BallReviews
General Category => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: Jesse James on December 12, 2016, 03:35:22 PM
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How many of you guys still use particle pearls? I've been using them on a medium heavy shot lately and having a ton of success!
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Visionary Raven in the current line up is a Particle Pearl. Rolls very nice and is a great addition to the VBP family.
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Isn't the Scandal Pearl more or less a particle pearl? If so quite a few then. ;D
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Many particle balls out there not advertised as such....and never will be.
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The particle ball technology in the past was glass beads or balls poured on the outer shell. Once you took a pad to it or sandpaper back then, the glass beads wore off or wore down, causing the ball to lose its reaction
the Scandal pearl is infused with Carbon fiber poured into the outer shell, the carbon fiber is very strong and its like a stud on a snow tire, once you sand down the outer shell, more carbon fiber is in the outer shell to keep the ball reaction the same as new.
http://d1p268mz1b2hyf.cloudfront.net/res/uploads/products/files/HMR_Scandal_ss_WEB.pdf
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Right, but the concept is the same. The "particle" facet of the coverstock just doesn't wear down like it used to. Like ignite said particle balls will never be advertised as such again because of the bad rap from years ago but they're out there... more or less. ;)
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I just drilled a particle ball. AMF Incinerate. Need to see how it rolls.
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Almost every ball now has some form of additive to it making it "particle". Whats changed is the advertising. They are no longer marketed as such just key hints in the cover name. I guess long story short, don't get wrapped up in a name.
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Another element of this is that companies learned rather quickly that the early particle loads were way, way, way more than was ideal. The newer "particle" balls use much lower concentrations, which allows the balls to avoid the basketball on a carpet grab and die reactions many of the early particle balls exhibited.
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A lot of things have changed in covers over the years. Some with lots of fanfare some more quietly along the evolutionary rather than revolutionary lines. Remember the first resin balls. They werent just tacky but downright sticky. The amounts and types of resins have changed as have the other attributes of shell construction. Still a urethane base, but lots of other things have evolved
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Another element of this is that companies learned rather quickly that the early particle loads were way, way, way more than was ideal. The newer "particle" balls use much lower concentrations, which allows the balls to avoid the basketball on a carpet grab and die reactions many of the early particle balls exhibited.
Gene,
You seem to forget balls like the Brunswick Riot Zone and many Brunswick-based balls with the 2.0 version of their particle balls. (The Lane #1 Pro Purple used this same coverstock with equally great results.) These balls were meant for light to medium-light oil patterns. They were anything but early. They were MAGNIFICENT for slow speed bowlers like myself. I had one Riot Zone that had to have had over a 1,000 games on it and it never needed de-oiling. It never died. I rue the day I sold it; I wish I never had. There was never a ball like it.
http://www.bowlwithbrunswick.com/downloads/info-sheets/Riot_Zone_Purple_Pearl.pdf (http://www.bowlwithbrunswick.com/downloads/info-sheets/Riot_Zone_Purple_Pearl.pdf)
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I just picked up my second Visionary Raven particle pearl. This ball rolls great - it has a very nice hook shape downlane and rarely misses the spot due the extra grip from the particles.
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Yes the Visionary is closer to the older Particle Pearls of old. I just wish the RG (around 2.48) was lower and Diff was Higher (.056 or Better).... ;)
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Another element of this is that companies learned rather quickly that the early particle loads were way, way, way more than was ideal. The newer "particle" balls use much lower concentrations, which allows the balls to avoid the basketball on a carpet grab and die reactions many of the early particle balls exhibited.
Gene,
You seem to forget balls like the Brunswick Riot Zone and many Brunswick-based balls with the 2.0 version of their particle balls. (The Lane #1 Pro Purple used this same coverstock with equally great results.) These balls were meant for light to medium-light oil patterns. They were anything but early. They were MAGNIFICENT for slow speed bowlers like myself. I had one Riot Zone that had to have had over a 1,000 games on it and it never needed de-oiling. It never died. I rue the day I sold it; I wish I never had. There was never a ball like it.
http://www.bowlwithbrunswick.com/downloads/info-sheets/Riot_Zone_Purple_Pearl.pdf (http://www.bowlwithbrunswick.com/downloads/info-sheets/Riot_Zone_Purple_Pearl.pdf)
True enough, Charlest. I was speaking more in general terms. There were definitely a lot of very good particle balls out there (and I'm sure there still are!). Sadly, a lot of bowlers only focused upon and remembered the bad ones, and that's a big reason why you don't see/hear many companies openly talking about using particle anymore.
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Gene,
Agree 110%. I think ignorance is the main reason why particle balls got the bad reputation. They didn't know when to use them or how to take care of them. Their care is/was slightly the fault of the manufacturers; I think they either never pushed the kind of care those balls needed (actually no more than any ball needs today, but people are better educated now, 15-20 years later); or they didn't know themselves how much care (oil removal and surface maintenance) was required for particles.