What Are The White Marks That Keep Appearing On My Pool Table…

So, you’ve had your new pool table for only a couple of days, but already it’s developing these strange white marks all over it – what’s going on?

Well, quite simply it’s down to friction. You see every time that you hit the cue ball to play a shot, you create friction between the ball and the cloth on your table and friction creates heat, which effectively ‘burns’ the cloth on your table, leaving the marks.

The problem is that on good quality pool cloth, you will most likely have a blend of pure new wool and nylon. The nylon is added for strength, but it means that when the cue ball imparts the friction to the cloth, it’s the nylon that burns.

According to tests carried out by Saluc (the Belgian manifacturer of the highest quality ‘Aramith’ brand billiard balls), the temperature at strike can be as high as 400′F. Now this is only for a fraction of a second, but you get an idea of the forces involved.

Now, if you insisted on cheaper cloth, then the problem will get even worse, as cheaper cloth tends to have polypropolene in it, which marks up even worse than nylon.

Similarly, everyone loves to try to play a deep draw shot. This is the shot that has the cue ball spinning back off the object ball. However, it’s one of the hardest shots to perfect, and most people tend to hit down on the cue ball which imparts more friction and impacts the cloth harder, causing whiteish ‘dabs’ on the cloth. These are commonly called cue stabs and again are not faults in the cloth, simply marks caused by play.

So, in summary, if you want your pool table looking as good as possible for as long as possible – choose a high quality, high wool blend cloth such as Brunswick Centennial.

Brunswick Pool Tables – New Line Up For Autumn 2008 Pt1

Well we’re at that time of year again when we find out what the guys at Brunswick have been up to in the design room over the winter period.

The good news is that they have come up with some great looking new pool tables. This will be the first post in a series highlighting the new tables and explaining where they will fit in the range. You may want to keep up to date by subscribing to our RSS feed here…

My first review is the new Ashbee American pool table (we’re going in alphabetical order here). In essence, nothing design wise has changed other than losing all the optional leg designs to concentrate on the square tapered leg that really is the best leg for this pool table anyway. However, Brunswick have started a project that will see an increasing number of table designs being released that hark back to the 1850’s when Brunswick first started making pool tables and this is one of the first…

Previously, you only had a finish option of Original Mahogany® for the Ashbee, but now you get Espresso stain, which really does make the table look an authentic reproduction of the pool and billiard tables of the time.

The new two-tone effect really does enhance the existing hand inlaid sills and aprons and works very well with the more ‘earthy’ cloth colours. Brunswick have also added an Espresso stained Ashbee cue rack and Players Chair with Heritage Pub Table to the range.

The new Brunswick catalogue should be available soon for digital download – stay tuned for more posts on the other new tables coming through.

Michael Hemmins
American Billiard Company UK