OP

Quoted from mrgregb123:

Hey guys -
I decided to call The Ball Baron and had a very long convo that you might be interested to hear about....
This guy is the real deal, a ball expert. Has been in the ball bearing industry for many years supplying balls for many businesses for non-pinball applications. He explained how the balls are formulated, etc. Interesting stuff. In a nutshell, these chrome G10 balls I linked to are as close to the gold standard as you'll find. They are within 1/10,000th of the 1-1/16th spec. The amount of polish needed to get the ball to that tolerance is how they come out so damn shiny. He said it would be very difficult to find a ball shinier than these. If NASA or the Hubble telescope needed ball bearings of a specific size within a micron level of tolerance, they'd use these.
He is in the process of formulating carbon steel balls that are as shiny as possible without the magnetic issues than can occur with chrome balls. He made the disclaimer that due to the lack of nickel in carbon steel balls, it is impossible for them to polish as shiny as chrome steel balls - it is just physically impossible. But he is quite confident his carbon steel balls will be the shiniest out there. He's going to let me know as soon as his carbon steel balls are finished and I'll post here when that happens.

OP

Quoted from mrgregb123:

To be totally honest with you, I use chrome balls in all of my machines and the only time I've ever seen retained magnetism is when a magnet happens to catch and hold two balls during multiball. After the magnet turns off they 'stick' there and you just gotta bump the machine and they come down. Other than, never noticed any issues with chrome balls in magnet heavy games like Metallica, TAF, etc. Try em out first and see what happens.

OP

Quoted from mrgregb123:

Just an update - Ninja balls now collectively have 2,000+ plays in a host of magnetized games with no magnetism issues to report. Can't speak for other balls, but hundreds of games in, the Ninja balls are not affected by magnetism in these games: Dialed In, Metallica, Star Wars Premium, The Addams Family, and The Shadow - in addition to any game w/o magnets. Ball Baron continues to solicit and monitor for reports of issues with these balls and magnetism but to date none have been reported.
If you experience issues with the Ninja Balls and magnetism, definitely post here with the game in question and how it occurred. If you use the balls in a game not listed above that uses magnets and have experienced no issues after at least 100 plays, I encourage you to post here so it can be added to the 'safe' game list.

OP

Quoted from mrgregb123:

There is a night and day difference between the Ninja and the carbon. Very obvious. That's why the Ninja has a name and the carbon ball is just "the carbon one"....it doesn't deserve a name.