When is it necessary to do something to your tip? --- The easy answer to this question is "when it doesn't look or play right anymore". Seriously, if you take a look at a well groomed tip (remember what it looked like when it was new?), it is "rounded" on the top, with smooth, even sides that are flush with the ferrule. If your tip is significantly flat and/or is "mushroomed out" past the edge of the ferrule, it's probably time to reshape your tip.

What radius should you use? --  There are many schools of thought when it comes to tip radius. There are advocates that say it should have the shape of a US Quarter (0.4688 in. [11.91 mm] radius). There are others that claim that the shape of a US Nickel (0.4063 in. [10.32 mm] radius) is the "way to go". To confuse the issue even further, there is another other group (which includes me) that believe the shape of a US Dime (0.375 in. [9.525 mm] radius) is the "Holy Grail" of tip shapes.

So who's right?. Frankly....everyone and no-one! All aspects of pool playing and pool playing equipment are highly subjective and the shape of your tips is no exception. Tip brands, shapes and even sizes are all hotly contested by advocates who believe that THEY have the right answer. My advice is to experiment and see what works best for you.

The easiest way to "see" the difference in the Quarter, Nickel, and Dime shapes, is to get a piece of paper and a pen or pencil. Place a Quarter on the paper and trace the outer edge for a full half-circle. Now place a Nickel at the apex of the half-circle that you've drawn. In other words, the top of the Nickel (with it lying flat on the paper) is touching the inside top of the Quarter half-circle that you've drawn. You should clearly see the difference in diameters of the two. Do the same with a dime and it becomes an even more dramatic difference.

When you're checking the shape of the tip on your shaft, simply put the physical Quarter, Nickel, or dime behind the tip such that the top edge of the coin is flush with the top of the tip dome (or lack of dome). You should be able to see what the shape of your tip is with respect to each of the coins.

To perform the "tip shape experiment", take your personal cue (with the brand of tip that you normally use) and first shape it using a US Quarter radius. Play with it and see how it feels. Can you spin the ball the way you want to without miscuing? Next, adjust the shape to match that of a US Nickel and perform the same tests. Lastly, trim it down to the radius of a US Dime and repeat the tests one final time. Within 45 minutes you will find the radius that is "right for you" with a given tip brand and tip diameter on your personal cue.

For me, I've discovered that a Dime radius works best with ANY brand of tips no matter what the diameter of the tip I'm using...of course, I'm talking about pool and carom cues here (11.5mm - 13.0mm)....candidly, I play snooker so poorly that any playability differences with respect to the tip shape are lost on me :-)

What equipment do you need? -- There are plenty of commercially available gadgets (including mine!) that will impart a "proper" shape on your tips. Once you find the shape that works for you, feel free to buy whatever gadget suits your taste and follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer, and never live with a flat, mushroomed tip again.

But just in case you want to perform the experiment that I outlined above BEFORE you buy a "the perfect size gadget", you can shape your tip to ANY desired radius simply and cheaply by using some sandpaper, a small flat piece of wood, and an old leather belt.

First, get a piece of 50 - 150 grit sandpaper (remember, the smaller the number, the more aggressive the paper....if possible, I suggest using 80 grit if you are working with a new tip and 120 grit for "touch-up shaping"

Cut an appropriately sized strip of sandpaper and using it in conjunction with the small flat piece of wood (a wooden ruler will do if it's got a flat bottom) as a sanding board, begin to carefully sand the top edge of the tip. Make sure that you angle the sanding board so that you are sanding away the top edge of the tip while rotating the shaft (like a human lathe) so you get an even "cut" all the way around. Periodically, place the "coin of your choice" up against the tip as a radius gauge so you can see the progress that you are making. You will likely need to adjust the angle of the sanding board as the shaping progresses so that you ensure that the top of the tip has a dome shape.

After you've achieved the desired radius, wet the edges of the tip with water or spit (hey, it's your cue so what if your girlfriend or your kids think it's "GROSS"!) and burnish the edges of the tip by rubbing a portion of the leather belt (don't bang the buckle on the shaft or you will have to read the section on Shaft Maintenance to remove the dings that you just put in it!) against it. You may want to place the tip in a "U-shaped" loop of the belt and squeeze the belt "U" tightly around the tip while rotating it....hey, it's much harder to explain than it actually is to do!

