BallReviews

General Category => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: Juggernaut on April 27, 2014, 08:50:26 AM

Title: Older urethane question
Post by: Juggernaut on April 27, 2014, 08:50:26 AM
To the guys that might know, or might remember, I was wondering.

Was the original urethane blue Nitro from Ebonite anywhere near comparable to the original urethane blue Hammer solid?

I have them both available to me, but the Hammer is going to cost me a bit to get it going, and I already have the Nitro ready to throw. Don't really want to spend money duplicating something I already have access to.

I used the old Hammers a lot back then, but never had the chance to use a Nitro, and never got a chance to compare them side by side.
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: Track_Fanatic on April 27, 2014, 09:15:00 AM
For me, the blue hammer started up later then the nitro. I personally liked the hammer over the nitro unless if there was more oil.  My nitro was sitting in the bag instead of being on the lanes. The hammer also hit a lot better too. This is from recollection since I got rid of these many many years ago.
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: Juggernaut on April 27, 2014, 11:23:07 AM
For me, the blue hammer started up later then the nitro. I personally liked the hammer over the nitro unless if there was more oil.  My nitro was sitting in the bag instead of being on the lanes. The hammer also hit a lot better too. This is from recollection since I got rid of these many many years ago.

 No problem, I understand.  I used the Hammers a lot myself, just never used a Nitro.

 I did use a Turbo however, and I remember that the Nitro was supposed to be "cleaner and stronger" than the Turbo. Never used it while using the blue hammer though.

 For me, the Turbo was a little stronger than a black hammer, that's what got me wondering about the Nitro and the blue hammer.

 I have used urethane a lot this season, but the new machine they just got is putting out more volume than before. Was hoping I could just go to a stronger urethane and finish out the year.
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: strikeking on April 27, 2014, 11:27:12 AM
go to   bowlingballvault.com and you can get a comparison side by side. Another place to look is 123bowl.com.  It looks like they are very close in reaction.
Hope this helps.
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: itsallaboutme on April 27, 2014, 11:28:25 AM
They were very comparable in their time.  I doubt if you'd see much difference at all now except the cover on the Hammer will be a little easier to work with.  E balls at that time were like Udots in that once you touched them they were never the same.

I doubt either of these will be strong enough if the volume is too much for the balls you've been using.  What we saw as a large difference back then won't be much now.
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: Track_Fanatic on April 27, 2014, 11:30:20 AM
I had the turbo as well too. If I recall correctly they had 2 versions. One with the orange labeling and the other white.  I know mine was with the orange label and loved it. I used my turbo more than the nitro.
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: Mongo on April 28, 2014, 06:14:37 AM
I doubt you'll see any discernable differnce on today's oil/patterns.

I've still got a Blue Hammer, Vector One, and Black Enforcer.  The Enforcer is the strongest, but they're all within a 2-3 board range of each other and that's probably because of surface differences.
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: txbowler on April 28, 2014, 04:35:49 PM
I'll date myself a bit and say that I bowled with both balls and actually have the Nitro still sitting on my ball rack.

For me the Nitro was earlier than the blue hammer out of the box.

Both were considered strong balls during their hey dey.

I have still throw a purple hammer and pink hammer and come across conditions where I can throw them all the time.

So depending on your style and lane patterns you bowl on, it can be useful piece in your arsenal.
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: avabob on April 30, 2014, 03:37:26 PM
Both balls were very comparable with the same surface prep.  The blue Hammer came at about 400 grit from the factory.  Strongest shell out at that time due to surface prep.  Not sure what the factory finish was on Nitro.  Also, there was more difference from batch to batch on balls back then than people remember.  Some blue Hammers retained their powder blue hue for hundreds of games, while other soaked up lane oil and turned more of a blue green pretty quickly.  I had 3 blue hammers, and the first one was by far the best of the bunch. 
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: itsallaboutme on April 30, 2014, 03:50:47 PM
Faball had 3 factories.  Could have been you got balls from different places.  I had about 10 of them and the only one that was greenish was that way from the start. 
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: itsallaboutme on April 30, 2014, 03:52:46 PM
There are still big differences from batch to batch, but not many people drill 3 or 4 of the same ball anymore.
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: avabob on May 01, 2014, 02:35:34 PM
Still big differences from batch to batch, I agree.  Biggest difference was in the early days of polyester when Columbia cured their balls in a covered, but open air facility in San Antonio.  Not many on these boards remember, but people wanted yellow dots with high letters like P and R in the serial numbers.  These balls were made later in the summer and cured out quicker which seemed to yield softer shells. 
Title: Re: Older urethane question
Post by: skizzle on May 01, 2014, 11:03:44 PM
Still have my Nitro...was my go to ball back in the day...loved it!