Billiard Table Maintenance

Billiard table maintenance & care the right way

Now that you have purchased or are thinking about purchasing a table from the Billiard Shop range of quality billiard tables (and kitted yourself out with pool room supplies), there are several important steps to follow if you wish to achieve good billiard table maintenance.

Care of cloth is of extreme importance. As all tables have top-quality slate under the cloth, hard-hit or dropped balls onto the table will fracture the cloth, although not always noticeable straight away.

Moths, silverfish and other creepy crawlies are always a danger to the pure wool cloth, especially where small children with grubby hands are concerned and as many tables are used in conjunction with a bar, the risk of spillage and of spray from opening bottles and cans is inevitable. To counteract this problem the Billiard Shop suggests strict adherence to the following procedure is important:

The use as directed of a reputable surface spray applied lightly along and under the edges of the clothed cushions will help stop breeding under cushions and between the bed cloth and can be an important factor in billiard table maintenance.

Also, for good billiard table maintenance, at the end of each playing session, packets of mothballs (fill up matchboxes) could be placed on the bed cloth at the drop edge of each pocket and 3 – 4 packets placed evenly down through the centre of the table and then the table completely covered with a light billiard cover or sheet.

There are two types of cloth available to buyers of Billiard Shop Tables, English and Australian. Although they both have completely different characteristics, the overall useful life is much the same, provided you care for each one individually.

Australian Cloth always has a fluffy appearance and hence is a slightly slower rolling cloth. This can be overcome slightly by an occasional rub-over with your dry household iron. The setting of your iron will range from warm to wool depending on how familiar you are with ironing your table. Never brush Australian cloth as this only increases its fluffy appearance. Keep felt clean with a feather duster or an occasional rub over with the vacuum cleaner (smooth head) is recommended for ideal billiard table maintenance.

English Cloth has a fine-grained finish called “nap” which when rubbed the wrong way stands up, making the pile uneven and no better for play than Australian cloth. It is a good policy to get into the habit of brushing down your table every time you have finished playing. This is done with a Billiard table Brush moving in one direction only from the baulk-line (or “D”) toward the top end of the table (Black Ball Spot). This action straightens the tangled and matted nap and lays it back in its original condition and also removes dust, chalk and other foreign matter from cloth.

After the cloth has been thoroughly brushed you may wish to occasionally vacuum your table for greater care. This is again done in one direction only, the same as brushing and once every couple of months is adequate for billiard table maintenance.

Ironing as mentioned with Australian cloth is very helpful in flattening unruly naps and should again be done in one direction only and straight after a good stiff brushing. The setting of your dry iron should be between ”warm” and “wool”.

If small “bald spots” appear in your cloth, the cause is usually a vermin attack. When whitish chalk-like marks appear, this is caused by striking the cue ball too low and grazing the cloth at the same time. Billiard Shop warrants your table for 12 months against faulty workmanship. No warranty is given on the felt.

Care of polished timber surfaces, especially that on the handrails, is very important as it is subjected to knocks by belt buckles, buttons, rings, watches etc. Billiard Shop suggests regular use of a good quality furniture polish such as Marveer or O’Cedar is essential to keep scratch-prone areas smooth and slippery. When they are dry things will tend to grip and scratch.