How To Make My Bowling Ball Shine

By: bowlingball.com, 4/28/16

Updated 1/22/2024

Learning how to make your bowling ball shine requires an understanding of altering the surface texture of your bowling ball and whether using a polish substance will further benefit you ultimate goal in getting a reliable ball reaction.

First, your local pro shop typically has the necessary equipment to resurface your bowling ball to restore a shiny finish.

Pro shops are equipped with high speed ball spinners and varying grits of Abralon pads and with polishes which allow for the surface of your bowling ball to made very smooth and appear in a like-new condition.

The process of using a ball spinner allows for the ball to first have the coverstock surface screened with very fine grit pads with a water application to open the pores of the ball and remove most of the oil from the ball while restoring a shiny and smooth surface texture.

Some bowling balls are manufactured with a shiny and smooth surface.

These bowling balls can be a plastic coverstock, a shiny, solid reactive coverstock, or a smooth surface, pearl reactive coverstock.

All of these types of coverstocks are easily kept shiny by use of fine grit pads and a ball spinner.

Other bowling balls are made with a textured, matte finish which provides traction and a quick reaction in heavy oil lane conditions and appear as a dull finish coverstock.

The pro shops also provide polishing compounds so if you need to add polish after screening of the ball surface, it can be easily accomplished.

Polishes restore the shiny appearance to the ball surface and enhance ball skid distance. The use of a polish like Monster Shine would be perfect for achieving this finish.

Polishes are available in varying grit densities and have the capabilities of not only shining the ball to increase skid but to also ensure the ball creates a reasonable degree of friction on the lane surface while also preventing an over-skid reaction.

Make sure you communicate with the pro shop which final surface finish you desire before leaving the ball for maintenance.



Because of the wide range of surface preparation strategies available, it is your responsibility to communicate clearly the desired outcome you seek.

Cleaning bowling balls yourself is easier now than ever and is recommended after each session of bowling.

Purchasing personal squeeze bottles of ball cleaners available in pro shops will provide the right agents to clean dirt and scuff marks from the surface of your bowling balls.

With regular surface maintenance, you can keep your bowling ball shiny and ready for use.