Baseball Bat Blanks

[Tom Henry]

I am planning on turning some baseball bats for my kids coaches this year and want to know if there are any good suppliers out there that I can purchase them from??? We are planning on having all the kids sign the bats...

[Clarence Miller]

By a odd course of events I had the opportunity to tour the Loisville Slugger factory and you can order their blanks (they call them billits I think) from them directly for about $15 a piece. I'm not a baseball fan but am trying to use it as an reason (excuse) to buy a bigger lathe,

[Thom Sturgill]

Craft supply carries both ash and hard maple, but they are a lot more expensive than mentioned above.

[David Drickhamer]

I just learned of this place on the IAP site.
http://www.gonebatty.net/lumber.html

Dave

[George Morris]

Tom the gone batty place is very near my house in the PA Mts, If you need the blanks picked up just let me know! G

[Zach England]

I bought some on ebay. I have also seen them at a local supplier.

[Toney Robertson]

Are the bats going to be used? Since the kids are going to sign them it does not sound like it.

When my great nephew and I made a bat I just went to my local hardwood dealer and purchased a short of 12/4 ash and I had enough to make 3 bats. Very economical even at the full bd ft price but it was discounted since it was a short.

[Steve Braman]

My neighbor and I are removing 20+ sick ash trees in the next few weeks. some of them are 30" diameter. Too much wood for me. If anyone is interested, I can put aside a few extra logs.

[Zach England]

I assume everyone knows this, but just to make sure, you cannot just take any piece of hard ash or maple and make a competition bat out of it. It is unsafe. I don't think youth baseball or club leagues use wood bats anymore anyway, since wood bats are inherently unsafe, but using a billet that does not meet strict criteria for grain structure is asking for dangerous projectiles.

disclaimer: not much of a wood turner but a huge baseball fan.

Somewhere I saw "seconds" of bats that are partially turned but had a flaw in the grain. I will try to find the site.

[John Keeton]

disclaimer: not much of a wood turner but a huge baseball fan.

Zach, your friends here in the Turners Forum can help you with that deficiency in your life - the wood turner, not the baseball fan part!!!!

[Zach England]

Zach, your friends here in the Turners Forum can help you with that deficiency in your life - the wood turner, not the baseball fan part!!!!

Yeah...getting there. I have had a lathe for a while and used it a few times, mostly to turn plane knob replacements and chisel handles. I do have bat blank and reading this made me want to go home and turn it. I may try that today.

[bob svoboda]

Yeah...getting there. I have had a lathe for a while and used it a few times, mostly to turn plane knob replacements and chisel handles. I do have bat blank and reading this made me want to go home and turn it. I may try that today.

Nice job John.....The hook is set

[Toney Robertson]

I assume everyone knows this, but just to make sure, you cannot just take any piece of hard ash or maple and make a competition bat out of it. It is unsafe. I don't think youth baseball or club leagues use wood bats anymore anyway, since wood bats are inherently unsafe, but using a billet that does not meet strict criteria for grain structure is asking for dangerous projectiles.

disclaimer: not much of a wood turner but a huge baseball fan.

Somewhere I saw "seconds" of bats that are partially turned but had a flaw in the grain. I will try to find the site.

Good point but since it was going to autographed I doubt that it would be used in competition.

Way off topic but I can not disagree more strongly with the statement of "since wood bats are inherently unsafe". IMO aluminum bats are much more unsafe than wood bats. I wish Fed and the NCAA would return to wood bats. I believe that Mass. high schools have after a pitcher was killed by a hit ball. The bounce that Al bats have and the exit speeds they produce are incredible. No reaction time for fielders, especially pitchers and 3rd. My son was pitching 4 years ago and was hit by a line drive. No time to react. Thankfully it hit him in the thigh and not in the head or chest.

Real sports did a segment on the dangers of the high tech Al. bats a few years ago and I was astounded. One of the main opponents of Al bats used to work for LS and essentially started the bat arms race. The BESR for high schools is basically a joke. Let's go back to the crack of the bat not the ting.

Toney

[Don Jarvie]

I've seen some blanks at Rockler and plan on turning a few for my nephews once I get the lathe back together.

[Zach England]

Good point but since it was going to autographed I doubt that it would be used in competition.

Way off topic but I can not disagree more strongly with the statement of "since wood bats are inherently unsafe". IMO aluminum bats are much more unsafe than wood bats. I wish Fed and the NCAA would return to wood bats. I believe that Mass. high schools have after a pitcher was killed by a hit ball. The bounce that Al bats have and the exit speeds they produce are incredible. No reaction time for fielders, especially pitchers and 3rd. My son was pitching 4 years ago and was hit by a line drive. No time to react. Thankfully it hit him in the thigh and not in the head or chest.

Real sports did a segment on the dangers of the high tech Al. bats a few years ago and I was astounded. One of the main opponents of Al bats used to work for LS and essentially started the bat arms race. The BESR for high schools is basically a joke. Let's go back to the crack of the bat not the ting.

Toney

This is valid, and my blanket statement about wooden bats being unsafe is correctly not completely accurate. What I should have said is that wooden bats pose different safety concerns than aluminum bats, especially to spectators. Since I don't wish to start a debate, let us agree on a few things:

if using a wooden bat, a bat with proper grain slope is safer than one without

baseball, with various objects (balls, bats, bat fragments, cleats, Kerry Woods' glove) moving at high speeds and in unpredictable trajectories, involves a certain level of risk

"ping" is not the proper sound of a baseball bat