Table maintenance

[Geoff Large]

Thought I would get out these questions, if they have not already been mentioned:

1.Which is the safer/best brush, nylon vs horse hair?

2.Which is best for the table to mark the spots for the colour balls, chalk mark where
the spot would be? Those adhesive spots and if so which one's/size. or another way?

3. This Chalk -off Billiard cloth cleaner in a spray can, good or bad idea?

I guess the key point of the 3 questions is to insure that the table cloth is not
damaged in any way.

Thanks in advance for your insight on this subject.

Horse hair , or better still if you can get them Chinese Pig/hog/boar hair with the split ends that sepperate as the brush wears in . (all top quality paint brushes are made from chinese Hog hair ) Nylon brushes are as useless as a ash tray on a moterbike , they are too coarse and bend like an old tooth brush in time and go out of shape .
the nylon hairs are also too far apart and they have no split ends , so they will not do as good a job as a pure bristle brush which gets better as it wears in .
Be carefull of cheap and nasty pure bristle mix hair brushes from china . these are made up with a few hairs of pure bristle and the rest are nylon .

Proper purpose made baulk pencil is best for marking the baulk line , but there are good water based ink felt tip pens that can be used if they can be cleaned off with acetone when a stretch is required .
I use very small office supply adhesive spots , black are hard to come by , we have a DIY store in UK called Wilko's these sell green spots which come in a pack of multi coloured spots , and are around a 50p a packet .
I always iron these on , be carefull of inferior dye's on some makes of these spots as some have experienced streak run from the black office spots .
when positioning the ball on a spot , click a ball across the top of the spotted ball once and only lightly to spot the ball .
A table without spots will wear through on the black spot first if used on a regular basis , TV tables have their cloths changed every 3 days so no issue not to use spots . So please do not copy a profesional table on TV when you see they have no spots .

Good old fashioned elbow grease with a quality pure bristle brush , do this often and you should will never find use for these spray cleaners , some of which can starch the cloth in patches .
You can if no filler in the slate joints use a vacum cleaner , or use a low powered vacum cleaner with the slide open on the tube for less suction , but be carefull a vac/cleaner will suck out loose filler in slate joints resulting in an expensive visit from a Billiard fitter to put right as the bed cloth has to come off .

[bob1]

Last question...for now!
It has been stated not to use Ink pen for the balk line and the D. Which is best
when drawing the balk and D on the table?

Thanks again

[bob1]

Thought I would get out these questions, if they have not already been mentioned:

1.Which is the safer/best brush, nylon vs horse hair?

2.Which is best for the table to mark the spots for the colour balls, chalk mark where
the spot would be? Those adhesive spots and if so which one's/size. or another way?

3. This Chalk -off Billiard cloth cleaner in a spray can, good or bad idea?

I guess the key point of the 3 questions is to insure that the table cloth is not
damaged in any way.

Thanks in advance for your insight on this subject.

[philip in china]

Just a quick thank you to everybody (especially Geoff) for this exceptionally useful thread. I brush my table every day before I start to play but just with a bristle clothes brush- cos that's all I've got- and then maybe once a week I get under the cushions with a paint brush. It is amazing how much crud I get out from there! I haven't ironed the cloth though- but I suppose I ought to do. Will borrow the wife's iron and see how I get on with that.

What effect would balls have on the cloth- especially if they are a bi grubby? I always polish mine as I get them out of the box before a session. It has sort of become a bit of a ritual with me but that is what I am like.

[Geoff Large]

Thank you. Is the name Strachan not being used any more?

What effect would it have on the play of the table if the nap of the cushions are not installed properly? Would it affect how the ball may rolled towards or away from the pocket on a soft shot down the cushion?

It would make a differance when the cloth is new and if the cloth had a long nap , if you put side on a ball to strike a cushion first and you know the direction of the long nap then that is where a differance could be vital to the accuracy of the expected angle that the ball bounces off the cushion .

a ball can skid or grip on nap , if its facing the wrong way then that skid or grip can alter the expected angle of the ball if side is put on .

