Tips : Blue Diamonds or Elkmaster ?

[reverse_side]

Just had a look at MW's website GB and I honed in on the part where he mentions finding it useful to, "put superglue on the tip first, let it dry, then lightly sand it again, thereby forming a kind of barrier. Otherwise when you stick it on the cue, you may find the glue soaks into the bottom of the tip quickly and not stick so well", so when I glue a layer of absorbent paper inbetween the tip and ferrule, that would do the same job without the extra work of sanding the glue down.... I find that using what's virtually a wafer like this, helps the tip to grip better and not break off as though the glue is brittle and cracks under impact.

New SuperTip? Would be interested in the extra features as I can only read that it's been specially treated; the other descriptions look pretty standard. On his site, he could maybe add some pictures of tips that he thinks are at the stage of needing replacing... at my tournament yesterday one of my players took me to a table that had about 20 divots chipped out of the cloth. When I mentioned, in another club, that their tables were being attacked in such a way, they made sure they did some inspections on people's cues before they allowed them to play --- they found a few culprits. I might draft up a poster highlighting the problems of tips wearing down; few cue tip pix and of the damage to the cloth, 'if your tip looks like this'... add a contact name and number for a re-tipping service too!

Erwan- very interesting what you say about English-V-French; not something that a French teacher would explain to put their pupils' minds at rest. Nothing sinister for the word 'Fall', just an Americanism that would raise an eyebrow.

Caesar- intriguing stuff too, didn't know bout Ronnie's tip; I'm a splice-in man myself and the I don't scuff my tip regularly or smash the balls very hard conserves my tip nicely. Who does your coach liken your style to that you can take encouragement from?

[Erwan_BZH]

I have a very personnal manner (sp?) of retipping my cue. I don't use superglue but neopren glue. Once the old tip ripped off, I cleau all the surfaces (sandpaper, and so on....). Then I apply the neopren glue on the tip AND on the cue. I let it dry for 15-20 min, then I stuck them together, and I let it dry for one or two days. Once done, it's very solid.
Then, to shape the tip to ferrule's size, I use a pencil-sharpenner! I don't know if somebody else uses that process but it's very efficient. And finally, I use sand paper to shape the top of the tip to give it the proper form.

[Ian Davies]

Re-tipped mine over the weekend.

I usually do it at the end of every season.
Not used elks at all. I just buy normal blue diamond.

Used to use superglue liquid, but a mate in the team has recently started to use the gel version instead. He says it is ten times better at holding the tip in place.

After getting the old tip off and filing/sanding down both new tip and cue head for levelness, i then score the top of the cue and the seat of the tip for purchase. This allows the glue some through grip on both ends instead of relying on tensile surface purchase.

I usually buy a 10mm tip for a 9mm cue and use some paper to dome off the edges.

Not heard about the pencil sharpener method - wouldn't it just tear the fibres as your twisting across it ?

[reverse_side]

So you're season's finished Ian, our's has a month to go. I use Gel too, it doesn't run so fast giving you more time to put the tip on and even if you're frugal with the amount, it doesn't have a chance to trickle down the ferrule. I gave mine a good roughing up to squeeze the last drop of grip out of it for an event last night.

Pencil sharpeners Erwan; that's a new one on me, I only found entries for Neoprene glue that's popular with the water sport fraternity. For your "unique" way of retipping and using a pencil sharpener; new again! I'd've thought it would tend to give too much of a smooth pyramid (conical) shape. A picture would be excellent if you've the time. At least with superglue it dries quickly to allow play to resume virtually immediately... I retipped a guys cue inbetween frames recently and he said it felt better than before it came off, I'd shaped it again and loaded it with chalk and burnished the brass ferrule so it gave the appearance of a Pro's tip.

I think like Ian, that if you adhere to keeping things clean and level you may still find a tip comes off because you've not scored the underside of the tip itself and it'll come away quite quickly. Then, when you reattach it, there's a few fibres left on the ferrule that allows the tip to grip onto like a limpet.... that's why I add a wafer inbetween my ferrule and tip. I've been asked by two people at the all-dayer on Saturday to retip their cues - charlatan of a job on one of them made it looked like the top of a burger bun falling off the meat AND loads of glue dribbled all over the ferrule, AND he charge £1.50 for the privilege.

[Erwan_BZH]

Not heard about the pencil sharpener method - wouldn't it just tear the fibres as your twisting across it ?

I'm not a tip specialist so maybe my method isn't that good for the tip itself. I don't think it tears the fibers too much.

Pencil sharpeners Erwan; that's a new one on me, I only found entries for Neoprene glue that's popular with the water sport fraternity. For your "unique" way of retipping and using a pencil sharpener; new again! I'd've thought it would tend to give too much of a smooth pyramid (conical) shape. A picture would be excellent if you've the time.

I'm sorry, I don't have any numerical camera. But to enlight my story I'd say that I try to keep the original form of the tip after the pencil sharpenner. Maybe it's a bit more "round" than initialy. Don't know if it's good or not though...

[sunny3909]

i use fevibond it is a rubber based adhesive for putting my tips on,it gives more squirt and power to the cue ball than araldite[that i used before] and it is much better than super glue.By using fevibond i can get my tips ready in 1 hour for play.i use a master cue exclusive 10 mm ferrrule and 58 in length weight 18 oz.

[snookaman]

I think Elk is a soft tip with hardness 60.1.

Blue Diamond is a medium hard tip (about 72). However, there are white box Blue diamond which is supposed to be softer than Elk.

Black Diamond is a 11 layer tip.