Bowling pins (historically also known as skittles or kegels) are upright elongated solids of rotation with a flat base for setting, usually made of wood (esp. maple) standing between 9 and 16 inches (23 and 41cm) tall. Some have interior voids to adjust weight and balance. Pins are coated with plastic and painted, by convention mostly white with (usually) transaxial red stripes or other markings around the neck or middle (candlepins). Sets of pins, usually 5, 9, or 10 in a triangular arrangement, are the target of the

bowling ball A bowling ball is a hard spherical ball used to knock down bowling pins in the sport of bowling. Balls used in ten-pin bowling and American nine-pin bowling traditionally have holes for two fingers and the thumb. Balls used in five-pin bowlin ...

in various

bowling Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...

games including tenpins, five-pins, duckpins and candlepins.

Tenpins

Pin specifications are set by the United States Bowling Congress (USBC). World Bowling, formerly World Tenpin Bowling Association, has adopted the USBC specifications. Pins are tall, wide at their widest point, and weigh ±. The first British made tenpin was by H Massil and sons who received the permit no.1 from the British Tenpin Bowling Association (BTBA) The USBC indicated that, effective August 1, 2023, it is certifying string pinsetters and string pin bowling as an independent category of equipment and competition separate from conventional free-fall pinsetters. USBC lab data indicated strike percentage on string pin bowling is 7.1% lower, causing the USBC to plan additional testing to determine whether a scoring conversion should be created between the categories. String pinsetters are less expensive and easier to maintain, motivating bowling centers to phase them in.

Duckpins and fivepins

Duckpins are shorter and squatter than standard tenpins. Canadian fivepins are between duckpins and tenpins in size, but have a thick, inch-wide

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Types of polyisoprene ...

band around the widest part of the pin to increase pin action when struck.

Candlepins

Candlepins are dissimilar to the others, being the tallest of all at , but only wide and in weight, each pin nearly matching the maximum weight of a candlepin ball. They are nearly cylindrical in shape with a slight taper toward either end, making them vaguely resemble candles (hence the name). Unlike other bowling pins, because they are vertically symmetrical, candlepins may be set on either end. Due to their width and construction, candlepins tends to produce a billiard ball-like sound when struck.

Kegels

Pins used in the German bowling game ''kegel'' appears to combine the design of tenpins and duckpins. The overall shape of the pin resembles a standard ten-pin bowling pins, and its small size is comparable to duckpins. Similar to five-pin bowling, these pins have strings attached on top of each, which connects them to the pinsetter.

Pin construction

Bowling pins are constructed by gluing blocks of rock

maple ''Acer'' is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the soapberry family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated si ...

wood into the approximate shape, and then turning on a

lathe A lathe () is a machine tool that rotates a workpiece about an axis of rotation to perform various operations such as cutting, sanding, knurling, drilling, deformation, facing, threading and turning, with tools that are applied to the w ...

. After the lathe shapes the pin, it is coated with a

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or Semisynthesis, semisynthetic materials composed primarily of Polymer, polymers. Their defining characteristic, Plasticity (physics), plasticity, allows them to be Injection moulding ...

material, painted, and covered with a glossy finish. Because of the scarcity of suitable wood, bowling pins can be made from approved synthetics. Currently there are synthetic pins sanctioned for play in five-pin, duckpin, and candlepin. There is one synthetic ten pin model approved by the USBC. When hit by the ball, synthetic pins usually sound different from wooden pins.

Juggling club Juggling clubs are a object manipulation, prop used by Toss juggling, jugglers. Juggling clubs are often simply called clubs by jugglers and sometimes are referred to as pins or batons by non-jugglers. Clubs are one of the three most popular ...

s could be mistaken for bowling pins due to their similar shape. The two differ greatly in construction and weight.

References

External links

How bowling pins are madeHow much does a bowling pin weightBowlinglinks all over the World, sorted by categories
{{Ten pin bowling Bowling Ten-pin bowling