How hard are some tip brands relative to others?

See tip hardness effects for background information.

Here is a very thorough chart of tip types and hardness values for a wide assortment of brands (from jschelin99 on AZB).

Here is a summary of some durometer hardness test results from FLYINGSNAIL on AZB:

SAMSARA JUMP – 86.0
BLACK DIAMOND – 81.0
SUPERPRO – 81.0
WB USA – 77.0
BLUE ELF – 76.0
LePRO – 74.5
TALISMAN – (M) 70.5
TAD – (M) 75.0
TRIANGLE – 73.5
BLUE MILK DUDS – 73.0-74.0
KAMUI – (H. BROWN) 73.5; (M. BROWN) 71.0; (S. BROWN) 62.5; (H. BLACK) 73.5; (M. BLACK) 72.5; (S. BLACK) 62.0
MORRI – (1ST GEN. WITH “S” ONLY) 62.0; (2ND GEN. SOFT) 71.0; (OLD MEDIUM) 77.0; (M III) 75.0
TRIUMPH – 70.0
BLACK KING – (S) 65.5 (M) 67.5 (H) 70.5
TIGER SNIPER – 67.0
BAMMA – 66.0
OLD ELK MASTER ORIGINAL – 65.0

All hardness numbers reported are on the Shore D durometer scale. Here’s a demonstration of how tips are tested:

Here’s a summary of the results from the video:

32 X (Hard / Medium) 76 / 72
Atlas Canvas Phenolic 89
Bakelite Phenolic 92
Barringer Jump/Break 97
BSE (nicht zu verwechseln mit Creutzfeldt-Jakob) 83
Bunjee 97
Fiber Jump/Break 97
Laperti Bakelite 86
Lily 95
Magic Jump/Break 88
Magnum High Impact 86
No Name Tip 88
Oliver Stops 3000 80
Oliver Stops 4000 86
Picone White Diamond 95
Porper Ram (Hard / Medium / Soft) 72 / 55 / 54
Raven Black / Green / White 94 / 96 / 96
Wengler 96
XO 93

Here’s a buying guide (with some useful info) available from PoolDawg, including a large set of hardness data for most-commonly-used tips.

See the cue tip hardness effects page for info on how to select the right tip for your game.

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from gerryf (in AZB post and AZB post)