Black Diamond tips

[skor]

As I mentioned in another thread, my last and my current tip is a Black Diamond Water Buffalo tip, though I realy liked the way the last one performed, it seems to be that the one I have on my cue now is not as good, it does not hold the chalk that well (I need to pick it more often) and it feels very hard around the edges, so I get some miscues when I apply english to the shot.
The two tips came from the same box and I installed the tip my self, I know that those differences could happen in a lower end, one layer tip, but I find it weird to happen in layered tips (because of the process of making them).

I was wondering if any of you run into such differences with performance
with the higher end tips such as Moori, Talisman or Sniper ?

[DZ314]

Never had any problems like you describe with Moori tips.

[StB]

I have some problems with the Lepro on my new Z shaft. It seems to be 'fraying'. Its kind of hard to explain, but it just doesn't look right to me.

[parrothead]

the low end tips are often very inconsistent. I was talking to a cue maker and he told me that out of a box of 50 lepros you might get 10 good tips and 2 exceptional tips.

[DZ314]

That sounds about right to me. My LePro tip that came standard on the Fury cue that I own was not one of those good or exceptional tips unfortunately. After I had the Moori installed it was a huge step up from that junk LePro.

[skor]

I can understand that with the LePro tips, I do tip repair for other players and I use the LePro for those who don't want to spend to much money and I see and feel the difference fron tip to tip, But getting this kind of inconsistence from a water buffalo layerd tip is unacceptable to me (even if it's just a $5 tip), I guess I will have to get some other tips, If can't trust the tip to perform for me I can't offer it to my customers, I have a good reputation to keep (I'm considered as the best in my erea)

[parrothead]

I recently purchased 4 hercules 23 layered tips, and of the 4 only two were any good. The other two were so mushy and soft that you could push on the side of the tip when it was installed and the center would stretch like an accordian. Those tips retail at something like $12, as near as I can tell you can get crap from any tip maker. Moori is the only tip brand that I have had no bad luck with.

[Tanar]

Skor, what kind of tools do you use to replace tips? Do you have a lathe? Big shaver? Mine are all done by hand with the Porper tip trimmer. I find it a real art to get the tip to look like it came off a lathe.

I currently stock Moori Medium, Hercules, Shooter 5 layer a few Talisman and Triangle tips. I do have some Elk Master, but have decided to refuse to install them as they raise hell with my razor blades. I don't see the point (or any profit) in dulling a $2 blade to replace a $0.50 tip.

The Moori and Hercules are a beautiful tip to play with. I actually had a chunk of a Talisman come out of a tip from a customer. The Shooter tips are fairly hard and I have yet to try a triangle tip. I have a sneaky pete that I use as a testcue fro different tips. I have also had a request for a Tiger laminated tip. Anyone use these?

[skor]

I don't use a lathe, at the moment I don't get enough work to justify buying one, maybe in the future I will get one and start doing some ferule and goint replacement as well, at the moment I don't have time for that.
BTW I get a lot of compliments on my work and the tip does look like it was done with a lathe, it use to take like 20 minutes to do a tip to that kind of a level but with practice and developing my own technique, it takes me now about 5 minutes to do a tip, In the last year and a half I had I got no complaints and not a single tip pop out, even from break cues

[Tanar]

Very nice. It still takes me about 10 - 15 minutes to shape a tip, but like you , I am a perfectionist. I have a friend that has bought a ferrule machine from a pool hall that closed down recently and he is going to allow me to use it to make a little extra cash. I know replacing ferrules is tough, but, like the tips, I will practice and make sure I can do a job I would be happy with before I will offer the service. If I'm happy, then other people will be as well as I am super picky about my equipment. I think my next big buy will be a mini lathe from the cuesmith.

[skor]

check out the lathes that porper offer:
http://www.porper.com/latheb.htm
http://www.porper.com/lathes.htm

[Tanar]

Yeah, I like the mini-lathe from Porper. A cue dealer in Winnipeg had the Lathe B and was gracious enough to let me check it over when I was there a few months back. I like the fact that the Cuesmith lathes offer add-ons like the inlay machine which could save you a grand or two by not having to buy a pantograph. Also, the cuesmith machines have been endorsed by a few cue builders .I think I am going to follow Diekman's advice and start my "river of wood" in the next year or so.

