Talisman cue tips

[Erwan_BZH]

Trouble is though Trevor, a lot of players, myself included, find it very frustrating that tips like Elks or BD's are so inconsistant in quality over the past few years. I don't know why, whethers its the manufacturing process but they seem to be very hit or miss when it comes to picking one out of a box and putting it on your cue. I've lost count over the past 18 months or so that I've put on tips on my own cue and for others only to find that they aren't very good and to be honest I got very annoyed wasting my time in trying to find a decent bit of leather! When you think of the cost as well, I've probably chucked away about £10 worth of tips over that time, just to find a few decent ones. When you consider you can buy a talisman for £5 which will guarantee performance and last a whole lot longer, can you blame anyone for changing?

I agree 100%...
I put a new tip on this afternoon, another Elkie. It went in the vice for 2 hours before fitting it. I kept it thicker than I used to but it worked well (four +30 breaks and a 44 break in my evening session). But the question is : till when??? May I have to find another one in a month??

[Wity]

Why bung it in a vice for two hours before fitting it?

An Elmaster tip is one piece of leather that has already been compressed by machine, probably as much as possible and has long since settled by the time you buy it. Even if you can compress it more, fitting it straight after I reckon it'd spring back a bit.

Each to his own I spose but I dont see further attempts at compressing it doing any good.

Quote... (four +30 breaks and a 44 break in my evening session)

I't had sprung back a bit then come the evening

[trevs1]

I agree 100%...
I put a new tip on this afternoon, another Elkie. It went in the vice for 2 hours before fitting it. I kept it thicker than I used to but it worked well (four +30 breaks and a 44 break in my evening session). But the question is : till when??? May I have to find another one in a month??

If you like a tip to play hard, pick one out of the box (Elk or Blue Diamond)that has slightly less depth or thickness to it, and, try to dig your thumb nails into the side wall of it, trying to pull the tip apart. If you can't feel 'ANY' movement in the tip at all, it will play quite firm. Fit the tip as you would normally, shape it, then knock it down with a block of timber or other hard and reasonably heavy object until the tip has been further compressed. Then re-shape it and polish the side walls of the tip to stop any loose fibres fraying away.

This will play just fine if you like a firm tip, and, will last for a few months....unless you get it into your head something's wrong with it.

Doing it this way will enable you to do away with the 'vice thing' and should be totally reliable. Also, if you've got fifty in a box of Elks, I'd bet you'll find at least a third to half of them will be as firm as this. Now when you take into consideration that a box of Elks is only the cost of 2 Talisman tips, As far as my maths knowledge will allow, you could throw away 'ALL' the Elks from the box that were'nt up to your requirements and STILL have perhaps 17 good usable Elkmaster tips for future use.

VALUE FOR MONEY????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????

Elk 1 - Talisman 0

[madcat]

i was wondering which snooker pro players uses talisman tip. All I know Ronnie uses it, who else?

[Erwan_BZH]

If you like a tip to play hard, pick one out of the box (Elk or Blue Diamond)that has slightly less depth or thickness to it, and, try to dig your thumb nails into the side wall of it, trying to pull the tip apart. If you can't feel 'ANY' movement in the tip at all, it will play quite firm. Fit the tip as you would normally, shape it, then knock it down with a block of timber or other hard and reasonably heavy object until the tip has been further compressed. Then re-shape it and polish the side walls of the tip to stop any loose fibres fraying away.

This will play just fine if you like a firm tip, and, will last for a few months....unless you get it into your head something's wrong with it.

Doing it this way will enable you to do away with the 'vice thing' and should be totally reliable. Also, if you've got fifty in a box of Elks, I'd bet you'll find at least a third to half of them will be as firm as this. Now when you take into consideration that a box of Elks is only the cost of 2 Talisman tips, As far as my maths knowledge will allow, you could throw away 'ALL' the Elks from the box that were'nt up to your requirements and STILL have perhaps 17 good usable Elkmaster tips for future use.

VALUE FOR MONEY????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????

