Candlepins

[Stevejt66]

Do candle pins wear out? They seem impervious to those small balls....LOL. Never hear of any candlepins cracking or anything...

[moosehead]

I have broke a few in my day, snaped the ends off them

[Stevejt66]

They were probably the wooden ones right? I'm also wondering if anyone broke the totally synthetic ones?

[mr.badwrench]

I have some broken ones. Target pins seem to only last 20 or 30 years and Garlands only 40 or 50 years. You can tell which is which because the Target pins have ends that are obviously separate pieces and the Garlands appear to be made as one piece.

[Tablejam]

"Only" 40-50 years?

[GFD 413]

Steve, 3 pins on left are Garland, 4th is American or Target, 5th is probably very early Target wood plastic coated pin. the 2nd and 3rd from left you can see how they crack and the end falls out ( I had put wood plugs in to fill the hole so they would stand and I could use them ). P1010002 (2).jpg

[moosehead]

I will snap a pic in the morning, I have one I broke, it broke the end cap off and cracked down the end, not sure how old these would be

[CandlepinFTW]

They shatter or the endcaps get smashed off/in eventually usually from getting hammered when they're felled on the deck and being played as a wood shot. Most houses I bowl at just use them until they break, occasionally rotating sets in and out for cleaning and re-taping the red bands. Usually if you run them through a buffer they clean up like new.

Many bowlers prefer older pins that have thousands of games on them as the edges of the ends get rounded over slightly, causing them to score slightly better. Every little bit helps in this game.