Ball Review
THE SKINNY ON THE LATEST AND GREATEST
54 Hook 9 Length 11 Breakpoint Shape HAMMER: BURGUNDY HAMMER
Manufacturer’s Intent: “The original Burgundy Hammer from the early 1990s was the earliest and strongest ball of its time,” says Ebonite/ Hammer’s Bugsy Kelly. “If you needed hook, you turned to the Burgundy. We didn’t set out to give the bowling world another urethane product; we already have the Blue Hammer, and you wouldn’t see a lot of difference on today’s lane conditions. Instead, we have brought you the Burgundy Hammer reaction for today’s environments.”
Core: The Burgundy Hammer utilizes a modified Vibe symmetrical core, with an RG of 2.57 and a differential of .032. We saw 3-plus inches of flare.
Coverstock: This Hammer is wrapped up with a new Reacta-Thane cover that looks like old- school urethane. It comes out of the factory sanded with 500/500 grit Abralon. The effective
surface grit measures 460, with an RA value of 35.60.
Overview: The Burgundy Hammer looks like ure- thane and but doesn’t react like urethane... because it’s not. The Reacta-Thane hooks like a reactive and provides an early, smooth roll throughout its motion to the pocket. On Stone Street, we crossed the arrows around 14, sent this ball out to the 6-board at the breakpoint, and easily recovered to the pock- et. Even with the 500-grit surface, the ball wouldn’t burn up, and provided a smooth, predictable motion off the midlane and great continuous drive through the pins. It keeps the pins low, like an old-school urethane, but with good carry power on this long pattern. On the USBC Doubles/Singles pattern, we saw good motion to the pocket. The ball really smoothed out the Sport pattern with its early roll- ing motion, creating miss room right. The Burgundy
“The Burgundy Hammer looks like urethane and but doesn’t react like urethane... because it’s not.”
Hammer’s “rolly” motion and sanded surface were too much for our lighter house pattern, especially when we had to get extremely deep on the lane. This ball needs some volume in the front part of the lane to be successful. It’s a medium to heavy vol- ume ball that will work for bowlers looking for pre- dictable roll with a smooth back-end reaction. Old- schoolers who loved the original Burgundy Hammer will not be disappointed with this new version. It may look like the old one, but it definitely provides new-school hook.
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