I Almost Ruined a $1,200 Tablecloth—Here’s How to Avoid My Mistakes
When I first started handling orders for our local pool hall supply shop, I assumed installing felt was just... sticking fabric on a table. I thought, 'How hard can it be? It's just a piece of cloth.'
Three months and $1,200 in wasted materials later, I realized how wrong I was. This is my story of the specific mistakes I made with Simonis cloth (both 860 and 760 series) and my Tournament Blue disaster. Let’s walk through the questions you’ll actually ask—and the ones you won’t, but should.
1. What’s the Real Difference Between Simonis 860 and 760?
I get this one constantly. And I used to give a lazy answer: “One’s for speed, one’s for durability.” That’s true, but it’s like saying a Ferrari and a pickup truck are both cars.
Simonis 860 is a worsted wool blend (70% wool, 30% nylon). It’s designed for professional tournament play. The weave is tight, the finish is incredibly smooth, and the ball speed is consistent across the entire table. It’s the standard for the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) and the American Poolplayers Association (APA).
Simonis 760, on the other hand, uses a slightly heavier yarn and a different weave. It’s a little more durable, but it also has a bit more texture. It’s often recommended for commercial environments (bars, family entertainment centers) where tables see heavier, less careful use.
Here’s the mistake I made: For our main tournament room, I ordered 760, thinking “durable” was better. It wasn’t. The regular players immediately noticed a slightly slower, less predictable roll. We had to re-cover the tournament table with 860. That error cost $890 in redo plus a 1-week delay. I’m not 100% sure, but I think the pros were using 860. I should have checked.
2. Is Simonis Tournament Blue Really Different from Other Blue Cloth?
You’d think blue is blue, right? Wrong. I once ordered four rolls of “Tournament Blue” from a discount supplier, thinking I was saving money. They were a slightly different shade. Put another way: they looked like a faded blue jeans version of the real thing.
Real Simonis Tournament Blue (sometimes called Iwan Simonis #5 or Anniversary Blue) isn’t just a color; it’s a specific, calibrated hue. The WPA specifies it for a reason: the human eye sees ball movement against that exact shade of green-blue (what they call “blurple”) better than any other color. It reduces eye strain during long matches.
Why does this matter? Because if you buy “blue” cloth from a random vendor, you might get a color that is 10-15% off the standard. On a $3,200 order for a 10-table hall, every single item had a slightly mismatched shade. We caught the error when the contractor started installing and it looked awful under the new lighting. The wrong color on 10 items = $450 wasted + embarrassment.
My advice: Buy directly from a verified Simonis dealer or pull the official color swatch from simonis.com to match against your vendor’s offering. It’s a small step that saves a massive headache.
3. Is Simonis X1 Cleaner Really That Important?
Look, I’m not saying you can’t use a generic spray and a damp cloth to clean your Simonis felt. I’m saying it’s a risk I’m no longer willing to take.
When I was first managing the hall, I tried a “miracle” multi-surface cleaner to get a wine stain out of a 760 table. It stripped the protective coating on the wool fibers. That small spot became a permanent wear point. Within 6 months, the felt in that area was noticeably fuzzier and slower than the rest of the table. We had to re-cover it entirely.
The X1 cleaner is specifically formulated for wool blends. It’s pH-neutral and designed to lift chalk and dirt without damaging the fibers. I was skeptical (isn’t all spray the same?), so I tested it against a standard kitchen cleaner on a scrap piece of 860. The kitchen cleaner left a residue that attracted more dust. The X1 didn’t.
Granted, it’s $15-20 per bottle. But that’s nothing compared to the cost of replacing a $400+ table cover. Between you and me, I now have a strict “only use X1” policy.
4. What’s the Biggest Mistake with Simonis Cloth Installation?
The most permanent error isn’t the cut. It’s the stretch. I’ll tell you a story.
Everything I’d read about installation said to pull the felt tightly over the slate. In practice, for our specific use case—a high-humidity bar room—this was a catastrophic error. Simonis cloth is a natural fiber (wool). It stretches and shrinks with humidity. If you install it in a dry, air-conditioned room and then the summer humidity hits, the felt will relax, and you’ll get a “ballooned” surface. We had to re-stretch a table three times in one summer.
The trick I learned from a 20-year-old installer: install the cloth slightly looser than you think you need, and use a staple gun with a specific tension. It’s a counter-intuitive skill. I’d rather spend 10 minutes explaining this to a new client than deal with a call a month later saying the table is wavy.
5. How to Clean Speaker on iPhone (and Why It Matters for Your Pool Hall)
Wait, what? I know this seems random. But I added it because it’s a perfect example of a task people think is trivial until they mess it up.
I was cleaning the speakers on my iPhone 13 using a toothpick (bad idea, I know). It worked fine. Then, I used the same “dry, pointy object” logic to clean a chalk mark off a new Simonis felt. I tried to scrape it with the edge of a credit card.
It felt like a good idea. It was not. The card’s edge had a microscopic burr that snagged a single thread in the wool weave. That one snag created a pull. Within a month, that pull had unraveled into a noticeable 1-inch long loose thread. We had to patch it. The repair cost $150.
For the iPhone, the correct method is to use a soft, dry brush (like a clean toothbrush). For Simonis cloth, you use a soft brush or a specialized felt eraser. Never use a sharp tool. It’s a small lesson, but it saved me a lot of money on my next order.
6. Samsung Earbuds and Elliptical Galaxy: A Tangent on Wear & Tear
This might seem like a non-sequitur, but it’s related. I had a client who, over my objections, insisted on allowing customers to wear Samsung Earbuds while playing. The issue wasn’t the music. It was the grease and skin oil from the earbuds transferring to the felt when they leaned over the table. It created a dark, oily patch that attracted dirt.
Similarly, I once saw a guy in a full Elliptical Galaxy workout shirt (sweat-wicking fabric, oddly rough) rubbing his elbow on the cloth. The abrasive fabric caused a small burn mark on the felt.
The point is: the environment matters. Simonis cloth is durable, but it’s not indestructible. You need to think about what touches it. Chalk, sweat, dirty hands, and cheap denim are all enemies of a $500 table covering.
7. What Should I Do If I Tear the Cloth During Stretching?
Real talk: it happens to everyone, at least once. I tore a brand new piece of 760 on a corner slate in September 2022. It was a 2-inch rip. My heart sank.
Don’t panic. You have two options:
- Patch it: If the tear is in a non-structural area (not on a seam or a playing surface), a professional can patch it with a piece of matching cloth and a specialized adhesive. The repair will be visible up close, but it can extend the life of the cloth by months.
- Replace the entire piece: If the tear is in the center of the table or along a seam where it affects the ball roll, you have to replace that entire sheet. It’s a $400-500 mistake.
My rule now: if the tear is bigger than 1 inch, replace it. Otherwise, patch it and keep a very close eye on it. I once patched a 1.5-inch tear on a 860 table, and it held for 18 months before we replaced it anyway. The patch cost $75. The replacement would have been $500. To be fair, the patch wasn't perfect, but it was good enough for a practice table.
Summary of costs:
- Wrong cloth spec (ordered 760 for tournament table): $890 redo
- Wrong color (discount “Tournament Blue”): $450 wasted + embarrassment
- Cleaning mistake (credit card snag): $150 repair
- Torn cloth (stretching error): $500 replacement
Total from my early mistakes: over $2,000. The price of a good used car. Or a lot of Simonis cloth. I put this list together so you don't have to learn the hard way.