This method is "old school" and can be very precise IF you have patience AND the right level of dexterity. If you have NEITHER of these qualities, then I suggest you "not try this at home" or you will wind up with a seriously lopsided tip with some sort of non-uniform geometric shape carved into the top of it... might make an interesting sculpture, but probably won't help your game :-)

How to use the Wolfbite Tip Shaper Set - "an unabashed commercial message" :-) -- Below you will find all the words and pictures necessary for you to shape your tips with a perfect dime radius....of course, if you don't like a dime radius on your tips OR you don't have a Wolfbite Tip Shaper Set (or want one), Then you should probably skip this section and go look at the cues or something :-)

The Wolfbite Tip Shaper Set comes with 2 shapers....

The longer of the two shapers is for "Heavy Duty" work and can shape flat topped tips (either new or abused) in a very short time, while the shorter one is perfect for "Light Duty" work like scuffing and gentle reshaping "in the field".

The big shaper and the little shaper are used the same way...slow to medium back and forth motion using about 1/2 to 3/4 of the length of the shaper to "cut the leather". I typically use medium pressure on the shaper when I do this, and I turn the shaft with my left hand while using the shaper in my right. I prefer keeping the  shaft connected to the butt, with the bumper resting on the floor and the cue perpendicular to the floor during the entire procedure.

It takes a bit of hand coordination to make sure that you are rotating the shaft sufficiently so as not to make the trimming unequal (about 6 back and forth strokes for every one full revolution of the shaft).

The big shaper has a pretty aggressive grit while the smaller one is less aggressive. I use the big one when working on new tips (flat top) or tips that are way out of shape....the smaller one is perfect for maintaining your Moori III tips after they've been initially shaped.

The big shaper will take your tips down to shape relatively quickly, so make sure that you continue to turn the shaft while you are using the shaper in the back and forth motion that I described above.

After you've obtained the Dime radius with the big shaper, I  use the small one and rotate it (like an airplane propeller) on the top of the tip (shaper perpendicular to the shaft) which will gives you a concentric circle pattern on the tip face (lines up nicely with the rings of the layered tip). This also smoothes out any of the surface that has been roughed up too much by the big shaper's aggressive grit.

Next, I use the small shaper to "chamfer" the edge of my tips. I find that if I remove a bit of the leather right on the edge of the tip (where the tip dome meets the side of the tip) it keeps the tip from mushrooming (Moori III tips don't typically have that problem but I do it anyway) and it minimizes the likelihood of the tip edge snagging on the material inside my Instroke or Engles case.

The way to do the chamfer is to place the small shaper at a 45 degree (more or less) angle to the edge of the tip such that the grit only touches the edge of the tip and not the dome (or the ferrule for that matter). I then proceed to rotate the shaft while pressing the shaper into the tip edge...after a couple of turns of the shaft, the tips should have a chamfered edge on them.

Lastly, I use the leather on the side of the big shaper to burnish the sides of the tip to make them smooth and shiny. I Wet the edge of the tip all the way around (spit or water, your choice) and buff the side of the tip with the leather and the tip looks great.

That's all there is to it....5 minutes (more or less) from completely flat tip to a perfectly shaped tip that's ready to go.

If you find that you need a bit of a touch-up while you're playing, I suggest that you gently rotate the small shaper around the top of your tip like an airplane propeller to give the tip some extra "bite" without removing a significant amount of leather. You can also use it the same way that you used with the big shaper should you need to do a bit of reshaping on a tip that is beginning to flatten out.

So you want to replace your tip by yourself...hmmm! -- Frankly, unless you've got the right equipment AND "nerves of steel" I would not suggest that you attempt this type of procedure....Well, maybe I've exaggerated a bit with the "nerves of steel" part :-), but you really can cause some serious damage to your cue (and your ability to play with it) if you attempt to do this in a haphazard way.

