I don't know if this is the right place to post a review, but since a couple of people on the thread asked for feedback on Bean's Secret Sauce, I'll post it here.......
I purchased a ball plug cutter from Bean's late last week. Since he was a little late in shipping, he threw in a 4 oz. sample of the secret sauce.
Here's my opinion on the sauce:
I decided to use the sauce on a few balls to get a good idea of the performance of the sauce. These balls were the Rotogrip Silver Streak SE, the Radical Inferno, and the Hammer Toxic.
Silver Streak SE....I have always experienced too much over/under with this ball. The ball comes factory polished but it squirted too much, or jumped off the end of the pattern. If I dulled the ball, it would burn up too quick and hit like a wet noodle. Using a spinner, I took the ball down with 400 grit wet sandpaper for a nice smooth surface and applied the Bean's sauce to a slightly damp cloth. This sauce shines any ball to a mirror finish in a few seconds. The ball also has a tacky feel. On the lanes, the ball exhibited none of the former squirt that it had when previously polished. This ball will actually go back in my bag for use.
Radical Inferno....Just about the results as above. The polish is a definite improvement over my previous attempts to adjust this coverstock. The ball looks great. However, this is just one of those balls that I do not seem to match up to very well. Not knocking the Radical, it's just not my style.
Hammer Toxic....now this is a nice little ball for the money. Really turns the corner and hits hard. This is my newest ball. The factory shine was starting to wear off, so I gave the ball a hot water bath, let it dry, and took the sauce to it. The ball shines up to a mirror finish and tacky feel. I was worried that the ball was just going to sail because of the high gloss, but the shine does not appear to affect the reaction of the ball. I never saw any squirt; the ball is just as strong off the breakpoint as ever. It just looks better!
Once the secret sauce is left to stand for a period of time, the ingredients separate in the bottle. There is a clear liquid (water?) that rises to the top. A quick shake of the bottle prior to application mixes everything up OK. I used the same slightly damp cloth for each application. The cloth will 'cake' up with residue from the sauce. According to Bean's this is what you want, and you can sometimes just wet the cloth and apply it to a ball for a quick shine.
Conclusion: In my opinion, this is the best polish that I have seen on the market in some time. I have Ebonite polish, Storm polish, and Track polish. Bean's Secret Sauce beats them all in ease of application and (IMHO) performance. I think that pro shops would love this stuff, because you can polish up a ball to look really nice (and everyone likes the look of the shine) without an adverse reaction. I don't care what it's made of, the end result should be the deciding factor.
I have no affiliation with Bean's, nor do I know him other than the ball cutter and trial size transaction.
Gary Palma
X-act Reaction Pro Shop
Edited on 3/1/2007 6:53 PM