15 reviews
Every review
Pick a category, an availability or a hardness band, then choose the order: score, price or name. Every score is the mean of the same five criteria.
Narrow it down
Bands are the maker’s own figure in kg/mm2. No figure given means the maker publishes none, which is how Obut sells its Amorti+ range.
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Index
Browse brands and categories
Each link opens this list filtered to one brand or one category, with the number of reviews beside it.
Brands
Categories
Method
How we score
Five criteria, the same on every product review, so a score means the same thing from one page to the next.
The five criteria
Playing performance, build quality and finish, size and weight range, warranty and support, and value for money. Each is scored out of ten, with a written reason printed beside it.
The overall score is the mean of those five, computed rather than typed, so it can never drift from the numbers it is built on.
Playing performance is judged against the job the boule is sold to do. A shooter’s boule is scored on shooting and a junior set on how easily a child can throw it, so a specialist is not marked down for being a specialist.
What the bands mean
| Band | Reading |
|---|---|
| 9.0 to 10 | Nothing available does this better. |
| 8.0 to 8.9 | Strong, with compromises worth naming. |
| 7.0 to 7.9 | Good, with one limitation that will matter to some players. |
| 6.0 to 6.9 | Works, but something else at this price does more. |
| Below 6.0 | Not worth the money. |
What is not scored
Where it is sold. A boule that is excellent but hard to get here is still excellent, and marking it down would hide that.
Instead each review says where the thing can be got: sold in North America, imported from Europe, or no longer made. That is about distribution rather than what sits on a shelf today, which changes daily and cannot be verified from here.
Where the figures come from
Manufacturer specifications first, then the federation’s own registers and the trade press, and every review lists its sources.
Where two sources disagree, the maker’s figure is used and the disagreement is noted. Where nothing can be confirmed, the review says so.
On prices. Prices move, especially on imported goods, and several models sell at two prices: a standard one for stocked sizes and a higher made-to-order one.
Every review carries the month its prices were checked.
Common questions
Questions about these reviews
How do you score a boule?
Five criteria, the same five on every product review: playing performance, build quality and finish, size and weight range, warranty and support, and value for money. The overall score is the mean of those five.
Availability is reported separately and never scored, because a good boule that is hard to buy is still a good boule.
Where do the specifications come from?
From manufacturers, the federation’s own registers and the trade press, and every review lists its sources at the bottom.
Where a figure cannot be confirmed, the review says so rather than printing one.
Why do some reviews have no hardness figure?
Because some makers publish none. Obut, for example, rates its Impact Absorber+ boules in its own class and gives no kg/mm2 or HRC value.
Rather than converting a figure from somewhere else, that row is left out of the specification table.
Why is a discontinued boule still reviewed?
Because people still own them and still ask what they are worth. The KTK review exists to say plainly that production stopped in December 2020.
Boules bought new under an approved label stay legal for competition after the model is discontinued.
Are the prices current?
Every review carries the month its prices were verified. Prices move, particularly on imported goods.
Where the same boule sells at two prices, the review explains why.
What is the kg/mm2 number on a boule?
A conversion of the Rockwell C hardness the federation tests for. The federation’s floor for a steel boule is 35 HRC, which it equates to 110 kg/mm2.
The conversions are not standardized between makers, so comparing two brands on that number alone is unreliable. Every review says which figure came from the maker.