doug,
just got home from a tournament.
Not sure when it became illegal to use metals in core or in a bowling ball for that matter, but it's been a longtime. Bismuth and Titanium are technically metals, but I doubt they were actually metals in those cores.
I do not know what new regulation made the bismuth nugget illegal now. I believe several techs have said that these nuggets (ceramic and bismuth and the one in the Ebonite Wolf core were used to get the core lower in the RG range. The technology to do that some how did not exist back in 1997. Now it does and those nuggets are no longer necessary to make the ball do what the designers want. SO why go thru the added process AND the added expense?
FYI The new core in the Ebo Mission X is supposedly made from "Magnetite", whatever the heck that is, but it sure sounds like a metal. BUT, according to USBC rules, it cannot be a metal, so the name must just be a made-up one by Ebonite to suggest that the core is denser than it used to be.
Just an FYI: Some of the hardest hitting balls I have known were from AZO and the first few made by LaneMasters when they took over the AZO plant back in 2004 (?). Those cores were made from urethane. I am not sure if they (LM or AZO) still use urethane to make their cores.
"None are so blind as those who will not see."
"A comedian says funny things. A comic says things funny."
