Today I’m going to show you how to use a Tip Pick. This particular pick is the Bow-Tie by Cuetec. The Bow-Tie features as Scuffer, a Shaper and a Tip-Pick inside of it. A lot of people have this tool but they don’t know how to use it well. I aim to fix that today.

One very good was to use it is by taking the Tip-Pick part of it (with all the needles on it) and hit your tip with it. You want to rotate it a bit each time. Pretend you’re a slow woodpecker and you’ll get a pretty good rhythm going. The other way you can do it is to use the edge of it and press into it. You’ll want to rotate it a bit as well as you go. This will allow you to stick your needles in there much further. DO NOT stick the needles in the tip and twist it because that will break all the fibers in the leather tip and it will permanently damage it.

The other part of the BowTie is the Shaper part which is like a dome. When your tip gets mushroomed, you will just stick it on there and rotate it. Apply as much pressure as you need to.

The third part of the Bow-Tie is the Scuffer. This particular aspect of the Bow-Tie is similar to the actual Tip-Pick. This doesn’t work nearly as well as the Tip-Pick so I don’t recommend using this unless you absolutely have to (like if you somehow could only find the top half of the Bow-Tie and didn’t have the Tip-Pick.)

So, you’ve got a pool player on your gift list and you have no idea what to get them? If you’re looking to get them the absolute best gifts available, here are three excellent high-end gifts for the pool player in your life.

First of all, we’ve got a quality leather case. This one features a solid code inside. Each one is individually felted and lined, you can see how nice it is inside. This one is made of real leather, not vinyl like so many lower-end cue cases. Another nice feature about this particular case is it’s shoulder strap is well padded. This makes it far more comfortable to carry from place to place.

The next gift you can get that any pool player would be absolutely thrilled to receive is a new break stick. For “money-is-no-object” types, the Predator BK2 Break Stick is the best around. This one features a sport-grip and, like all break cues, this is only designed for one single shot and that’s the break shot. As you can imagine, a lot of players out there can’t justify such an expense for a single-purpose cue… which is what will make it such a fantastic gift!

Finally, if you really want to surprise the pool player in your life, a new pool table would be an excellent choice. Of course, a pool table is highly customizable, offering numerous options for stains, colors, sizes and more. If you know the recipient’s tastes pretty well, you can definitely create a table that they’d be proud to own. If you’re unsure of what combinations would work, simply bring a photo of the room that the table will be installed in to the owner of the store. At Billiards and Darts Direct, we often help customers to decide what combinations will work best for their pool table based on the room it’s going into.

Do you have a pool player on your gift list but you have no idea what to get them? If you’re willing to spend a little extra money on your gift giving, these are three excellent mid-range gifts for the pool player in your life.

First on your list would be a quality pool cue case. The one in the video above is a leather case, it features a good solid core inside, which is important. Other (cheaper) cue cases don’t feature a solid core but instead just have flimsy dividers. This can cause damage to the cues over time, especially with some of the rough handling that pool players are known for.

Another good gift would be a set of billiard balls with your favorite sports teams on them. They make a set of balls for LITERALLY every team and just about every sport so you should easily be able to find the right ones for your recipient. This set shows that the balls are simply home and away, as opposed to having numbers. For the most part, you don’t need numbers since you’ll always be playing 8 Ball with these kinds of balls. If you buy your balls from a brick and mortar store (like Billiards and Darts Direct) you can even ask them to mix and match teams like “Chargers” versus “Raiders’.

Finally, the last item on my list of moderately priced gifts is a Break/Jump Cue. This is a cue that’s designed specifically for breaking and jumping, not normal play. Once they’ve made their break with it, they can unscrew the back third of the cue and it turns into a jump cue for making jump shots. This is a specialty cue and if your recipient isn’t a professional, it’s likely that this is a product that they don’t already have (but I guarantee that they want it).

So, you’ve got a pool player on your gift list and you have no idea what to get them? If you’re looking to get the biggest bang for your buck on your gift giving, these are three excellent low-cost gifts for the pool player in your life.

First of all, we’ve got The Magic Rack. The Magic Rack is one of those awesome “why didn’t I think of that” type inventions. It’s essentially a small, plastic shape that is laid directly on the pool table. The pool balls are then placed directly on the Magic Rack, thus forming a perfect rack without the need for an actual wooden rack. This is a superb gift since it’s lightweight which means it’s cheap to ship to your recipient, easy to use so they won’t have to read any instructions, and it’s one of those things that most players don’t typically buy for themselves (but they almost always want one).

Next up is a set of Pocket Reducers. These particular reducers are from Practice Pro. Pocket Reducers are portable plastic devices are designed to fit right over the pool table pocket and reduce the overall width that a ball has to make it into the pocket. The idea here being to reduce pocket size and, thus, increase the accuracy needed to make your balls. If you know a pool player who’s always looking for ways to improve their game, a set of Pocket Reducers is an excellent choice.

Finally, we have a Pro Cup Cue Ball. This ball looks identical to any other cue ball with one exception; there are precision red dots dispersed over the surface. The goal of the dots is to give the player an idea of how the the ball spins after it has been struck. This is another great device for the pool player who’s always practicing at improving their game.