It is less noticeable with short or fine napped match cloths such as no10 WOE and hainsworth match .

[Terry Davidson]

It's a weird thing. They supplied large posters for the Canadian Championships, one showing a picture of about 10 referees and the name 'Strachan & Stroud' was prominently displayed with 'Milliken' nowhere to be seen (except maybe on the fine print at the bottom, didn't check).

However, if you're ordering cloth and on their shipping documents you only deal with and only see the commercial name of Milliken, with Strachan & Stroud nowhere to be seen.

Terry

[bongo]

Is the name Strachan not being used any more?

I think it is still being used, the logo is sometimes on the referees' blazers on TV.

[poolqjunkie]

Thank you. Is the name Strachan not being used any more?

What effect would it have on the play of the table if the nap of the cushions are not installed properly? Would it affect how the ball may rolled towards or away from the pocket on a soft shot down the cushion?

[Geoff Large]

Is WoE and Strachan and Milliken the same company?

Yes Miliken is the latest company name .

the cloth manufacture is based in the west of england at Stroud , that is why it is called West of England Cloth .

[Terry Davidson]

Bob1:

I meant to respond to your post where you say you're expecting your house to be done in 3 months. Based on my experience I think you'll be very lucky to have it done in the time promised.

I had a custom house built in Alma, started in June and was to be finished by mid-Oct. Nothing special about the house, permits were all set up but I didn't actually move in until Dec 5th and at that I had to push him a bit and also arrange to have the occupancy permit done on that day (something about the well wasn't EXACTLY where it was supposed to be on the blueprints, it was about 10ft more towards the back of the lot).

I love those bureaucrats!

Terry

[Terry Davidson]

poolqjunkie:

Yes, that's right, West of England is sold by Milliken which is the official trade name they use on shipments.

We get the WOE 6811 Gold here at Wholesale Billiards in Kitchener for approx $438 including tax (there might be shipping to get it to BC if you're looking to get some). Although there must be a wholesaler or retailer out in BC somewhere and I would be interested to see if the pricing is around the same if you happened to have bought some recently.

That $438(CAN) is around GBP200 for any Britishers reading this post with one Canadian Dollar = 0.5556 pence today

Terry

[poolqjunkie]

Hi Bob,

The 'nap' on a snooker table cloth should ALWAYS run from baulk end to spot end (spot end is the 'black spot end'.)

I am not so sure about the cushions but I think the best is 'Northern Rubber'. The cloth is West of England (WoE) 6811 or WoE No.10.

Is WoE and Strachan and Milliken the same company?

[Geoff Large]

Sorry Geoff this is not correct, No 9 setting is fine for the Milliken cloths, no more than No 8 setting for Hainsworth Match cloth which contains some nylon in the mix and too hot an iron melts and picks up the nylon content. I wondered what the problem was when I started using Hainsworth cloth, only after some legwork and research did I find what the problem was with the iron having a sticky deposit on it after ironing. Hainsworth's actually claim 100% wool when in fact there is a small inclusion of fine fibre nylon to increase the wearing quality of the cloth.

true moglet , I forgot to mention the cloth brand that this setting was recomended for .

[moglet]

9 correct , dowsing thermostat irons should be set on number 9 the hottest setting so no fear with a thermosattic iron made by downings will burn the cloth , UNLESS you leave it in one spot . you should realy use a billiard iron as an ordinary iron has no wieght to it , the old type that fit on gas stove's are better than electric irons due to the plate being thisck and the iron heavy . thees can be picked up for uunder £30 .

Sorry Geoff this is not correct, No 9 setting is fine for the Milliken cloths, no more than No 8 setting for Hainsworth Match cloth which contains some nylon in the mix and too hot an iron melts and picks up the nylon content. I wondered what the problem was when I started using Hainsworth cloth, only after some legwork and research did I find what the problem was with the iron having a sticky deposit on it after ironing. Hainsworth's actually claim 100% wool when in fact there is a small inclusion of fine fibre nylon to increase the wearing quality of the cloth.

