How Much Does A Curling Rock Cost?

The Steinbach Curling Club recently received a $20,000 grant from the province to go towards the purchase of new rocks.

How much does it cost to purchase one rock?

About $700 without tax according to Ice-maker Wilf Peters. He notes that’s because the granite they are made of, comes only from Scotland. At that price, Peters says that grant will help replace almost two sets of rocks. He notes the cost may seem high but adds they last a long time if they are taken care of so it’s a good investment.

“Those should last I would think another good 30 years,” says Peters. “The rocks we have here right now, we bought four sets second hand and that’s probably about 12 years ago now.”

Peters says new technology has helped lengthen the life of a curling rock as well as enhance its performance.

“When you get a new set of rocks, they found out now that there is a type of granite that is really good for running surface and a type of granite that is really good for strike bands. What they’ve done, they make an insert of the rock with the running surface and insert that into the other granite that’s good for strike bands so in effect you get the best of both worlds.”

Over time, Peters explains the running surface of a rock will widen which in turn decrease the amount of curl you get out of the rock. The main difference people may notice with the new rocks is their weight.

“We have had ours reconditioned which means we’ve had our strike bands re-done, basically re-shaped, and we’ve had our running surfaces re-done,” Peters indicates, “Every time you do that, it takes weight off of the stone, some granite off.”

Peters says the rocks they have now weigh in the neighbourhood of 38 to 39 pounds. The new ones will come in up to 44 pounds “which makes very little difference on sliding them up and down”.

“The big plus, that inserted running surface, is the hardest granite known so those running surfaces will take more time to widen out than what we have now so in effect we will be able to maintain more consistent curl with those new ones as well.”

Peters hopes to have the new rocks in the rink before the end of this season. “I did a little research, a few city clubs have gotten exactly the ones that we have over the past years, they’re very happy with them. I’ve thrown those in some bonspiels and I mean they’re excellent so it’s very exciting.”