Hello i came across a  vintage original red hammer bowling ball. It's not the burgundy one it's a cherry red color. It's not pearl it's solid. I know that there were hammer balls introduced in the 1980s but where was this cherry red hammer in the order? can anyone give me a list and is this one harder to find than the others? Thank you

Another useful post from another thread.

I'll do my best on this one. Let's start with the timeline first.

I believe Black was first, followed by Red, then Blue, then Red Pearl, then Blue Pearl, then Pink, then Purple, and finally Burgundy. So in reverse:

Burgundy: roughly 1994.
Purple: 1993.
Blue Pearl: 1990?
Red Pearl: 1991?
Pink: 1989.
Blue: 1988.
Red: 1987.
Black: 1986 or older.

Before then, the Nail was all over the place.

Now, specs of the balls. From strongest to weakest, the lineup went:

Burgundy - Blue - Purple - Black - Red - Red Pearl - Blue Pearl - Pink.

The difference between all of these balls were coverstock and coverstock preparation. "Pearl" in the name is obvious. The Pink Hammer was the weakest in coverstock preparation, whereas the Burgundy was the strongest. The Blue hammer was (I believe 800 grit abralon), so you can take a good guess at where Burgundy was.

Each of the Fab Urethane Hammers had the same core, so it all came down to the coverstock.

Thanks for the help! Gonna try to sell this one as it is too heavy at 16 lb

I had one of these back in the day, if it is the original urethane one, probably released somewhere around 86-87.

I threw plenty of these in my younger years. I will put what I am pretty sure is the time frame in brackets beside your dates from my memory.

Burgundy: roughly 1994. (I'm going to say actually probably Fall of 92-very brittle cover-had to drill slow or it would chip. Last urethane Hammer before reactives pretty much took over the market in mid 93)

Purple: 1993. (Around Fall of 1991. I drilled one a couple of days before New Years of 92. Very strong ball in the back end of the lane. We used to joke that it was a reactive Hammer before Hammer put out their Navy Blue Hammer/R in 93)

Blue Pearl: 1990? (More closer to Fall of 1987. Blue Pearls were in response to ABC mandating Limited Distance Dressing (LDD) as a lane oiling option. Ball companies put out balls to combat this: Columbia U-Dot Limited (grey) Angle LD (both orange and blue covers), Firebolt SO (short oil), and Blue Pearl Hammers)

Red Pearl: 1991? (Around fall of 1988. Blue Pearl Hammers were very popular with "Hammerheads" so Faball put out a Red Pearl version. Not sure if there was any real difference other than color but they sold well as Faball was right there with Columbia in market share)

Pink: 1989.(Thinking very late in 1989 or early 1990 when these came out. Rolled very well when the lanes were hooking)

Blue: 1988. (I'm thinking more like late 1988 or spring 1989. Once these got out, I seen several of these on racks for a 2-3 year stretch. Many "Hammerheads" drilled the latest Faball releases but always went back to the Blue Hammer as the crown jewel in their arsenal)

Red: 1987. (I think this one came out around fall of 1985 or early 1986. The Red Hammers hooked a lot more than the Black ones or the Nail. They also had that Hammer smell which to me was like Kerosene when you drilled them)

Black: 1986 or older. (This was more like 1983 or 1984. I got my first one somewhere around that time frame. The hardest hitting ball on the market at the time. I am thinking that I may have drilled 5-8 of these in my lifetime and had at least one in my bag for about a 5 year stretch).

Randy-O has a lot of good Faball info on here but have to disagree with his assertion that the Red Razor was the best of the urethane balls.  Over under and pocket splits with that damn ball.  My favorite is the Burgundy.  Probably be the Blue which keeps its surface forever if had one in 15# instead of 16#

The Black Hammer was ABC Approved Apr 1983. My best ever series was with this ball in Jan 1984.

Is it the red reactive hammer?  Had one of those.

This was the original Red Urethane Hammer. They were a duller cover Hammer to go with the Black Hammer and then the Nail at the time in the Hammer group as a go to for slicker lane conditions.

The Red Hammer/R that you are referring to was released somewhere around 1993 or early 94. It had a slight modification of the Hammer weight block as all Hammers to date were the same "grenade" style core. The Red/R had a modification that almost looked like what everyone refers to as a flip block on top. I had both the Blue Hammer/R and the Red Hammer/R and the Red/R hooked in the back a lot sharper than the Blue/R.

This was to me a good release from Hammer for the reactive market. The problem is they let the other companies get too big of a head start on them when reactives become the ball to use.