To my understanding the majority of the early urethane bowling balls of the 1980's utilized 3- piece pancake weight blocks with the exception to the Faball Hammer line of balls which used a 2-piece grenade looking weight block.

My question here is what was the major difference between high end urethane balls other than the manufacturer or color? For example, the AMF Black Angle vs Columbia 300 Black U Dot, or Brunswick Black Rhino?

On a side note if 2 piece balls hit and reacted that much better than 3 piece balls, why didn't all the other manufacturers follow Faball's lead sooner?

Thanks!

Just watched the '92 AC-Delco match.  Mark McDowell was wearing a shirt with the Brunswick logo, yet he was throwing the Xcalibur. In the '92 True Value Open Bruce Hamilton was wearing a shirt with the Ebonite Nitro logo, yet he was throwing the Xcalibur.  Interesting!

Keep in mind that back then we didn't have as heavy a corporate branding as we do now. IIRC, in the '93 Wichita Open, Ozio was contracted to a company, but wasn't wearing a shirt with that company's logo on it. Aulby was, and was a Brunswick guy both before then and up to now.

BL.

I am a Classic 1940's Style Full Roller.

My Nationals Team Captain, who is also one of the top PSO's in the country, recommended I find a vintage Columbia Black U-Dot. He felt with my old school style of release, slow ball speed, zero tilt and 90 degree axis rotation, that only a vintage ball would provide the control and uniformity that I would need to score well on over/under house shots.

I finally found a 14lb mint U-Dot and had it drilled up.

The layout my PSO created for me on this pancake weight block ball was unique.

He told me to put the CG 2 1/4" past my pap. This layout is only now possible due to the recent change by the USBC that allows 3 oz of imbalance on any side of the ball.

This pin past pap layout makes the ball have a lot of bottom weight. The result is this pancake weight block vintage ball will slide clean up the lane then flip over and roll hard and heavy in the back. It hits very hard and is continuous, much more so then it was back in the day since this new layout allows it to have dynamics it could not have back then.

Check me out throwing the Black U-Dot: https://youtu.be/pV0Fv9jzCFM

I just picked up a mint condition original Grey Rhino.
Based on the serial number it was born in October 1987.
Had it plugged and drilled up with a simple label drill like they did in the old days.
My PSO totally resurfaced it and it looks totally brand new, like it is a first drilling!
I finished it to 1000 grit and tried it on my house shot in league.
It looked really good from the outside in warm up so I started with it.
Well, I finished with it too shooting 610.
My high game in that series was a 245 clean!
This is with a ball with no core, no fancy drilling etc.
Just old urethane coverstock paired with accuracy.

For some reason, this Grey Rhino hits super, super hard!
It makes a loud crack when it hits the pins and shoots them all over the place, much more so than any ball I have thrown before, modern or vintage.
Perhaps the material it is made out of or the inner filler has a super high C.O.R. number? Maybe back then it could be higher than today?

i remember wayne webb, drilling endless hammers experimenting with different layouts, and pin placements and weight holes, I am not sure what gave him the idea to do this but he sure drilled a ton of hammers, some were duds, some were absolute monsters.