What are Bowling Pins Made of? ( Material and Building Process )

You are a great bowling player among your friends and love to hit the score every weekend in the nearest bowling club. But have you ever wanted to know how the bowling pins stay harmless even after getting hit by the heavy weighted balls? Or what material made them strong enough? Probably not. But this topic will help to explain the bowling pans and what bowling pins are made of.

So without making any further due, let’s go for the main topic.

What is a Bowling Pin?

With or without knowing the name, the majority of the people around the world know what the bowling pin is. The bottle shaped materials that get placed at the ending platform of the bowling surface are named the bowling pin.

They are mainly get used as the targeting source of the game for counting the game scores. For having different types of scoring levels like tenpins, duckpins, five pins, or candlepins, these bowling pins get used. As the bowling hit the pins with different numbers, they make it easy to count the scores.

Revolution of the Bowling Pin

Back to the previous time, the bowling pen was made from maple wood with a single block texture. At that time, the bowling pin had not taken as much importance as now. But this innovation of wooden maple pin didn't last long as there were several types of problems.

The majority of the problem comes from the weight distribution. Having no similarity and weight balance to the inner area, these bowling pens were not the same in weight. As a result, it affected the game.

For avoiding this situation, automatic pinsetters get invented by the American Machine Company. Their advantage was, they can easily last for a long time for getting hit by the bowling without making any lane moving issue.

But as the day passed, they also get vanished under the latest features. In the year of 1954, Vulcan Manufacturing Company started to make some innovative type of pins for the game by attaching small shaped pieces. For having a lower weight with more durability than the other materials, this bowling pin model had created a great demand among bowling game lovers.

From that time, the bowling pin is following the same category and shape as they got huge demand among all. Even at the national and international level of games, there is no better option rather than choosing these lightweight and durable bowling pins.

What’s inside?

As we have gotten a few hints from the revolution, it is time for knowing these bowling pins deeply. A bunch of curious minds remains for knowing about how and what type of material gets used for making the latest model of bowling pins.

Generally, the majority of people may think that the latest models of bowling pins are made from either steel or metal or plastic. But the fact is, the production pattern for the bowling pin still follows the older version that means, they are still getting produced by woods.

Though they are having the usage of woods as, like the previous times, these woods transform into an advanced look and efficiency compared to older ones. And the most common and demanded wood for the bowling pin is maple wood.

What are Bowling Pins Made of

What are Bowling Pins Made of

Why Choosing Wood as the Main Material?

It is pretty sure that people have a question about why the wood gets used when there is another type of material with more durability. But the fact is, maple wood can take the impact of the ball even without having any damages or stains.

But the other type of materials leaves with a tendency of getting harm or damages by the balls as they are enough heavy and hard. On the other hand, the maple wood can be transformed into a bowling pin very easily by adding additional parts where the other materials may create difficulties for adding.

So all these good sides of the maple wood make it suitable and perfect for use as a bowling pin.

The Main Building Process

As we have discussed the material, now it is time to know about the making procedure. Some steps have to follow to make proper bowling pins.

First of all, when it comes to choosing, it means selecting the maple woods for the main operation. In that case, the woodblocks get selected in the shape and get attached by using either glue or sticky paint.

In terms of sticking the blocks together, the most important thing that gets followed is durability. Though having the attachment by the glue, they can even lose the joint. Therefore, checking the blocks properly after attaching them is very important.

When they get perfectly attached, it is time for cutting them in shape. Generally, a bowling pin contains the standard size of 11 inches in height and almost 4 and a half inches in width. According to the sizing, cut the attached logs properly and make an accurate shape.

After the block is converted into the bowling pin shape, it is now to smoothen up the exterior areas. It is a very important step to follow after the sizing because, without making the pins smooth, there is no chance of going for the next step. On the other hand, the players will face problems while playing or hitting the pins through the bowling as there is no existence of smoothness into the pins. That is why smoothing up the surfaces is very important to take place in the listing as proper bowling pins.

When the total structure is done with major constructing, the final term comes for coating into the bowling pins. It is as important as the total building process.

Resin and plastic are the two different type of coating that makes the bowling pins complete for its efficiency. On the other hand, no player will love to go for faded or noncolored bowling pins as they don’t even look standard enough for the bowling court.

Coating Process

Secondly, after crossing the material building process, it is now time for the coating. The coating helps to avoid the damage or impacts from the bowling balls at every angle and ratio. As there is a total of 7 layers in the pin, it helps to keep the pin safe from any kind of damage or problems and keep the color in the same condition. Thinking about more durability and performance, the nylon type of coating gets used for the external area of the bowling pin.

So these are the entire process and terms that are related to making up the bowling pins. As some of the bowling pins are made from heavy-duty instruments and quality, they can easily take place in the standard rankings that get used for international level gameplays. As with the material and pricing, they have a good performing ability along with durability.

All these terms indicate and describe the entire subject of the bowling pin. As most people have a question about what bowling pins are made of, they will be clarified properly after having a quick sight of the topic.

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