Old Hammer (Faball) Bowling Balls: Reviews + Specs

The core used on all old Faball Hammer bowling balls from the 80’s through the early 90s was a symmetrical Low RG weight block with low differential.

It’s hard to know the original specs but it probably fell between 2.49 and 2.54 and the diff was probably between .015 and .025.

Here is a rendering of the core for all original Urethane FAB balls from the 80’s and early 90’s.

Old Hammer Urethane Core

Once resin came into the picture in 1992 Faball balls began experimenting with different shaped cores and different urethane formulas.

For a list of all old FAB Hammer bowling balls in order of their approval with the PBA see below:

  1. Hammer Black Urethane 8/27/1982
  2. Hammer Blue Urethane (Date Unknown)
  3. Hammer Red Urethane 1/15/1985
  4. Hammer Blue Pearl Urethane 1/4/1987
  5. Hammer Red Pearl Urethane 12/18/1987
  6. Hammer Nail Urethane (Blue) 1/30/1989
  7. Hammer Pink Urethane 11/20/1989
  8. Hammer Burgundy Urethane 10/1/1992
  9. Hammer Red Reactive Urethane 6/6/1994
  10. Hammer Purple Reactive 1/1/1995
  11. Hammer Red Razor Reactive 6/16/1995
  12. Hammer Berry Reactive Razor 6/16/1995
  13. Norm Duke Signature Blue Reactive 7/7/1995
  14. Ice Blue Pearl Razor Reactive 12/1/1995
  15. Nova Hammer – Purple Reactive – 1/19/1996
  16. Nova Hammer Pearl – Purple Reactive – 1/19/1996
  17. 3-D Hammer Pearl – Violet Reactive – 5/21/1996
  18. PC2 – Bay Blue Pearl Reactive – 11/22/1996
  19. PC3 – Cajun Red Urethane – 11/22/1996
  20. 3-D Offset Hammer – Violet Reactive – 1/21/1997
  21. 3-D Offset w/VB Mica – Blue Reactive – 5/27/1997
  22. Striking Red 3-D Offset – Red Microflex 12/11/1997

The Blue Hammer with white logos and blue pin was made by Faball from 1993 to 1996 when the company was owned by Faball Enterprises. The Blue Hammer with orange logos and matching orange pin was made by Faball after 1996, when the company licensed their name to Faball USA. (If you look closely, you can see the serial# on the ball, it starts with a “O98.” Faball serials always started with a letter indicating the city where the factory who poured the ball was located, and a 2-digit number indicating the year it was made. In this case, 1998.