Ball appearance?

[Phonetek]

I was asked this and I didn’t have an answer. If you wanted to repaint the logos on your ball and use a paint that glows either in the dark or I assume they meant under black lights, is it USBC legal to do so?

They says they specifically wanted to use paint not the acrylic crayons. I personally never thought about that being legal or not.

When I was a kid I used to change my name and logos colors all the time by melting regular crayons. It was of course very temporary because it didn’t take long for them to look all nasty again. I remind you that video games weren’t much of a thing back then so I had little else to do.

[Ryster]

As long as the paint you are using doesn't get on the surface of the ball you should be ok. Engraving typically sits slightly below the surface so it should be ok.

Technically the USBC has a rule that no foreign material can be on the surface (paint, sharpie, etc.) But repainting the engraving should be fine.

There used to be a company that sold a kit to recolor bowling ball engraving, but I forget the name of it.

[Phonetek]

That makes sense. Given how there are all kinds of weird rules about just about everything, I figured there would be some about this. Especially for the tournaments where they inspect balls beforehand. I completely expected to see a reply from Bowl with a huge paragraph outlining all the weird rules about it. I guess this is one thing nobody cares about. At least not YET.

One thing I would have to say wouldn’t be recommended would be to use an oil based paint. It would likely break down from mixing with the oil on the lane and make a huge mess. Acrylic or enamel would probably be perfectly fine. Sadly my days of caring what the logos look like on my bowling balls are long behind me. I used to care but I don’t have the time I used to. Plus now we do have video games.

[bowl1820]

You can color fill in your engraved name, but you can't paint the logos if the ball is going to be in USBC competition.

Painting is going to be problematic because the paint is going to chip off. If it gets on the lanes etc. the house could have a problem with that.

[Phonetek]

You can color fill in your engraved name, but you can't paint the logos if the ball is going to be in USBC competition.

Painting is going to be problematic because the paint is going to chip off. If it gets on the lanes etc. the house could have a problem with that.

So there is an official rule. I suspected as much.