Makes sense in reference to quanity of bowling balls laid out and drilled and not wanting to erase the layout from the ball.

For accuracy you can always make the grease pencil sharper for thin lines. If you can hit that, etching it won't make you better. It will make it easier to see how much you missed by lol

I scribe all my balls before drilling. I use a mill press with digital display and just like knowing I'm hitting exactly what my lines are. I don't drill for too many other people and they request the scribe lines as well.

I scribe all my stuff, but I may lay it out and not drill it for a period of time, because my customers' equipment comes first, and I don't want the grease pencil lines to get erased.

I scribe for very few customers anymore, but I will scribe a small line below the thumb hole for people who use the Vise IT, so they can see if their thumb is lined up properly, as they may not have heard or felt the thumb click into place.

As Sean said, for him, myself, and a couple others that drill MANY balls, I write the dual angle numbers on the ball next to the ring finger so I and they can remember the layout numbers, but this is only a couple guys.

We used to scribe a lot of balls for customers, rarely did anyone complain, but I don't do it very often anymore.  I feel it is more accurate, specially when going fast, but I try not to go too fast anymore, quality over quantity.

It's personal preference.  Nothing more, nothing less.  There are pencil sharpeners that do fine work when used.
 
Some drillers go crazy with the scribe lines.  Mine, when scribed, are about 1/2" long.  I draw some lines in pencil on every ball, then hand it to my driller.  If he uses a scribe it's no big deal UNLESS HE MISSES THE SCRIBED LINES, then I would give him some serious ribbing.  I've never seen him miss though.

All of my balls are scribed, wouldn't have it any other way.

95% of customers can't feel an 1/16" difference in span, never mind the difference if you hit the edge of a pencil line vs. the middle, as long as you sharpened it this month.

95% of customers can't feel an 1/16" difference in span, never mind the difference if you hit the edge of a pencil line vs. the middle, as long as you sharpened it this month.

I'm glad you're not drilling my stuff with that attitude.

Northface, trust me, you can't do much better than having me behind the press drilling you a ball.

All the guys on this site think they are the typical pro shop customer.  There are way more times when a new customer comes into the shop with 3 balls, all three are different and they have no idea they are different, than a guy coming in with 3 the same.