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.

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