I purchased an Elite Break/Jump cue and had the seller mount a Tiger Break Pool Cue Tip (Layered Cow & Pig Hide, 97 Hardness, A-Durometer). I didn't care for that tip at all. It seemed that I couldn't get any draw on the CB for my 2nd ball break for 8-Ball.
I purchased 20 or so of these Water Buffalo (WB) tips with the thought of using them for that break/jump cue.
After mounting the water buffalo tip to my break/jump shaft, I shaped it to a large radius like that of a silver dollar. The tip performed quite well on the break and without noticing I just started playing my inning with the break/jump cue and the WB tip.
I shot very will with the cue and noticed after a few shots that the hit was a bit more solid than my usual cue, but I liked it a lot.
I decided for curiosity to shape the tip to a dime (or smaller) radius on the 13mm shaft, and played all of my league matches the following week with it. I loved it. The tip held chalk well and I got great draw shots from it and never one miscue.
My observations were that the tip functioned quite well on 9-Ball breaks, and 8-Ball breaks to the first ball. However, I noticed when using the WB tip on my break/jump cue when going for a 2nd ball, 8-ball break. I usually drop 2-3 balls on that break, but with the WB tip I wasn't dropping balls on that break.
The best explanation I can offer is that the 2nd ball break for 8-ball, at least for me, needs a medium hit, and sometimes when you strike too hard the balls don't drop as you'd expect. Therefore, my hypothesis is that with the hardness of the WB tip, I'm getting too much energy to the 2nd ball.
Since that 2nd ball break for 8-Ball, that works so well on 7-foot tables, I've purchased a second shaft for the break/jump cue and am going to mount a softer tip and try that this week at league.
I hope this information has been helpful. As is normally stated YMMV, but I'm going to be mounting more WB tips to my playing cues.
