Custom Bats Cricket Forum
Forum News and Suggestions => Old Advertisers => Admin Board => Aldred Cricket Bats => Topic started by: Aldred Cricket Bats on November 08, 2014, 03:15:56 PM
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Ok a few people on here asking about pressing. Here's a little clip about how I go about my pressing and how I get each and every cleft that we use pressed to its maximum potential. As you will have heard me say before I am always looking for a certain feel and sound from my bats.
http://youtu.be/ovNLO4yuKPA (http://youtu.be/ovNLO4yuKPA)
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Wont play, says "This video is private" ???
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Doesn't work for me either...
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Try that
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works for me
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Much better! :D
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Great video Paul. Always a big fan of your youtube videos...now I am really tempted to one ;)
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Thanks mp just trying to show the care that goes into each and every bat that we make regardless of grade or customer, be it amateur or professional. We won't be pushing dozens out the door every day or hundreds a week or month but every bat gets the same attention. Why? Because they are mine and I absolutely love it and love seeing people happy with something I have made.
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Very informative video Paul, shows how each cleft needs needs care & affection to perform.
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Try that
Excellent video, thanks for posting Paul.
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Thats a great video and probably the first which shows pressing process in such detail. Highly appreciated!
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great video paul. is nice to see the amount of care and attention that goes into making each bat and how personal they are
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Fantastic stuff, Paul.
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Thanks for another insightful video Paul.
You obviously get a few sales through the forum but I'm a huge fan of how much you give back to us. You continually offer advice and information when someone asks questions and provide videos to support everything you talk about.
I don't think you always get the credit you deserve but many of us who don't always comment sit back and enjoy your content so hats off to you sir!
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Well some say honesty in business doesn't pay off but I'll keep on trying to show exactly what we do and why we do it to provide exactly the same quality gear that professionals would have to the general public. I put in exactly the same care in every bat I make be it club player or international. Thanks for your kind words I will try and keep it going and growing, it's a tough market for the independent like myself but just keep my head down and battle on, hopefully it will pay off with more and more support from the public.
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Shame on all the people on here who keep giving money to Kookaburra and the like.
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:D That's it bats you'd think they were a big company or something :D
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:D That's it bats you'd think they were a big company or something :D
Coca-Cola are a big company.
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Really interesting upload. Thanks for taking the time to shoot and share it [emoji3]
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Interesting video. Does it matter how much water you put on the cleft? Other videos I see have people dip it into a pool of water.
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Probably in hot climates I would say like India Pakistan etc. not the case here in uk really just enough to soften the fibres, you learn as you go. It's taken me three years to get it where I am consistent and to get exactly the feel that I want along with a bat that will last for the general public as value for money is vital for a customer. It's alright pressing soft because some of the top players like it that way but with the ever growing amount of cheap cricket balls even county standard balls have got harder, the bats will break up easily so it's finding that precise line between performance and a bat that will last. That takes a while to get right. with each cleft bat I am always learning. Every day is a school day.
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Brilliant insight. Fascinating to see a real skill in action.
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Has always an excellent informative video.
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Just finished watching both videos, thanks for posting.
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Wasn"t it decided on another thread that the "soft pressing = high performance" idea is rubbish?
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Not sure. I agree really as there is a point where the willow is pressed to gain the most ping under that point it will take quite a while of just having throw downs or mallet to get it to that point and it won't be even. Obviously if its overdressed that is detrimental to the bat, it will last longer but generally have a smaller middle. It's finding that point that is top of performance. Allot of it is down to the handles starting to get that bit of natural flex in it through use. Professionals hit balls virtually every day so that process is speeded up but as an amateur you are not hitting as many balls so the process of the bat opening up fully will naturally take longer. That's one of the reasons I press to sound and feel it's a certain feel and resonance that I look for.
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Paul, slight tangent but what can be done to a bat that has been over pressed?
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Well it's a tough one that really I always think it depends how far over its been pressed. I have done one or two that have been a bit on the hard side and literally stuck them on my sander and sanded the face down a couple of mill and then given it a couple of light coats of linseed to soften it, that's done the trick for those. I have only tackled one that was like a rock, now it was a case of do something as the bat is useless anyway and I didn't really know what the best thing to do was but the owner was happy to just give anything a go even if it wrecked the bat he was just more interested than anything else. So I got my thinking cap on and I steamed the face with an old steam iron ridiculous as it seems. Theory? Well the idea was that it would lift and soften the fibres of the blade. Did it work? Yes it did actually to a degree. The bat was still quite hard after but it certainly made a difference and didn't seem to cause any damage but it was rock hard to start with. Some older manufacturers might have a remedy for this as I haven't come across it often enough really but what i have done has really been based on advice from retired craftsmen and the like and then I come up with an educated decision from there using my knowledge alongside.
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Shame on all the people on here who keep giving money to Kookaburra and the like.
Great video but why not from Kookaburra and the likes you telling me SG do not press them all differently....
Many of the big boys have people who specialise in only pressing and press no differently than Paul does.
I find it strange have a chat to the likes of Jatin at Sareen who i consider has a couple of guys who are as good as anybody in the business and they are a big brand.
Lets not get blinkered but a great video Paul it always good seeing people have a passion and be good at the passion.
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B3 I think I mentioned in the video that it was the way I did things and didn't question what other people do including your company. Trying to show people exactly what I do as I want to be transparent in my business and not baffle people with science I think what was said about kookaburra was in jest or at least that's how I interpreted it.
