Hi ALL...
So far everything I have read in this post makes sense, unfortunately there are some conflicting pieces of advice... I can't tell you what is correct or not all I can do is tell you what I do to return my ball to it's maximum effectiveness...
Washing did remove some type of oily substance (floating in the water) - however using the ball immediately after saoking and a quick wipe over with alcohol did not effect the ball to any noticable amount. (BALL used EXTREME CHAOS & EBONITE MESSENGER)
RULE 2 - Don't use teflon based or very cheap polishes on balls. I have found that cheaper polishes and teflon based polish puts a coat on the ball to make it shine... UNFORTUNATELY this coat is slick, and the real characteristics of the ball wont come out until this coat has worn off. GREAT FOR MAKING SPARE BALLS GO STRAIGHTER! (Ball used TRACK ENFORCER, SKULL BALL (to go straighter) and SPC NIGHTHAWLK...)
WHAT WORKS? - Well, BRANDO has been able to inject the life back into my equipment - so whatever you do BRANDO - works well. IN ADDITION - Laurie "ANIMAL" of Caboolture Pro-Shop gave me some great advice which I tried - put the ball in the sun and rotate it every 12-30 minutes to a new side. Wiping off the oily residue each time. THEN I paid Caboolture Bowl to use the correct particle paper (similar to sand paper) to bring the ball back to original box coverstock.
Using the SUN and PARTICLE PAPER routine has bought my equipment back to "AS NEW" on a couple of occassions now. This has worked with a TRACK ENFORCER (to both dull and polished finishes), HAMMER SPIKE, EBONITE MATRIX, COLUMBIA EXTREME CHAOS and a BRUNSWICK DENIM.
FINALLY - a warning. Don't play with any equipment you are not willing to destroy! If you only have one good ball (cost $400+) Don't try to save a few bucks by experimenting. Take the ball to a professional. Sure it may cost you up to $25 - but that's less than the finger and thumb inserts will cost in the new ball you will have to buy if you stuff it up!!!!
Cheers