Anyone made a Cricket Bat??

[Chris Yarish]

I have a student who wants to make a cricket bat. Just curious if anyone has any experience doing this.
I have done some reading and apparently they are made from solid willow (not laminated blanks).
http://www.middlepeg.com/cricketbatwillow.htm




Thanks.

[Steven Wilson]

Haven't made one but have a couple of MRF's. Some are left plain, some have fiberglass laminated over the front. If I were interested in making one I would probably import a blank and then finish the carving to my liking and then wrap the handle. To make one from scratch you would need to find a decent supply of willow, cut properly. Not much chance of that hapening in N. America.

[Ben Martin]

Does making one for a Halloween costume count? It was made out of a 2X6 so my friend could be Shaun of the Dead. Funny movie...

[Bob Hallowell]

I normally just step on the crickets around my house, you must have some awful big crickets!!:eek:

Bob

[Brent Smith]

Hi Chris,

Funny enough I just saw a clip on making one last night on a Canadian TV show called "How it is Made". They used very straight grained Willow. Most of it was straight forward machine and handtool stuff. The sticking point was a machine they used to compress and shape the willow. According to the show it is the compression of the lumber that gives the bat it's spring. They mentioned it was compressed a 1/2" on what looked to me to be 10/4 stock.

[Jared Greenberg]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNp5joqkzio&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tRpto2pNVM&feature=related

[Brent Powers]

Yeah, I made a cricket bat once. Unmitigated disaster. No bat speed at all. Could barely get the thing off of his shoulder. OBP less than .050, SLG less than .010. You figure it out, that's an OPS of < .060. Luckily, I was able to trade him to Baltimore for a low level prospect.:)


(Please forgive me, I'm going to go crawl back under my rock and hang out with the other Beane Counters.... How long until Spring Training?)