Need information about ferules!

[Kick]

Hey,

new to these forums, but it's a great place!

Anyway been playing snooker for about 3 years now, and been playing with a cheap £20 rileys cue which does not have a replacable tip (ferule i believe it's called)

anyway looking for a new cue and i have a question.

if it says the cue includes a ferule, does this mean the tip is replacable?

thanks for your help!

[silverdragon]

yes, the tip can be replaced. i do believe that almost all cues have ferrules. the ferrule cuts some of the impact on the shaft as well as keep the shaft from splitting.

[reverse_side]

never heard of a non-replaceable tip, included a pic to illustrate which is what for you Kick. £20 riley - my first ever cue; never wudda replaced it but for it being nicked out of m'ole mini - first time I'd left it alone.

What's your budget for your new cue Kick?

[Robert602]

You might be thinking of screw tips, which are more easily replacable (they just screw in and out of the ferrule). These don't come recommended though, they apparantly don't feel as solid as a fixed tip. The vast majority of cues (including yours by the sounds of it) have fixed tips that require you to cut them off with a knife, then glue a new one on. Not as user friendly but still replacable.

If your cue really doesn't have a ferrule (as illustrated by reverse side) then it might be very difficult to replace the tip without damaging the shaft. I actually don't think I've ever seen a cue without a ferrule though.

[reverse_side]

You're right there Rob, the screw-ins are the easiest to replace and there's never a tip that you can't replace it just depends how easy it is to do it.

I've seen cues without a ferrule (and if you do a Google on 'snooker cue no ferrule' there's a few antique ones for sale) but the width at the top of those seem to suggest that they've been mishandled or very old and the ferrule and wood beneath have been compromised and snapped off; a tip just glued straight onto the top!

Depending on what Kick has to spend, he can either go into a main department store and have a touchy-feely session, advertise in his local paper, talk to his friends who might be selling an old one, have a look on eBay or checkout one of the online directories for snooker stores - there always seems to be a few members who cherry pick these type of threads to offer their products too - fishing for a post here please! Nottingham's pretty central - Anthony Hamilton might let you have his! Sheriff of Pottingham always gets a laff.

I'd imagine that if screw-in tips ever became popular for mainstream cues, the material they're made from would be improved to make them better to play with. The main reason IMO screw-in tips aren't used by anyone of an above average standard is because the cues they're attached to are invariably pub cues or club cues at best that feel like a yard brush would give you a better feeling.

Check out this incredible looking titanium ferrule - it had to happen eh?! I could imagine someone inventing a cue that you could tweak it's weight somehow; talking of which there was a golf putter invention a few years back that you could insert a variable amount of lead shot into the head to compensate for faster or slower greens.

[Kick]

my budget for a new cue will be between £50 -£80, any suggestions? i've been looking at BCE cues, but am a total newbie to buying cues, so any advice on the 'perfect' cue for this sort of price range would be much appreciated!

on the subject of Hamilton, i believe he lives a few minutes drive from where i live, and was a regular at my local snooker club, the Pegasus, i have mates who have played against him!

[reverse_side]

Won't be long before the advice comes, in the meantime, search around for others that have been given; help, guidance and directions to get to their club or shop.

As for myself, I've only ever bought 2 cues, so not that experienced in buying one - nice to actually see, hold and play a few shots with them before you decide on buying one that could last you a lifetime.

Old Hamilton was frighteningly good when he burst on the TV (145 in the '95 EWC), a prolific scorer and never looked like missing - weird head game that can take you off the boil, though having said that, it must be so difficult to stay at a level that'll help you win a lot of games as well as everyone else is improving. Sometimes, if you don't improve, you fall behind. I'd love him to get back in the top 16 and put a smile back on his face - Swampy! Sneinton/Gedling.