This is a video response to YouTube user Alisma12 who sent me the following message:

“I watched your video on selecting the right pool cue, and I wanted to know can you make a short video shooting with a J.Pechauer and explaing some pros and cons like balance, vibration, hit, sound, and feel? I would greatly appreciate it!”

Well, Alisma12, you asked for it, you got it. Today we’re going to test a JP Pechauer cue. This particular cue has ebony and pearl inlays, an irish linen wrap and uses maple wood with a rosewood stain. Pechauer cues have a special joint and this particular cue has a 12.75 shaft diameter.

All Pechauer cues are very nice in general. This particular cue has a nice, soft sound to it. It’s very solid feeling when you hit with it. You can see in this video that we’ve set up a ruler at the other end of the table to test deflection. The ruler is marked with 1″ increments up to 3″.

You can see when I hit it with softly with right English, the deflection is a little over 1″. Hitting it a little firmer we get about 2″. Firmer still and we see that it goes a little over 2″.

The thing about Pechauer cues is that they all play very well. They’re very solid cues and I’d recommend one to literally any player. If your budget allows for it, you can’t go wrong with one.

Today we’ll be discussing cue tips and the many various brands available to today’s pool player. Although there are lot of different brands to choose from, we’re focusing on just six of them.

Starting at the lower end of the spectrum we have Elk Master. These are standard leather tips. The Elk Master is blue which is due to the fact that it is embedded with chalk. This is a benefit because you won’t have to chalk it as often as a regular tip.

Triangle. This is a standard piece of leather and performs quite well for general play.

Le Professional (Le Pro’s): This is another standard piece of leather that has been shaped and pressed into cue tip form. They’re dubbed “The French Style Cue Tip”, so can feel extra fancy using them.

All the aforementioned cues are very similar albeit with different textures. The Elk Master is the softest, with the Le Pro being of average softness and Triangle being the least soft.

Next we have the laminated tips, like Everest. When looking at this tip, you can clearly see the lamination and that it is composed of many different layers. There’s also a red line toward the bottom to let you know when it’s time to change your tip out.

Next up are Moori tips, which are a very high quality tip. These are laminated as well. The whole point of laminated tips are to prevent mushrooming over extended play. The uniform stays much better and, in the case of the Moori tips, their patented glue stays much better as well.

Finally, we have what I believe are the best tips of the group, which are Kamui Black tips. They come in a variety of hardness, this one in particular is a Soft. The Kamui tips are also coated in a special chemical to maintain their integrity, which makes them last longer and need less frequent changing. They also give more with your left and right english which gives you less deflection on your shots.

At Billiards and Darts Direct, we sell a lot of pool tables. When a customer asks me what the difference is between felt grades, I usually show them a swatch chart that lets them feel the difference for themselves. However, this being the internet (and feel-o-vision not yet being invented) I am taking a different approach at explaining the difference between standard and professional grade felt.

First up, we have standard grade felt. This is characterized by having much more nap (fuzzyness) and may ball up when brushed. Because of that extra texture, balls will not roll as fast or as accurately when shot on standard grade felt. This is a major reason why professional pool players prefer to shoot on professional grade felt.

The professional grade felt is much smoother and doesn’t have the nap that a standard grade does. It also has a grain which makes the surface uniform across the playingfield. When balls roll across it, they travel much more smoothly and accurately. With professional grade felt, everything is much more precise.

The question remains in the new pool table buyer’s mind; “do I need professional grade felt?” The simple answer is, yes. The upgrade to professional felt is a minor cost difference (usually only about $100 more than standard felt) and it can have a major impact on the accuracy of your game. As usual, feel free to come on down to Billiards and Darts Direct and feel the difference for yourself.

When you’re looking to buy a new pool cue, there are many things you might be considering: the weight, the wrap, the kind of tip. Of course, all these considerations are important but there is one crucial factor that is often overlooked by pool cue buyers. That one overlooked factor is, “how does it sound” ?

More than anything, you can tell if you’re using a quality pool cue by the sound it makes when coming into contact with a ball. Cheaper cues will make a loud click when hitting balls and that’s vibration. You don’t want to feel vibration because that will interfere with your ability to gauge how much pressure you are exerting. Cues like this are generally found in the $50 to $100 range, although some manufacturers are closing the gap and starting to make very high quality cues for just about $100.

When you upgrade to a nicer cue, you will notice a distinct difference in it’s sound. They will have a quieter, softer sound when striking balls. That is a sign that it has less vibration and that is what we are ultimately looking for, the least amount of vibration. Some higher quality brands are McDermott, Viking and Pechauer. These are all exceptionally well made and they will give you the feedback that you need to improve your shots. Finally, at the upper end of the spectrum are your cues like Predator. Predator cues are world-renowned for the their low vibration and overall quality.

If you are serious about taking your game to the next level, you should definitely consider upgrading your cue. It’s one of the few upgrades you can make that will start improving your game the first time you start using it. Of course, if you have questions, you are welcome to ask me using the comment box. If you’re in the San Diego Area, you can also come on down to Billiards and Darts Direct and I can show you around and we can find the cue that works best for you personally.