Right now the plan is to move out to Victoria, BC to get into caprentry and start learning the craft. I spoke with my uncle last night, who is helping me set up with a job, and it looks like things may be a go for June.
I can't tell you how excited I am about this possible opportunity. I'll get the confirm with the start date and wage this week. I'll keep my fingers crossed!!

[skor]

Tanar,
Have the best in luck !!!
Do you think I should order my cue from you now, before you'll get famous and charge $3000 for your cues ? :) :) :)

[KGeeEd]

check out the lathes that porper offer:
http://www.porper.com/latheb.htm
http://www.porper.com/lathes.htm

One of the locals that repairs cues has a Porper and said it is alright to do a shaft. He said he is planning on buying a lathe with a thru spindle to do the house cues. This is something to consider. He is looking at Unique Products http://www.uniqueinc.com/

[arcman]

Tanar, glad things are going well for you... So sorry to see you are leaving the Winnipeg (Manitoba) pool scene...
It has been enjoyable to meet & play against you...

I hope you do well in your new business in Beautiful Victoria, but I know that you will miss playing competitive pool there...

They only have an in-town pool league where you don't play for any trips, cash etc...

They have a few good players there... Probably the best is a great guy named Larry Wilson who takes the ferry over to Vancouver all the time to play in the Leagues there....

That way he is able to win trips to Vegas, Toronto (for the Canadians) etc...

Take care and good shooting there

[Tobe]

Well I havent tested Black Diamond Water Buffalo tip, because I trust so good to mooris tips. If the problems with Black Diamond Water Buffalo tip or others continues, take moori!!! :)

[Tanar]

Arcman,
Good to see you found this board, it has tons of useful info. Thanks for the well-wishings, but my team and I will be in Winnipeg a couple more times to play the tournaments before I leave . We are thinking about the three man tournament and the invitational.

It's too bad to hear about the Victoria leagues, but to play a better field of players and new players is something I like to do (hence my 4 hours of driving time to get to Winnipeg for tournaments). Plus, how bad can it be if Cliff Thorburn came from there? I might just have to take that ferry ride to Vancouver......

[skor]

Just got some Talisman medium tips, after having a real bad night last night, the Black diamond felt so hard as if I had no tip at all, I put one of the talisman tip, will try it later, will let you guys know what I think of them.

All I know that while puting the tip and shaping it, it reacted just like the moori does, I hope it will play the same as well :)

[skor]

well well well, looks very promising,
I just came back from the pool hall and I have to say that the Talisman tip is one of the best tip I've played with.
it hold chalk great with no need for picking (usualy a new tip will require some picking after the first half hour) and it "grabs" the cue ball for a longer period of time which means more spin action.
I hope I can say the same after a week / a month of play

[DZ314]

Nice, I will probably switch to Talisman tips once my Mooris are retired.

[CJK]

I went the other way -- switched from Talisman to Moori. The Moori is all right, but I don't see where it's worth the money. The Talisman seems to hold shape better, and takes chalk better. I've fussed more with the Moori in the past month than I did with a Talisman in three months. I'm going back to Talisman for the next tip.

[DeanF]

Tanar,

Next time your looking for some good pool, come to Regina. AT the Western Canadian VNEA championship in Edmonton this pat February Regina took home the lions share of the money.

On another note, I sell and install Moori's, I have not had anyone tell me that their tip was mushrooming or need to be picked alot to hold chalk. As for the money aspect of it, would you put $5 tires on a ferrari or any car for that matter and expect it perform well? I don't think so. As with many things in life you get what you pay for. I have never tried a black diamond tip so I can't comment on them. As for me, I use a Moori Q because I am able to control the Qball a litlle better than with the Medium

[CJK]

I wouldn't put $5 tires on a Ferrari, but neither would I put $250 Firestones.

The Talisman tips are less expensive than Moori, but I hardly think we can call them cheap. Just because something costs a lot more doesn't mean it's better.

[wobster]

I went from a moori to a triangle. I got myself into too many jams with Moori's. I would try to put 2" of draw on a cue ball and would get 2 foot hitting extremely easy. I could not learn to control it. I am much more comfortable with a triangle than a layered.

