Who REALLY makes the best cloth??

The Milliken cloth is used in the german team premier league as the producer has a contract with the governing body, but also some second league clubs have put this cloth on. Well at least it was mandatory until Simonis made an appeal against the "Milliken only" rule for the Premiership.
But the cloths are put on and players do like it. They say it's very comparable to Simonis, but especially for one-off events it has the advantage of being less slippery at the beginning. It's said to play the same way from the first stroke on. This especially comes to play thinking about the German Singles Championship which is hosted in an event hall or other special venue events.
Also it is said to be better (or worse) on draw shots, the cueball travels further.
If you want to mount it, make sure you get the latest version. There have been issues with black burn marks during the summer, but this is sorted out by now
Most of our top national players are happy with 860, Z9 and Milliken equally

But remember: It's all second hand information, until now I have played nothing else than 860
 
Black-Balled said:
Precisely why they make Almond Joy and Mounds.
Click to expand...

That's only 2 choices.
Not a good analogy when there are at least half a dozen cloth manufacturers and judging by this thread,
as in every other "whats best" thread, opinions are and will always be split.

ps - Mounds here.
 
Last edited:
manwon said:
This cloth is made foir 3-Cushion Billiards, and in my opinion it would be way to fast for standard pocket billiards. Granito, also makes a version of this cloth and it is marketed as Granito-M.

Take Care
Click to expand...

Both are too fast for pool games - but - some peeps just gotta have it regardless.
 
Has anyone tried Velosity Pro? It's distributed by Armand Billiards, importers of Aramith balls from Belgium. My wife gave me the O.K. to have the cloth changed right before Christmas. I need to thing rather quickly. I've been using 3030 "Tour" for a little over a year, on my outside table. It is still in great shape, but I want to take advantage of this kindness ASAP. BTW, my outdoor table is a 30 year old 9' Renaissance LaPaz, by Charler Porter:D .
 

Attachments

  • P1010351.JPG
    P1010351.JPG
    73.9 KB · Views: 1,279
coastal_tony said:
Has anyone tried Velosity Pro? It's distributed by Armand Billiards, importers of Aramith balls from Belgium. My wife gave me the O.K. to have the cloth changed right before Christmas. I need to thing rather quickly. I've been using 3030 "Tour" for a little over a year, on my outside table. It is still in great shape, but I want to take advantage of this kindness ASAP. BTW, my outdoor table is a 30 year old 9' Renaissance LaPaz, by Charler Porter:D .
Click to expand...

I think we talked today Tony and I suggested you stay with the 3030 or go 860HR in a diff color..
Although other users opinions are important, Velocity - while a good cloth at low price - just isn't on
par (yet) with the top cloths mentioned in this thread so far.

BTW - nice table and Tourny Blue cloth would match those shades :D
 
Rick, it's gonna be black for me, I will paint the shades with black "Fleck Coat"
Dartman said:
I think we talked today Tony and I suggested you stay with the 3030 or go 860HR in a diff color..
Although other users opinions are important, Velocity - while a good cloth at low price - just isn't on
par (yet) with the top cloths mentioned in this thread so far.

BTW - nice table and Tourny Blue cloth would match those shades :D
Click to expand...
 
tommy84 said:
The Milliken cloth is used in the german team premier league as the producer has a contract with the governing body, but also some second league clubs have put this cloth on. Well at least it was mandatory until Simonis made an appeal against the "Milliken only" rule for the Premiership.
But the cloths are put on and players do like it. They say it's very comparable to Simonis, but especially for one-off events it has the advantage of being less slippery at the beginning. It's said to play the same way from the first stroke on. This especially comes to play thinking about the German Singles Championship which is hosted in an event hall or other special venue events.
Click to expand...

The same comments were made during and after the GenerationPool 9 Ball event in Charlotte by the professionals. They said that the cloth played like it was supposed to from day one.

There are mills and there are mills. Simonis, Milliken(Strachan), and Granito all come from a long tradition of making billiard cloths and their processes are tightly controlled. I don't think that anyone could really go wrong with any of these three brands. Championship has also made it's mark and proven itself adequately.

If you are looking for a cheaper alternative then the off brands do very well to fill that section of the market. We sell a lot of Sterling branded cloth to home buyers who are well pleased with the quality for the money. I put Velocity Pro and similar lesser known brands in this category.

I live in China and I see all kinds of cloths on tables here. There are companies making "billiard cloth" where it's completely unclear how they could come to that conclusion that what they sell has anything to do with pool. If you are serious about your game then pick something from the best cloth makers who have the longest tradition. If the table is for purely novice recreation then any billiard cloth will do.

That's how I feel about it.
 
Z9 Billiard Cloth

I have played in pool rooms all over the country, some with Simonis, some with Granito, some with Championship. All of these play very well. About 1 year ago a pool room in South Florida called Kellys Billiards installed Z9 Billiard Cloth from Germany on six of there tables. Like most pool players I was skeptical and resistant to change at first, once I began playing on it, I really started to like it. The playabilty was Excellent!

We all know that many cloths play well when they are new, the true test is how well the cloth plays months down the road after hundreds of hours of play. In my experiance Z9 maitains the highest level of play for the longest period of time when compared to other types of cloth. Z9 was designed in Germany and is also manufactured there to the HIGHEST of German manufacturing standards.

