CHALK
Chalk is worth attending to carefully. The most familiar kinds are the square blocks done up in green paper and the cylindrical pieces in cardboard cases. These last are turned straight out of a solid block, and are, therefore, not free from grit and other impurities; the more gritty they are the more destructive are they to the cue-tips. The square blocks are sawn from more carefully selected chalk, and are for that reason to be preferred to the cylindrical pieces. They should be dry and powdery, for a greasy chalk is not to be depended on, and it will soon make the cue-tip shiny. In fact, the great secret of chalk is to have it dry.
Attempts have been made from time to time to grind down the chalk to powder and again consolidate it; but, as foreign substances must be introduced in order to make the powder stick together and become hard enough to withstand the friction of cue-tips, the result has usually been rather a greasy mixture.
There can be little doubt that if our chemists were to go into the matter seriously they would soon give us a smooth and yet biting ‘chalk.’
Within the last few months a French firm have brought out some greenish-blue ‘chalk,’ called St. Martin chalk, which reminds one of the old green Thurston chalk one used to see thirty years ago. This new preparation seems to hold the ball very well, and does not make such a mess of the table as the old white; it is not poisonous; but—there is always a but—it is very expensive.