GUIDE TO BUY AND USE OF CARROM

This guide is for people beginners to Carrom.

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Carrom boards have significantly difference of prices from 19€ up  to over 200 € and photos of carrom will not help very much to see the differences, because surface of some varnished cheap carrom can appear better than polished good carrom.

I'd like to explain the differences between the various boards.

For playing carrom you need :

- Carrom Board
- at least one striker, usually each player prefers his own strikers
- carrommen (called also coins)
- powder or potato starch
- legs or table to put carrom boards
Carrom height should be between 60 and 70 cm played upon an optional stand, anyway you can play laying it on a common table, if you want to play with 4 players you need a small square or round table.
We have folding stands on sale, they're height adjustable (metal models) n order to keep the board perfectly horizontal.

SIZE OF BOARDS

The carrom board has the official size of the playing area of 29 inches, about 74 cm.
There are smaller versions for children and beginners usually 20, 23, 26 inches.With small board playing is more easy and this is suitable for learning.
For example, my children have 4 and 6 years and already play on a 20/23 inches board.

PLAYING AREA

That 's the most important element that distinguishes good boards from cheaper ones.

The board of the cheaper tables (for example, Jay and SEI standard model in my shop) are painted with a glossy varnish and that makes the surface very smooth but not sliding, in this case it's used a powder with microspheres to supply the lack of speed of the board, on these board are not recommended standard powder or potato starches.
Palyers can not control the strikers and the carrom men on varnished boards, the game is very approximative on them.

Good boards like Surco and SEI carroms (different than SEI Standard carrom that is varnished) have the surface polished, polishing makes them smooth, without the use of varnish,  just put some powder or fine potato starch, good carroms improve their speed with use.
The playing surface is a multi-layer plywood.

THICKNESS OF PLYWOOD

The plans of quality boards are distinguished by a greater thickness.
Good thickness involves to a perfect plan (and therefore game is more accurated), board have weight and then is more stable.

FRAME SIZE

Good boards have large width and height, they have a good rebound and are more stable.
Hard wood  is preferred, Surco use valuable rosewood (palissandre), it have good rebounds and uniform in every point of the board.

WOOD FINISHING :

Different finishing doesn't matter for game skill, but only aesthetic.
Traditionally the boards was produced only black lacquered, finishing of cheap boards are approximative, carrom is very popular in India, they want have fun wiht approximative boards too.
With long use this black coating marks slightly, where the striker hit the frame, however does not affect the level of the game, as I've alraedy said good boards become better with useproblem.
Surco has developed beatiful natural finishing for western market, finishing in sheesham or rosewood (palissandre) which are wonderful to see.

POWDER

Do not use talcum powder or flower, use carrom powder or potato starch.

MAINTENANCE

Remove the dust with a soft cloth and dry.
When you finish to play,  pass a cloth or even better a brush with soft bristles and store the table in vertical position, Surco have two plastic protections to put boards on the floor.
There are covers to protect boards

TIPS  (in reference to the products of my shop on www.carrom.it):

For children from 4 to 8 years
You  can buy cheap Jay 23 inches, I don't like this heavy painting, natural wooden finishing I think is more halthy, you can use potato starch too on hem.
Even Surco excell (the cheaper Surco from us) has good finishing, you can't understand carrom quality with photos, you should see  boards.
Ellora sheesham is wonderful to see.

For kids from 8 to 12 years
It's good a 23 or 26 inches board

Beginners:
I recommend Ellora 29'', have a game plan pretty good, are aesthetically nice.
Top spin is good too, it's faster and price is similar.
Winit Speedo is a very good board similar to tournament board, you don't need to change boardwhen you want to play at good skill.