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© Copyright 2003, Jim Loy
The following works on "reactive" bowling balls (or "proactive" or "hyperactive" or whatever they are calling them now). It doesn't work on urethane, or plastic, or rubber bowling balls. Reactive balls soak up oil from the lanes. I will explain why in another article. Eventually, the surface becomes oily, and the ball will not hook very much. Most of the oil can be sweated out using heat. Be careful, if the heating is too quick, the ball may crack, or the core may separate from the outside, and the ball will be useless.
There are a number of ways to heat the ball: oven (very low temperature), space heater, inside your car on a sunny day, submerged in hot water, even a microwave oven. The temperature must be relatively low, and I recommend that it last a long time (so the heat will get in deep). This is why I prefer sweating my bowling balls in my car. Be sure that you have some towel under the ball to soak up the oil. You will see the ball glistening with oil, and little drops of oil will sweat out of the ball as you watch, almost immediately. When you are done, wipe off the ball, as the oil on the ball will soak back into the ball as it cools down.
Sometimes sweating your bowling ball works like a charm. At other times, it will recover some of the old "grab" but not all, or not consistently. I would say, keep trying, as a couple of my balls have greatly improved, a year or so after I thought they were done for.