When I opened Slate Billiards in Boynton Beach, FL I had to think as a room owner and as a player. I wanted my pool hall to provide the best conditions for my customers, at the same time I did not want to have to recover tables every 6 months. After playing on many other cloths for years, Z9 Was the only cloth that I even considered for my pool hall!
 
I find it hard to believe with all the talk of cloth and what is the best, that I hear Milliken's name so rarely mentioned on this forum, especially by the table mechanics. As a distributor of this brand, I know first hand that most room owners that put this cloth on are incredibly impressed with its playability and durability. So much so that many are going as long as 3-9 months longer without recovering.

Advantages that I have seen firsthand are Milliken's tendency to stay free from tears when bruises and burn marks begin to show. Blends with higher wool (90/10 or 85/15) content seem to "wear" better, but the truth is that they simply don't show burns and bruises like cloths with higher nylon contents (70/30 blends). Wear, IMO, relates to the cloths playing characteristics, not necessarily its appearance. when you can go four rails to the same spot on day and on day 180, that cloth wears well. When cloth doesn't obviously speed up after the first few months, it wears well.

Anecdotally, I know of rooms that have used Milliken for years, but haven't told their players for fear of the backlash. So many are brand blind that they can not accurately judge when a new cloth may perform better, be it Milliken or any brand OTHER than Simonis. I have heard players say that won't play in "this room" because they don't use Simonis like the "other room", when in fact, both rooms use Milliken, and have for years.

Milliken's headquarters are in Spartanburg SC. they employ over 100 PHD's and have accumulated 2200 patents. They specialize in specialty fabrics and performance materials, employing over 7000 people. They consistently win awards for ethics and innovation worldwide.

Sports related...they produce the wool coverings for tennis balls that are used in all major tennis tournaments (like Wimbledon and the US Open), and produce the world's premier snooker cloth, and they produce SuperPro billiards cloth.

All this to say, that for some reason, so many in the billiards industry don't seem to think that Milliken can compete. It tells me that many are just unwilling to have an open mind, and even some that have tried, will refuse to allow themselves to think anything can be better than what they have used for years.
 
carter1984 said:
I find it hard to believe with all the talk of cloth and what is the best, that I hear Milliken's name so rarely mentioned on this forum, especially by the table mechanics. As a distributor of this brand, I know first hand that most room owners that put this cloth on are incredibly impressed with its playability and durability. So much so that many are going as long as 3-9 months longer without recovering.

Advantages that I have seen firsthand are Milliken's tendency to stay free from tears when bruises and burn marks begin to show. Blends with higher wool (90/10 or 85/15) content seem to "wear" better, but the truth is that they simply don't show burns and bruises like cloths with higher nylon contents (70/30 blends). Wear, IMO, relates to the cloths playing characteristics, not necessarily its appearance. when you can go four rails to the same spot on day and on day 180, that cloth wears well. When cloth doesn't obviously speed up after the first few months, it wears well.

Anecdotally, I know of rooms that have used Milliken for years, but haven't told their players for fear of the backlash. So many are brand blind that they can not accurately judge when a new cloth may perform better, be it Milliken or any brand OTHER than Simonis. I have heard players say that won't play in "this room" because they don't use Simonis like the "other room", when in fact, both rooms use Milliken, and have for years.

Milliken's headquarters are in Spartanburg SC. they employ over 100 PHD's and have accumulated 2200 patents. They specialize in specialty fabrics and performance materials, employing over 7000 people. They consistently win awards for ethics and innovation worldwide.

Sports related...they produce the wool coverings for tennis balls that are used in all major tennis tournaments (like Wimbledon and the US Open), and produce the world's premier snooker cloth, and they produce SuperPro billiards cloth.

All this to say, that for some reason, so many in the billiards industry don't seem to think that Milliken can compete. It tells me that many are just unwilling to have an open mind, and even some that have tried, will refuse to allow themselves to think anything can be better than what they have used for years.
Click to expand...

John Schmidt used it in his new pool room in WV.
 
TAP said:
A few years back I bought a nine foot Olhausen table, and had it covered with Champion "Touring Pro". I found this cloth to be faster than Simonis 860, and actually held up better than Simonis. When I finally recovered my table, I wanted to change to the "Electric Blue", and Champion's color was just not the right blue, so I went back to Simonis.
Click to expand...

I have an 8 footer (olhausen) covered with Simonis 760 {also in championship blue}. I chose this cloth because the power end of my game was just fine, and I wanted help on the delicasy end of my game. After 2.5 years of 2-ish Hr/day use, the cloth is standing up well--this needs to be tempered with the way I play. I just roll balls on the table and shoot them out either 15 at a time of races with Ghost to 10. After 2.5 years with this cloth, I see no particular reason to slow it down when it does get recovered. At homw when others come to play, its like a secret weapon. Away at other tables, it gives me the delicasy to play great safeties.

When I covered the table I kept a half dozen 4" squares to protect the cloth while performing jump practice and can even do jumps with the play cue as long as there is 4"-ish between CB and interfereing ball.
 
A Taiwanese company manufactures "Andy" cloth, which is featured on nearly all the major tournaments in Taiwan and China. It is pretty cheap and I've always thought it plays just as well as the Simonis.
 
Had Championship, didn't like it. Simonis will always get my money until they have a change in quality. I have 860 now but like how 760 plays better. Haven't tried 860HR.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top