I understand the reason why you would want to polish a ball.  I know what happens to the ball reaction after it is polished.  What I don't understand is how it happens.

Take Ebonite Factory Finish for example.  It makes the ball all shiny and pretty and then it goes longer, snaps harder, and leaves more splits and washouts when you hit dry boards vs. the more gently arcing trajectory of the ball before polishing which leaves corner pins.  The polished ball may cover the same number of boards but it all happens towards the back end.  Great!  But how does that happen?  Does the polish fill in the ridges and scratches on the surface with something, or does it take off the top of the ridges and scratches effectively raising the grit finish?

Next question, if you took a 600 grit finished ball and polished it, would it be the exact same result as polishing a 1500 grit finished ball, or would there be a big difference?  At least one inquiring mind would like to know.  

Anybody have the definitive answer?

So, nobody has the answer to this?  We are all in the dark?

"But how does that happen? Does the polish fill in the ridges and scratches on the surface with something, or does it take off the top of the ridges and scratches effectively raising the grit finish?

1. There are 2 basic kinds of polishes: ones with abrasive in them and ones without. The ones with abrasive will change the surface texture, the underlying grit level, so to speak. The ones without abrasive will not change the underlying grit level. Both also polish the ball.

As to what polishing actually does to the surface of a ball, for this you need a materials or a resin chemist to describe in detail. I don't think you actually need that level of detail to use polishes effectively on bowling balls.

One mistake many people seem to make is when they use polishes that give a grit level on the label, say, 1500 grit (Storm's Reacta Shine) or 3500 grit (Storm's Xtra Shine), they assume any application of those polsihes will provide precisely that level of grit and polish. Nothing could be further from the truth. The grit level and degree of polish/shine will vary acording to all the normal factors: amount of polish applied, how hard you press (pressure breaks down the abrasive and provides finer and finer finishers), how long you spin the ball, and how long and with what you polish the ball (the cloth).

The gritless polishes (the ones without abrasives) are great because the underlying grit level (anywhere from 600 grit to 4000 grit) is the basic surface that will always be there. The polish just adds length. The 600 grit will hook much earlier than the 4000 grit, relatively speaking and have more overall hook, just as if you had not polished it. The finer grits will have more length, less overall hook and less backend.



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"None are so blind as those who will not see."