Ball Care

[Dude779]

I have been looking up everything I can find on this subject, here and anywhere on the net. I have a few questions, that I know have probably have been asked and answered a good number of times. I want to take the best care of my bowling balls, and want to do it right so I get the best out of them week after week. I wipe them after every shot, and even spray some cleaner on them in between games. What I want to know is what to properly do at home.

1. I see a lot of people say they "touch up the surface" after X amount of games. I seen on an older thread Bowl1820 said he touches up with the final stage of finishing. So if I was to say I wanted to do that to my Hammer Epidemic, I would take a Abralon 2000 grit pad to it, and then Factory Finish?

2. How often should I be polishing? Only after the touch up? Only after each cleaning with Clean N Dull? Only when it needs it, and if so what are some of the characteristics that I should look for to know it is due?

I know a resurface after 30-50 games, that time hasn't came yet, and I am sure I will have more questions then when the time comes. I just got back into bowling after 16 years, and never had the level of interest that I do now. I just want to protect my investment the right way, for me this is a start. Thank you in advance for all the help.

[bowl1820]

1. I see a lot of people say they "touch up the surface" after X amount of games. I seen on an older thread Bowl1820 said he touches up with the final stage of finishing. So if I was to say I wanted to do that to my Hammer Epidemic, I would take a Abralon 2000 grit pad to it, and then Factory Finish?
The O.O.B. on the Hammer Epidemic 800/1000/2000/2000 Abralon w/Powerhouse Factory Finish, So If you were using that surface and wanting to just touch up that surface. I'd do the 2000 followed by the Factory Finish.

Now if your using a different surface than the OOB, you'd touch it up with whatever the last step of the surface your using.


2. How often should I be polishing? Only after the touch up? Only after each cleaning with Clean N Dull? Only when it needs it, and if so what are some of the characteristics that I should look for to know it is due?.

How often should you touch up/polish all depends on how much you bowl and the conditions you bowl on. I've been touching up every week before bowling.

How to know when it's due is experience mainly, noticing changes in reaction. The ball's surface starts changing the moment you use it, the ball surface scanner has shown that the surface changes quite a lot after just 3 games. So Touching up before each set is perfectly fine.

I've been freshening up my surface before bowling each week, it's been dryer and it showed wear a lot faster.Before I could go about 6-9 games before a redo.

There's nothing set in stone on how often you should touchup/resurface, like I said it depends on how much you bowl and the conditions you bowl on.

[Dude779]

Thank you Bowl1820 for your response. Forgive me as I am a new to this, so only use the Factory Finish when I touch it up with the 2000 Abralon? Or in between the touch ups?

[Dude779]

Sorry for the last part, I didn't see your entire post, my fault. Thank you Sir for your input!

[RobLV1]

I have to theoretically disagree, based on nothing more than logic. The Factory Finish is a polish, is it not? As such, it is the last step in the process. If you first hit the ball with a 2000 grit pad, you are taking off the surface polish, but not the polish that has sunk into the pores of the ball, so you really haven't duplicated the surface that is under the polish. It would seem to me that all that is required is cleaning after each use, and a touch up of the factory finish when it starts to dull. It seems logical that to duplicate that total surface, you would have to go through the entire resurfacing process and then repolish.

[Amyers]

Do you have a ball spinner? If you do not I would think that making more than very minor surface adjustments would be difficult.

[bowl1820]

I have to theoretically disagree, based on nothing more than logic. The Factory Finish is a polish, is it not? As such, it is the last step in the process. Yes, the Factory Finish is the actual last step.


If you first hit the ball with a 2000 grit pad, you are taking off the surface polish, but not the polish that has sunk into the pores of the ball,
As for polish "in the pores" or the "surface that is under the polish"

The majority of polishes are just fine liquid abrasives, your not building up coats of polish on the ball like wax on a car that can be sanded off. So your not taking polish off the surface.

(A caveat would be polishes that contain slip agents, those you can sand off)


so you really haven't duplicated the surface that is under the polish.If your just "Touching up" your not trying to "duplicated the surface" just maintain it for a little while longer until you do a resurface.


It would seem to me that all that is required is cleaning after each use, and a touch up of the factory finish when it starts to dull.

Well that's one option and a lot players do that. IMO though hitting it with the 2000 first then following with the polish will give you a more consistent surface.

The dull area (track area) around the ball might not be consistently worn. Some areas can be duller than others, I have seen this on my own equipment.

The laydown point on my ball has more wear than the rest of the track, if I just polished the ball that area would still be different than the rest of the track.

But by using the grit before the polish you can even it out more and have a more consistent surface.

(Now conditions can affect this, if your bowling on lots of oil . You might not see that kind of wear and get away with just a clean polish.)

now you might say why not just go ahead and do all the steps then, well you could. just depends on how much surface you want to take off.

There's dozens of variations of what you could do.


It seems logical that to duplicate that total surface, you would have to go through the entire resurfacing process and then repolish.

Yes, you'd do all the steps to duplicate original surface.

[RobLV1]

As I said, I'm disagreeing theoretically based on logic. It is, by the way, what I do with my own bowling balls, and it's worked pretty well so far.

[Dude779]

Yea I got a spinner, pads, paper, CAB, a few cleaners, compound, different polishes , tons of towels both terry cloth and microfiber. I am going to have some fun with this:D

[Amyers]

Sounds like it have fun I know I would