Most professionals charge between $10 - $20 to replace a tip (more if THEY supply a high-end tip) but that's a small price to pay when it comes to your "money maker". Some Repair Guys will even throw in a free shaft cleaning while they're at it!

What you need to have on-hand....If you're STILL reading this, then I'm thinking that I haven't been successful in trying to convince you "Not to try this at home", so I guess I better give you some instructions that will hopefully keep you out of trouble!

First....you need to gather up a few pieces of equipment. If this is the first time that you're attempting to re-tip a cue, I would strongly suggest that you scrounge up a few "I don't care cues" to practice on....PLEASE do not attempt this on your GOOD cue until you are comfortable with doing it a couple of times.

You'll also need to have a supply of CHEAP tips to practice with...like with your practice cues, the cheaper the better. If you mess it up, I would hate to see you throw away that $9.50 Moori III tip that you just bought from me :-)

Most tips come in only one size;14mm. It is possible find some tips in much smaller sizes (9mm, 10mm for snooker players), and sometimes in 12mm and 13mm, but the choices will be limited. If all of your shafts have ferrule sizes of 12mm or less, you could opt for using a tip that is under 14mm but it's better to stick with 14mm and do a little extra work when it comes time to trim the tip. REMEMBER...NEVER try to install a tip without a sufficient overlap in size with respect to the ferrule...tips are MEANT TO BE TRIMMED TO FIT!.

Lastly, you will need to have some tools to do the job. PLEASE NOTE: The ultimate tool to do tip replacements is a lathe, but I'm going to make an assumption that most of the people who are reading this section do not have access to a lathe capable of handling pool cue shafts so I will defer that "How To" to a later time.

Step 2. Preparing the ferrule....The goal of this exercise is to make a "perfectly flat" surface on the top of the ferrule that is free of all the old leather and glue so that you can glue the back of the new tip to it. The top of the ferrule should be perfectly parallel to the joint surface (or to put it another way, perpendicular to the direction of the shaft...like the top of the letter T. The surface must not be completely smooth.... there needs to be some amount of roughness so the glue can "fill the voids" and provide a better gripping surface for the tip.

The "surfacing" of the ferrule really should NOT be done by hand, although if you REALLY want to try it, you could use a flat wooden sanding block and a piece of 80 - 120 grit sandpaper. You need to be VERY CAUTIOUS if you wish to attempt this because you are likely to put an angle on the face of the ferrule and  I'm guessing that you really don't want to have a crooked tip at the top of your ferrule (unless you think that would be "cool").

You are much better off using a tool like a Tweeten "Rapid Cue Top Sander". Now these are not the "Holy Grail" of tools and you need to be very careful when you use it (especially when you clamp it on the shaft, or you will leave some serious "bite marks" in the wood which will make you cranky!).

In order to avoid the "bite marks" of the cast iron clamp, there are several techniques that can be used. My favorite technique is to wrap the shaft with 3 or 4 turns of blue "Painter's Masking Tape", then slide the clamp over the tape and tighten it up. Now the scientists among you might argue that the tape may offset the clamps of the machine and cause it to grind the top of the ferrule "less than parallel". Frankly, if you do it right, the thickness of the tape is even (or at least "even enough") all the way around and will not cause you any problems.

If you can't find any blue "Painter's Masking Tape", another alternative is to use regular masking tape....this however CAN leave a glue residue on  the shaft which will need to be cleaned before you finish. The "Blue Stuff" doesn't leave any residue and works great.

Finally, one "old school" way to solve the "bite" problem is to wrap the shaft with a piece of writing paper or printer paper. Roll the paper tight around the shaft then slip the clamp over it and tighten the clamp. The clamp will rest on the paper and not your shaft.

Now EVEN with the above precautions, you can STILL tighten the clamp up sufficiently to ding your shaft, so apply only as much pressure as necessary to keep the clamp in place while sanding the top of the ferrule.