[Geoff Large]

Here is some advice:


1) Get your brush and cut the hairs with a crew cut down to 1cm in length, it is said that this will get the dust out of the cloth better.

2) ALWAYS brush in the direction of the nap (baulk-end to spot end in straight strokes straight up the table, no curving.

3) Do not brush to violently or the dust will go into the air and land on the table again!

4) Make sure your brush is clean and not still hairs, they should not damage the cloth!

5) Get your under the cueshion brush and brush any bits of dust under the cushion into a pocket and shake the pocket, do not do this with balls in the pocket.

6) You may want to go under the cushion with your normal brush again. Make sure there is no more dust, dust-free perfection!

Ironing

7) Always iron the same direction as brushing,

8) Do not place the iron near the baulk pocket and slide it underneath the baulk cushion before pushing it up the table, this will leave a mark in the cloth.

9) Make sure your iron is not too hot damaged in any way.

10) Angle the iron to avoid tram lines!

11) DON'T IRON THE CUSHIONS!

'Blocking'

8) The same as brushing but do continous strokes instead.

9) Grab your brush and wrap a clean damp cloth around it, then 'block' the table and this gets rid of chalk marks and makes it perfect!

10) Always in the direction of the nap!

And be careful!

Hope this helps!

I will anmswer a few of these myths in order of statement .

1 , Never cutt the brush hair down , a top quality Brush have pure bristle hairs that split into 3 or 4 strands as they wear , the more use a Genuine pure bristle brush gets ,the better it is as more hairs will be in contact with the cloth , you can never get all the dust out of the cloth but do not be tempted to use a vacum cleaner as the joint fill may come out under suction .

2 , correct as stated

3, you can brush as hard as you like , any floating dust that settles , leave for 10 mins to settle or longer if you like , then use youre blocker or the brush wood back wrapped in Billiard cloth to wipe surface dust away and lay nap ready for ironing , as you place the blocker on the table , go from baulk cushion to spot cushion lift blocker up and wipe dust away from blocker with hand away from table , wipe cushion wood capping down after blocking the table to remove any dust on these .

4, I have seen worn down brushes damage cushion cloth to the point of it splitting long before it is worn from ball wear .

5 , the best tool for getting dust from unde the cushions is an evo stick glue spreader , the type with serated platic teeth , this gets the dust from right under the cushion , just by useing the end tooth to ease it out .

6, correct

7, correct but do not rub iron on cushion nose as they may split the cloth through iron wear and danage the rubber due to heat . try and keep 1/4 of an inch away from the cushion , the bit under the cushion will not require ironing too much anyway as no ball contact is made at that point .

8, correct , I often see this , where the person ironing has slid the iron from a side cushion across for the next overlap , and again for the next run down , this will definatley mark the cloth .

9 correct , dowsing thermostat irons should be set on number 9 the hottest setting so no fear with a thermosattic iron made by downings will burn the cloth , UNLESS you leave it in one spot . you should realy use a billiard iron as an ordinary iron has no wieght to it , the old type that fit on gas stove's are better than electric irons due to the plate being tseck and the iron heavy . these can be picked up for uunder £30 .

10 Correct , the iron plate which houses the element is only 1/8th thick , they tend to bow , by twisting at an angle the front and back leading edges do most of the work , with the bow or warp within these lines , the way an iron bows its plate is when people place the iron on its stand face down during heat up or cool down , when an iron is heating up or hot , it must be upright so heat can get away from the plate , and not trapped , this is the main reason so many irons are bowed or warped .

11 , Dont iron cushions = Correct .

other tips .

never mark Baulk out in felt tip permament marker , when the cloth is stretched you cannot erase it .

Always use spots to protect the cloth in normal play , in matches you can take the spots off , but always replace for normal use . the cloth will last longer .