Wiping cushions with cloth

[misspentoldage]

At the World Championship in Sheffield this year I was watching the table fitter clean the tables between sessions. As well as brushing the cloth I noticed he was giving the cushions a good old rub down the nap with some sort of cloth. He was really putting some effort into it. Can anyone tell me what he was doing this for, what sort of cleaning cloth it was, would it be damp or dry - anything I should be doing on our club table, which I look after?

[throtts]

It would be a damp watered cloth, his removing chalk dust residue which binds to the 6811 cloth. I was just advised by WS to do this to my cushions on a recloth 5 week back. It helps maintain the bounce effect.

[misspentoldage]

Thanks for the tip. I'll try it on ours.

[Geoff Large]

Any dampness in the cloth will bind the chalk dust into the cloth , although WS advised this , they may be refering that this be done on world championship tables that the cloth is only on for 3 DAYS MAX . on a tempory short basis there may be some good in the use of it , but long term definatley a no no .

in club and private use I have seen dampened cloth go stiff like cardboard , the mixture of water chalk dust and cloth fibre dust is like putting wallpaper paste on to it , over time it will set like cardboard , ask any table fitter who has removed a cloth that has had any water applied to it even a damp cloth wiped down it on a regular basis , and his answer will be like Cardboard .
Cloths that have to last 24 months will not take regular dampness into the cloth , this also is the opposite advice for any recomendation to put heaters under the table , as the heat is there to keep the cloth dry and free from moisture and speed the ball up the moisture will put the brakes on the ball , damping cushions on a regular basis may also damage and shorten the life of the rubber .

the best thing I have seen and is supposed to have come from the world championship table fitters , is a square of cushion flotex which has a nap , use this on a block of wood and use it's nap to fine brush the cloth after brushing and wipeing down , the fine bristles comb the nap very well and will get right into the fine fibres of the cloth to comb out the chalk dust . you have to put the flotex nap fibre ends towards the direction of the cloth nap to achieve this .