Step 4. Putting it together....Once both surfaces are prepared it's time to apply the glue. I happen to prefer using Cyanoacrylate Glue (CA Glue or more commonly known as "super glue"). The brand that you use is completely immaterial.... I’ve used all kinds, without any problems. You do want to make sure that it is the Gel type however.... do not use the really thin stuff....it just doesn't do a good job and will put the job at risk. The Gel type is a "gap-filler" and also sets up a little slower allowing you time to center the tip by hand assuming that you are not using a "centering device" of some kind (most of which do not work well anyway in my opinion).

I normally apply the glue to the surface of the tip, using a thin, even coat (thick glue, thin coat!). I then stick the tip on the ferrule and center the tip "by eye". As I mentioned early on, most tips are 14mm and if your ferrule is 12mm, you'll have approx. 1 mm worth of excess tip all the way around. Try to keep the excess even, but don't obsess over it.... you’ll be trimming away the excess anyway. If the tip is "pre-domed", it will look a bit funny initially if it isn't center properly, but after you shape the tip, it will look just fine.

Once the tip is relatively centered, press the tip down so that the excess glue oozes out from between the tip and the ferrule. You can carefully wipe away this excess in about 30-45 seconds after you've begun to squeeze. Now don't push so hard as to apply any sideways pressure on the tip or it will slip and you'll have to scramble to fix the problem before it's too late.

After you wipe off the excess glue (being careful not to smear it all over the ferrule or your fingers), let the cue shaft sit for 10-20 minutes, which will produce a bond that is usually so strong that you will have to cut the tip off if you mess up from here. The longer you wait, the safer you are, because the next step will apply lots of lateral and twisting stress on the tip which could shear it off of the ferrule and you'll be forced to start all over again.

As a side note, whatever you do, don't use Tweeten's "10 Minute Cement" to glue your tips on. The Tweeten stuff hasn't evolved since Noah built the Ark and even HE didn't like using it :-) Seriously, it's more like 10 Hour Cement and it's just too old school....sorry Tweeten...but you've got to get with the program!

Step 5. Trimming the tip....The object is to trim away the excess thickness of the tip so that it becomes the same thickness as the ferrule. You need to be very careful when you perform this operation (no matter what type of tool you use), because if you aren't cautious or experienced, or both, you can significantly scratch, cut, gouge, or generally mutilate your ferrule, your tip, and even your shaft.

There are lots of tools that "claim" they are "perfect" for trimming tips, but frankly, they ALL have challenges. You can find a whole bunch of these tools by searching the web or by stopping into your local Billiards Supply store. Frankly, I'm not very pleased with the job done by most of them.

When it comes to hand-held trimming tools, the only one that I am familiar with is the Porper "Big Shaver". This tool does an OK job on most tips but is tricky to use without marking the ferrule or the shaft in the process. I suggest that you thoroughly read the instructions of ANY hand-held trimmer you opt to use and be very careful or you will take material off of your ferrule. As a side note, some of the "mushroom grazer tools" that are for sale would not be suitable (or at least difficult to use) for trimming new tips.... the real purpose of these tools is to trim the top edge of tips that are already flush but have mushroomed at the top.

If you really plan on doing a lot of tips, you might want to entertain the next best thing to lathe, which is the Willard Tipper Machine. These are serious tools but are not cheap. If you really want to go this route, I suggest that you try to find one "on sale" or "on Ebay" and you might be looking at $250 - $300 instead of $400 or more retail. These are also a little tricky to operate without damaging ferrules or shafts, but they are reliable and repeatable and an individual can become very proficient at using one.

After all that....Using the TRIMMER TOOL OF YOUR CHOICE, "simply" trim the tip until it's flush with the ferrule according to the directions given by the manufacturer, and you're ready for the final step.

Step 6. Shaping/Burnishing the tip.... you’re almost finished! As I've discussed in an earlier section on this page, shaping the top of the tip is pretty important for solid play. There are many devices that can do the job (including mine), so all you have to do is decide what shape you want and then buy a shaper that fits your needs and follow the directions that come with it (or read the instructions on how to use my Wolfbite Tip Shaper set above to get the general idea)

OK, so one final question....after all that, are you SURE that you want to replace your own tips........hmmmm :-)