Elk 1 - Talisman 0

I disagree. Those tips won't last many months. As Cueman said, 2 months is quite a maximum (depending the amount of practice you have per week of course) for an Elkie.

Ok, financially, a box of Elkies/BDs are more economical but what's the point of having cheap tips if they suck one time out of three?? I'm juste getting fed up to retip so often. Don't you think it's worth paying something a bit more expensive but which will last a lot longer?

As for the vice, Kevin Muncaster (Northwest Cues) uses that process when retipping Ian McCulloch's cue, because he likes hard tips. And I'm sorry but Elkmaster tips AREN'T hard...Other example : I read that Stephen Maguire put his tip 30 sec in a microwave before compressing it, to make them harder, once again. It's not rare thing to use a vice.

[Erwan_BZH]

i was wondering which snooker pro players uses talisman tip. All I know Ronnie uses it, who else?

John Higgins uses them too.

[trevs1]

I disagree. Those tips won't last many months. As Cueman said, 2 months is quite a maximum (depending the amount of practice you have per week of course) for an Elkie.

Ok, financially, a box of Elkies/BDs are more economical but what's the point of having cheap tips if they suck one time out of three?? I'm juste getting fed up to retip so often. Don't you think it's worth paying something a bit more expensive but which will last a lot longer?

As for the vice, Kevin Muncaster (Northwest Cues) uses that process when retipping Ian McCulloch's cue, because he likes hard tips. And I'm sorry but Elkmaster tips AREN'T hard...Other example : I read that Stephen Maguire put his tip 30 sec in a microwave before compressing it, to make them harder, once again. It's not rare thing to use a vice.

Who knows, maybe you know better than I do, so I'll leave this conversation alone. Stick to what you know I guess and use the Talisman tips.

But...

Stephen Maguire was very happy with the Elkmaster on the new cue he know uses, it was one of the harder Elkmasters in the box , more or less done as described above, I know that for a fact....

Because i built the cue.

[phoenixraker]

I uses the soft version of the tip but on occasions have trouble with the tip taking the chalk properly. but in general i enjoy using the tip

[gloveman]

27 years blue diamond

after 27 years using blue diamonds i switched to talisman pro soft 3 weeks ago.once u get past the difference in feel(from soft to hard) they play very well. they take no time to bed in,don't mushroom and don't throw the white as much when playing with side. chalk sticks to em like sh*t to a blanket so don't worry about miscueing.

[Erwan_BZH]

Who knows, maybe you know better than I do, so I'll leave this conversation alone. Stick to what you know I guess and use the Talisman tips.

But...

Stephen Maguire was very happy with the Elkmaster on the new cue he know uses, it was one of the harder Elkmasters in the box , more or less done as described above, I know that for a fact....

Because i built the cue.

I'm not saying that I know more than you trevs, I just give my opinion. I'm not an tip expert by any means but I just tell what I've noticed about the Elkmasters over the years. But maybe I had a bad series recently, it's possible...

I can't say if the Talismans are better or not than the Elkies. I just say "give them a try", to see if it's worth it.

As for Stephen, fait enough. I just reported what I've read on others forums but as you built the cue, I trust you, obviously.

[Erwan_BZH]

After a discussion with a mate on another forum, it's highly likely that my feeling of soft tips from Elkmasters comes from a wrong way to retip my cue. I may shape them too much, using too much sandpaper and so ruining the fibers...making it a bit spongy.

[trevs1]

After a discussion with a mate on another forum, it's highly likely that my feeling of soft tips from Elkmasters comes from a wrong way to retip my cue. I may shape them too much, using too much sandpaper and so ruining the fibers...making it a bit spongy.

I wouldn't say you've found them to be inconsistent because of how you've shaped them Erwan, it's more likely to be because it has been a bad, or overly soft tip.

I'm not proclaiming Elkmasters to be the answer to all tip dilemmas by any means. My point has been that I find it amazing how many people shout from the rooftops about the benefits of this tip or that. In reality, a tip of any brand is suitable if the right one is found that suits an individuals requirements.