[skor]

I found the Talisman play better for me the the Moori.
sometimes a product that cost more is not better, in many cases you pay more for the brand name the the product itself.
It seems to be that moori tips are now more accessible then they used to be, I know that the guy that made the moori tips retired and he is no longer makes them, I realy don't know who makes them now, and if they are as good as they used to be, and it still hard to get them and they are quite expensive.
I know who makes the talisman and where, they don't cost that much, everyone who used a talisman tip likes them and they ship them for free world wide.

Good service, good product and no mystery around the makers

[skor]

Tip review update:

heaven...., I'm in heaven... :) :)

I played last night on a fast table and the tip felt amazing, great CB control.

I let a friend of mine (ex-pro who was hooked on moori and didn't realy wanted to hear about a different tip) to try it, and he liked it a lot.

[skor]

Tip review update:
I just replaced the tip on my cue, the Talisman I had held for 6.5 months with an average of 15 hours of play a week that almost 400 hours of play. The tip felt great and performed great right to it's last layer. And now for the big test - consistency, I've put a new Talisman med tip and now we have to see if it feel and perform as good as the last one did, will keep you update...

[skor]

BTW, in the period of those last 6.5 months, the tip never mashroomed, never been picked (held chalk great without the need for picking), and only got reshaped every month or so (held it shape great).

[skor]

On my last 2 posts here I reffered to retiping my cue with a new Talisman pro med tip after the first one was great, the tip I installed back then wasn't any good it came apart right in the middle layer, that happened about 2 months after installation, it was also the last tip I had. Thinking to myself that these thing could happen, no big deal I made a new order of talisman tips (directly from Talisman, which I have only good thing to say about their service) I retiped my cue again when I got the tips, that was about 2 months ago and it happened again, not only that the last two tips I used came apart they also did not hold shape at all and I had to reshape them after every time I played, luckily none of my customers returned to me with that problem. I'm feeling very weird right now, these tips got so much great reviews from everyone, me included that I really don't know what to say, I will e-mail Tony from Talisman tomorrow and see what he has to say about it, I really don't want him to send me new tips, I don't feel like using his products right now.

I noticed this today while shooting pool, suddenly there was a weird sound when I hit the cue ball as if the tip is not glued well, on close inspection I noticed the problem, a crack in the middle of the tip half way through.
I disassembled the cue and put in my case and started to use my BK for breaking and playing.

NOW some good and interesting news
1. I actually break very well with the Lepro tip.
2. After two long sessions of breaking with it, the LePro did not mushroom.
3. it still holds it shape as well
4. I don't know if it's the LePro or the stronger taper of the BK or even the joint type, but the moment I started playing with the BK my game went up and I've shot great pool, I got good positions, I hardly missed a shot and I had this total feeling that I really control the table and what's going on on it.

Since I really don't feel like putting another Talisman tip on my cue, I'm going to put a LePro on it - this way I'll know if it's just the tip that made the difference, if that's not the case then maybe it's time for me to retire my Predator and start looking for a new cue :?

Sorry for the long post but I had to get it out of my system.

I will let you all know what Tony (from talisman) have to say about it.

I will let you know how the LePro will work for me.

Who though that after all this time, going back to basic equipment might improve my game :roll:

[DEATHTRON]

I gotta get a new tip here soon...i think im going to give the water buffalo another try, the last 2 i had were great, hope they dont give me a hard time.

Zach

[spartan]

although i have tailsman pro med in my shafts right now, i shot with someone elses cue that had a tailsman wb on it and i loved the hit. dont know if it was med or hard though i will be trying them soon.

[CueBall]

I have been trying both the moori med on my new 314 shaft and was comparinng it to the talisman wb on the nitti shaft. I spent the last week playing the Moori into shape and then during my drills just comparing the feel of the 2 tips. I cut off the week old moori med to replace it with the Talisman WB med. I hated cutting off a week old moori, but just had too, and I hope it was a mistake. I feel more connected to the tip with the WB and believe that I can get a more consistant spin and speed on the cb.

[CueBall]

I have more trouble making a talisman WB look as good after installation as I do a Moori. The leather fibers seem larger, does anyone have a "tip" for installation?