La Boule Obut

St Bonnet-le-Chateau is a small village (1562 inhabitants), west of St Etienne, south-west of Lyon. With a long tradition of metal fabrication, it is the home of the world's 2 major boules manufacturers, La Boule OBUT and JB Petanque, and of the International Petanque Museum with an awesome collection of boules spanning several centuries.

Inside the Obut plant, you feel as if you were walking inside a huge pinball machine!

Click here to see how boules are made

Yes, petanque boules are hollow. If they were solid, it would be hard labor throwing them.
Back to school for a second: based on the formula
(4/3) x Pi x (R^3) x 7.85 (kg/dm3) , an average 73 mm solid ball would weigh:
1.33 x 3.14159.... x 0.365 x 0.365 x 0.365 x 7.85 kg (specific weight of steel) = 1.60 kg or 3 ½ lbs, or double the max. weight allowed in competitions.
OBUT competition boules always come with a Guarantee Certificate. We strongly suggest you keep this, because it also states all technical specs of your boules. Especially the diameter, in mm, which is not marked on the boules themselves, is important to remember for later reference.