Each year at the end of the bowling season I purchase a new ball with the winnings of my two leagues. The ball I selected this year was the Brunswick Twisted Fury. The ball has received favorable reviews by pros and amateurs alike and had earned a reputation for being very predictable. One of the things that attracted me to this ball was in advertisements it appeared to have a very thick coverstock as shown in a cross section of the ball unlike today's trend in thin coverstocks. So after drilling it became apparent that the coverstock on the Twisted Fury was not like in the advertisements but had the thin 1/2 inch thick coverstock that I was trying to avoid. Is Brunswick guilty of false advertising?

I think generally you cannot go by those split drawings, especially when gauging cover thickness or actual core size.

Right now the Twisted has a $20 rebate. Make sure you get the information from your Pro Shop or where ever you bought it.

Erin

The Twisted Fury as presented in the Brunswick advertisement featured a cross section of the ball. The ball appeared to be similar to the type of coverstock in a Legends or Lanemasters ball where the coverstock extends right down to the core with no filler material between the core and the coverstock. So imagine my surprise when after drilling I discovered that the ball had a 1/2 inch thick cover with white filler exposed in the fingers and the wt hole.

I did mention this to my driller and he said that he would bring the subject up when he meets with the MoRich rep in a seminar next month. He said MoRich and Brunswick are connected.

johnw1, I don't think there is another manufacturer who puts as much resin in their balls as Lane Masters. Most, as you found out, use filler material.

In fact, at the Lane Masters Booth at Nationals, the people there proudly said "we have as much as 11 pounds of resin in the ball". Probably accounts for their slightly premium price too.

Thats what one driller told me about the price difference at most shops between Lane Masters and the more mainstream companies. Lane Masters are almost all coverstock which gets expensive. I once heard Banger and maybe Visionary use a little less filler, but I'm not sure about Visionary because their equipment is usually better priced.

On the part about the Twisted Fury. The only cut away I saw of it was on ball review .com and I can see that the cover stock does not go all the way to the twisted core but it looks like a bowl with the core sitting in it. It doesn't show the filler so the actual core can be seen better. If that is the same type of cut away you have seen then no there is no false advertising.

I am going to try and meet with my driller and confirm what I suspect - that there is something not kosher with the Twisted Fury I purchased. I shape my own thumbholes after my driller installs the thumbslug. While shaping the thumbhole I had to clear out the sanded particles from the hole by banging the ball on the floor with the thumbhole facing the floor. White powder kept pouring out of the thumbhole. The thumbslug is green. Down at the bottom of the thumbhole was a 1/4 inch hole that extended to the center of the ball. The walls of the hole were white like the filler I previously mentioned. Where was the 5 lb core that a 15 lb Twisted Fury was supposed to have? I measured the depth of the hole which was 4 inches deep or 1/2 inch from the center of the ball.

Mystery - Where is the core and where did the 1/4 inch wormhole come from? The Twisted Fury was manufactured in Mexico and who knows how quality control is down there.

Not too long ago all reactive balls were two piece balls and had the coverstock go all the way to the core. Ebonite did a study a few years ago (maybe 5 years ago), and found that a two piece ball with the coverstock all the way to the core has a lower coefficient of restitution when hitting the pins, meaning the ball doesn't have as much "give" upon impact, where a ball with a less dense outer core material like most balls have these days creates a spring board type effect when it hits the pins which is supposed to create more pin action. At least that is the theory behind it as well as holding down the cost, but it does add an extra step in the process of making the ball, so I am not sure exactly how much that really saves them.

By the way Legends is the only Manufacturer that still makes balls with two piece design, Lane Masters stopped doing this with their last two releases.

Lane Masters also stopped packaging a ball ring, a bottle of their cleaner, a bottle of their polish and a micro fiber ball tote in the ball box too. Their only ball to continue this practice is the Terminator line.

Another cost reduction?

Their newer balls, Black Pearl, and the pearl reactive, and the Sting have seen the 3 step process I believe.

There is a lot to be said for the way these balls hit. All of the ones I have hit really hard. But, there have been times where the ball goes right through the middle on a slightly high hit, leaving really ugly leaves. More splash would be appreciated at times.

In a way, the filler acts like cork in a baseball bat for more pop.

I've read on the forums of another website where a guy had a similar issue with the Brunswick Red Zone, I think it might have been pre-move to Mexico. His Pro Shop had a Brunswick rep come and look at it and said it shouldn't be a problem. Now whether or not that is true is a different story. I've never had the problem with any of my Brunswick balls and I believe the Fury was one of the first out of that plant.

You are being paranoid.

http://www.brunswickbowling.com/twisted-fury

Look at the picture. It is not solid coverstock down to the core. See the little white thing coming out of the side? Asymmetrical weight blocks have a second "pin" which, like the standard pin, is removed from the weight block during the construction of the ball. Your driller probably drilled the thumbhole right over that spot.

Guys,
I just got off the telephone with my ball driller - Karl Wolf - a senior PBA member with 35 years experience in drilling bowling balls. Karl has advised me to either contact Brunswick or take advantage of my extended warranty from the distributor and get a replacement.

Karl is familiar with the Twisted Fury as he owns one plus Brunswick had sent him just the core or weightblock which is mustard colored and is close to the size of a grapefruit.

The primary pin on my ball is located 1 1/4" above the fingers on the centerline while the secondary pin is 3/8" to the right of the thumbslug.

The standard thumbslug measures 3 1/8" long. Karl as a matter of procedure drills his thumbholes 2 7/8" deep so that there is a minimum of thumbslug to cut flush to the ball surface with his drill press router. I stuck a piece of wire down the wormhole I discovered - the bottom of the wormhole was exactly 4 inches from the ball's surface. Therefore the wormhole itself was 1 1/8" deep from the bottom of my thumbhole. I shined a flashlight down the wormhole but could not see anything that resembled what might be a mustard yellowish weightblock. I could see something red at the bottom of the hole.

Karl recommended that just the mere fact that the ball has a void in it is enough to warrant sending it back.

I would think so too. Let us know what happens

Erin,

I just got off the phone with Karl Wolf, my driller. Karl just got back from Buffalo, NY, where one of the people he met with was a Brunswick rep who had worked on the Twisted Fury in 2007. According to the rep the manufacturing process involves using some sort of straw where the mass bias locator pin goes and sometimes a hole is left in the weight block. Supposedly this hole has no effect on the performance of the ball.

I did try the ball out the day before I spoke with Karl and was pleased at how the ball reacted. In other words I had planned to keep the ball regardless of what Karl reported.

So all is well.