The billiard tables, pool tables
The modern billiard tables are made of slabs of slate. A slate is a kind of rock naturally formed from clay sediments and contains minerals of chlorite, mica and quartz. The sedimentation process allows the slate to develop into thin, solid, hard and naturally layered rocks. Although already naturally flat, one can polish the slate and make them into a more even playing surface for billiard tables. Italy, Brazil, China and India are the main exporters of slate.
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Aside from slate, other cheaper alternatives are available like Slatron and Permaslates which are hard, synthetic sheets of plastics placed over a particle board; hard plastic honeycombs sandwiched between two sheets of plastic; and flat medium density fiberboards created from compressing tiny pieces of wood together. The disadvantage of using materials other than slate is that they seem to be less durable and easily warps. |
But having a good playing surface will not account to anything if the table's foundation is week. Well made billiard tables use hard woods like mahogany to construct the basic table frame. The slabs of slate will need a sturdy support, especially if the slate is thicker and heavier than normal. The weight of the slab usually determines how many legs a table would have. Meanwhile, the table's railings usually measures from 2.5 to 3.5 inches in width. It is here that you attach the cushions. A wedge-shaped piece of hard rubber, the cushion is fastened to the playing surface's side of the railings. The best known cushions are K-66 cushions. These cushions provide the best and the most consistent response from the billiard balls. Another important part of the billiard table is the cloth. The cloth used for billiard tables is a tightly-woven cloth of wool integrated with synthetic fibers like nylon to toughen it up. It is, therefore, a misnomer to refer to the billiard table's cloth as felt because felt is not a woven material. Felt is formed by compressing fibers. Real felt cloth is never an ideal choice for billiard tables. The surface it creates is not truly flat and smooth. There are a lot of billiard table styles but we can generalize them into the Snooker type, the English billiards style, Carom professional type, the Tournament kind, the Carom standard type, the Standard style and the Economy kind.
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