as well. As for the mess it leaves on the table..... Shrugs, I guess that's my way of making sure the room owner does his regular cleaning on the tables. I don't think clean tables are too much to ask for. I hate coming home from a place with the heel of my hand discolored from dirty tables.
 
One other thing...

Another factor I think that comes into play on chalking your cue is the
granularity of the chalk vs. the granularity of the surface of your tip.

Tips that have had sandpaper used on the end vs. a scuffer vs. a TipPik will all have different surface patterns for the chalk to go into. Someone could be experiencing problems with miscues, etc.. simply because of the tip tool they are using where if they used something different, their tip would chalk
better and more even.

Say what you will, but I only use sandpaper (220 grit) for a little shaping, mostly on the sides a little after initial shaping, and a TipPik shadow on a layered Hercules medium hard tip, and it seems to work great. Never had a problem with the layers of the tip either, and chalk holds real well.

And I use Masters dark blue chalk, but that chalk that is black with yellow on it, might be triangle, is not bad either.
 
I have been using Master chalk since the beginning, but lately I have noticed inconsistancies in it. Actually yesterday I bought a 12 box of green Silver Cup, so hopefully I will like that better.
 
I have a box of blue masters and a box of blue silver cup. If its really REALLY humid (constant rain for days), i'll pick up a cube out of the silver cup box. Most of the time, i just take whatever is closest to my cue case when im going out. IMO, you cant go wrong with either brand.

Thinking too much about chalk, youll end up blaming the chalk instead of yurself for miscues.....
 
inconsistent

I've notice the master chalk that we get in here at our store has been very inconsistent in the quaility of the pieces. Some of the pieces will not give good coverage and some will. I switched over to triangle and have not had any problems. One of the big problems I see is moisture. It has a big negative effect on the chalk. I know keep my chalk in a sealed baggie at all times to eliminate the moisture factor and have had good success.
 
I always use Masters blue but there is this one pool room I go to sometimes and they have Masters blue but it seems really hard and just doesn't look or play like normal Masters. Could it be counterfeit or factory seconds?
 
You basically have five factors to think about with chalk.

1) Color- this is more to do wiith how you feel about dirtying up tables,if you don't care use black on green felt.:rolleyes:

2) Application- probably the factor that players address first, how easily the chalk goes on your tip.

3) Moisture- relates to #2 above, what the chalk is like when moist (like in Louisiana) or overly dry(like Nevada).

4) Stickiness- does the chalk stay on the tip or does it transfer to the balls and the table (also if it chunks off).

5) Playability- relates to #4 above, which chalk allows you to do more with your tip without miscueing.


Terry
 
Why is some chalk harder than others even with the same color? I feel that silver cup is harder than master with the same shade of blue.

Also, some chalk feels very soft but once I chalk my tip and hit a shot, I can see a chunk of it coming right off my tip.

Some harder chalk leaves a big mess with blue powder all over the place and seems to require more force to make them stay.

Is it just the lead pigment which is making all the difference?

If one compares the chalk used to write on blackboards, one cannot help but agree that all different color feel pretty much the same. So, why the difference in pool chalk?

Richard
 
nipponbilliards said:
Why is some chalk harder than others even with the same color? I feel that silver cup is harder than master with the same shade of blue.

Also, some chalk feels very soft but once I chalk my tip and hit a shot, I can see a chunk of it coming right off my tip.

Some harder chalk leaves a big mess with blue powder all over the place and seems to require more force to make them stay.

Is it just the lead pigment which is making all the difference?

If one compares the chalk used to write on blackboards, one cannot help but agree that all different color feel pretty much the same. So, why the difference in pool chalk?

Richard
Click to expand...

The lead made a difference because the old leaded chalk stuck to the tip slightly better. The major ingredient in chalk are silicates (sand). So how well the chalk holds together probably depends on the courseness of the sand used. To give you an idea imagine the difference between the "sugar sand" of the Florida gulf coast and compare it to the coarse sand of the pacific islands. I've wondered about the "color of the sand", volcanic sand is already black, coral sand is pink to reddish. My guess is they use white sand, but where do they obtain it? How coarse is it? How much do they grind it up (if at all) for uniformity?

Terry
 
Good to the Last Ounce of Chalk
 

Attachments

  • MasterChalk.jpg
    MasterChalk.jpg
    45.2 KB · Views: 220
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top