I've not been able to find anything that is definitively better 'every time' than an Elk as far as value for money is concerned.

A little example of how different players like different tips:

PLAYER 1:

Likes a new tip to be as thick as realistically possible and quite soft, as he likes to play the tip in over a week or so. give him this and he's happy.

PLAYER 2:

Likes a firm tip that offers a crisp contact immediatley, he used the hardest tips he could get his hands on to achieve this, but, didn't like the fact that they went so hard in no time at all, that they held no chalk and caused mis-cue problems occasionally. I asked this player what he liked the tip to 'feel' like when he struck the ball and after his explanation, picked a tip from the box that felt 'right' for this player. Once the tip was fixed, shaped and bedded in properly (about 200 seconds to do), the player played a few shots and was amazed how used the tip felt, in his words "like it had been on there for ages". He simply couldn't believe how good this 'NEW' tip felt, and didn't think it was possible using these tips.

Player 1 - is a Welsh multiple World Champion

Player 2 - was an Englishman from Yorkshire and is sadly no longer with us.

Both tips used for these respective players came from a box of Elkmasters.
My point here is that not all tips in a box are the same, some will suit one preference and some suit another.

If a tip is selected carefully, it will do the job for anyone. No 'ONE' brand is the answer for all, it's horses for courses.

[Erwan_BZH]

I wouldn't say you've found them to be inconsistent because of how you've shaped them Erwan, it's more likely to be because it has been a bad, or overly soft tip.

I'm not proclaiming Elkmasters to be the answer to all tip dilemmas by any means. My point has been that I find it amazing how many people shout from the rooftops about the benefits of this tip or that. In reality, a tip of any brand is suitable if the right one is found that suits an individuals requirements.

I've not been able to find anything that is definitively better 'every time' than an Elk as far as value for money is concerned.

A little example of how different players like different tips:

PLAYER 1:

Likes a new tip to be as thick as realistically possible and quite soft, as he likes to play the tip in over a week or so. give him this and he's happy.

PLAYER 2:

Likes a firm tip that offers a crisp contact immediatley, he used the hardest tips he could get his hands on to achieve this, but, didn't like the fact that they went so hard in no time at all, that they held no chalk and caused mis-cue problems occasionally. I asked this player what he liked the tip to 'feel' like when he struck the ball and after his explanation, picked a tip from the box that felt 'right' for this player. Once the tip was fixed, shaped and bedded in properly (about 200 seconds to do), the player played a few shots and was amazed how used the tip felt, in his words "like it had been on there for ages". He simply couldn't believe how good this 'NEW' tip felt, and didn't think it was possible using these tips.

Player 1 - is a Welsh multiple World Champion

Player 2 - was an Englishman from Yorkshire and is sadly no longer with us.

Both tips used for these respective players came from a box of Elkmasters.
My point here is that not all tips in a box are the same, some will suit one preference and some suit another.

If a tip is selected carefully, it will do the job for anyone. No 'ONE' brand is the answer for all, it's horses for courses.

Yeah, that's an interesting point of view. I probably picked up the wrong ones recently, and as I tend to shape them hard with sand paper, things got worse I think...

Thanks for your opinion though. It's always useful to confront people's points of view.


PS : just a question regarding Mags' cue. What's the tip size and weight? Thx.

[apa147]

I've been using a Talisman for about 2 years....

I changed to a Talisman PRO Soft around 2 years ago. I know they last longer and don't mushroom but I have continued to use them because they offer better control, feel and more spin than Elks or BD in my opinion. If you prefer a softer multi layer tip then give the Tiger Sniper a try, they are advertised as Medium-Hard but are softer than a Talisman PRO Soft.

I have also tried Talisman PRO Medium, Talisman WB Medium and Tiger Everest but I wasn't all that impressed with them.

[Wity]

Ie fitted one last week as i said earlier in this thread, played 6 frames with it now and found my game had improved quite dramatically. I've not miscued once since and even potted a few shots I thought were well beyond me.

I'll probably be back to my crap self next time but it was worth the fiver just to thrash my son for a change.