Crystalate snooker balls - weight

[DeanH]

The commentators on the British Eurosport coverage of Bingham/Pengfei mentioned that "in the old days" the crystalate balls weighed more than "these modern balls".
Does anyone know what the old crystalate used to weigh?
Everywhere that still sell them (or Super Crystalate even) never mention their ball-weight.
cheers

[cueman]

Well I use super cystalate, have my own set that were bought in the 90's, not quite sure when from the snooker shop in Manchester. I've had a few changes of cue ball down the years using the TC as that is all that I could buy.
The weight is no different, all the balls weigh roughly 142g, my cueball is actually 143, I think I have two other balls in the set at 143g. The composition of the ball doesn't seem any different to me, I can slightly hear a different sound when I play with a TC set though but that is about all I can tell.

[DeanH]

cheers cueman, just what I thought that the crystalates and TCs are the same at around the 140g.
Aramith sell their Super Crystalates with a 3g range for the set.
Where the Aramith Premier and other makes of balls tend to be around the 130g range.
But how heavy were the old ivory balls?

[blinky88]

When I started to play (around 59 years ago) the balls were made from camphor & sand, extremely heavy.

[Terry Davidson]

DeanH:

You are getting confused between the 'Crystalate' (as used by Joe Davis and crew) and the 'Super Crystalate' as developed in the 70's I believe by the Super Crystalate company (now owned by Aramith).

The very few sets of straight Crystalate balls I ever came across, and this was years ago, were heavier than the Super Crystalates I used in the 70's and 80's until the Aramith balls came along. I remember initially it seemed the early Aramith balls were a bit heavier than the Supers as it seemed a bit more difficult to move the cueball with screw, but that might be my faulty impression.

In Canada we used the Vitalite balls, which were quite a bit lighter than even the Supers and I also don't remember getting any 'kicks' with them, although again I might not have recognized a kick in those days.

Terry

[DeanH]

Thanks Terry, I was wondering if there was anything different between Crystalates and Super Crystalates apart from just marketing branding.
Anyone know the weight of these older types? cheers

[vmax4steve]

Well I use super cystalate, have my own set that were bought in the 90's, not quite sure when from the snooker shop in Manchester. I've had a few changes of cue ball down the years using the TC as that is all that I could buy.
The weight is no different, all the balls weigh roughly 142g, my cueball is actually 143, I think I have two other balls in the set at 143g. The composition of the ball doesn't seem any different to me, I can slightly hear a different sound when I play with a TC set though but that is about all I can tell.

If you bought your balls in the nineties cueman then what you have is a set of phenolic resin balls that are no different to Tournament Champions. When Aramith bought out the Super Crystalate company in the late eighties they ceased production of the material patented as super crystalate but still had the rights to the tradename and used it to market alleged superior balls, charging more for them in the process. Super Crystalate was written on the box but the small print stated made from phenolic resin. I know because our league also bought a set around the same time for use in finals and inter town matches and still keep them in the original box they came in. You can still buy them BTW.

[DeanH]

I have also come across a comment that some old ball were made from clay, anyone have any info about these types?
(maybe the same as the camphor and sand mentioned by blinky88, ?)
cheers

[DeanH]

I went back to an old webpage that has great information about the materials that have been used for billiard balls, including Terry's "Vitalite", and a mention of camphor mixed with Cellulose Nitrate to make 'Celluloid', but no mention of "clay" or sand.
So, anyone?