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B3 I think I mentioned in the video that it was the way I did things and didn't question what other people do including your company. Trying to show people exactly what I do as I want to be transparent in my business and not baffle people with science I think what was said about kookaburra was in jest or at least that's how I interpreted it.
No Paul i was not questioning you mate. Just a comment made by Bats Entertainment which i found rather bonkers..
Nope think it a great video as i said mate no doubt about that and please call me Dave.
Some great bats buddy.
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press no differently than Paul does.
So why not support the little guy trying to establish himself?
There was nothing bonkers about my statement. I like the way Paul does things.
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So why not support the little guy trying to establish himself?
I'd rather have 20 small individual bat makers than stick to the current bt brand theory. Bigger the brand the less morals they have, the more shareholders or greedy people they have too. Oh and they pay players to use their kit stupid amounts.
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I'd rather have 20 small individual bat makers than stick to the current bt brand theory. Bigger the brand the less morals they have, the more shareholders or greedy people they have too. Oh and they pay players to use their kit stupid amounts.
That was not my point if people have taken it that way then please understand my point is pressing which we where talking about.
I saw a brand being mentioned and the likes as stated do many of you known what some big brands don't press all the same.
I agree my theory has always been get the most for your money without a doubt and as i have never bought a Kookaburra because why would i when i can get the same with different stickers for half the price.
My point was with pressing not brands!!!
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I'd rather have 20 small individual bat makers than stick to the current bt brand theory. Bigger the brand the less morals they have, the more shareholders or greedy people they have too. Oh and they pay players to use their kit stupid amounts.
Exactly.
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Allot of it is down to the handles starting to get that bit of natural flex in it through use.
Deviating slightly, Paul: what is your opinion on re-handles?
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Lovely video Paul... Very informative and admire your passion.
I wish somehow pressing process to mature to a point where knocking in is not required. Been done for centuries, but we still need to knock the bat. Maybe its not possible....
And one reason I feel its possible is because baseball bats are not knocked in. Not exactly same type of bat, but its still a bat...
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Great vid Paul. Really interesting to see the process and hear what you're looking for. Have you found that lighter/darker colored clefts or ones with less/more grains need to be harder or lighter pressed?
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Deviating slightly, Paul: what is your opinion on re-handles?
Well that's an interesting one. When I was playing after having a couple of bats re handled I decided that never again because they never felt the same, but once I started I realised that's because when your handle goes your bat is feeling just about as good as it can get. You have gotten used to it you have become a piece of each other, your timing has become perfect because you have grown with your bat. So you have it re handled and what happens. The handle is stiff again, so you've gone from perfection to something new. I do a few tweaks with re handles now to try and foreshorten that feeling again. I wouldn't recommend having them remanded more than a couple of times though to be honest as every time you cut a handle out you remove part of the original splice. It's only a minuscule amount but I feel it will affect the bat at some point
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Paul, my sentiments have been summed up beautifully by the one who goes by the name of an herbivore animal with a long slender neck.
Do you offer knocking in service with your bats or do you have someone local who will do it for you if a player wants a match ready bat.
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Lovely video Paul... Very informative and admire your passion.
I wish somehow pressing process to mature to a point where knocking in is not required. Been done for centuries, but we still need to knock the bat. Maybe its not possible....
And one reason I feel its possible is because baseball bats are not knocked in. Not exactly same type of bat, but its still a bat...
Slightly different thing and a different timber used with different qualities. You can press a cleft more and need no knocking in but the bat will be hard and a small middle. I don't think the knocking in machines really do it properly to be honest. One thing in that process is that even if it did prepare the blade the handle will still be stiff as the day it was bound in the workshop. Throw downs are the still the best thing ever if you can get enough of them in my opinion, ( I realise this from the few thousand I used to have to give dean Jones every day of my cricketing life under him as skipper) Baseball bats are taking impact on a smaller area really, round bat round ball ash has a different natural quality to willow, not a flat faced bat round ball with an even harder seam, let alone cricket balls that are coming over filled with nuts and bolts to make the middle and weights right. You may think I'm joking but I've seen some that were tested at Loughborough uni that weren't cheap balls either. There are certain things in life that you can't short cut. We are dealing with natural products that we as humans cannot change their properties so we have to take our time with them. It's tough in this day and age of instant everything, but I truly believe it's something that's worth taking your time with.
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Great vid Paul. Really interesting to see the process and hear what you're looking for. Have you found that lighter/darker colored clefts or ones with less/more grains need to be harder or lighter pressed?
Well like have said in my pressing video every piece of willow is pressed according to its own traits, but yes I think generally more grains need less pressing though all clefts need what I would call a base press which means a starter point. From there every cleft can then be pressed to feel to get exactly the sound and feel that I am always looking for. ( I can't explain that sound and feel it's something I have gained through years being around international players hitting cricket balls every day let alone my own bats) One or two people sometimes think I press a bit firmer than others but again patience is a virtue because not only do they ping beautifully, may be a few days longer if softer is what you have been used to but also they have some longevity, but we also use quite stiff handles to give maximum power. All these thing go hand in hand in my humble opinion and they come together as a whole to give you a top quality bat.
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Paul, my sentiments have been summed up beautifully by the one who goes by the name of an herbivore animal with a long slender neck.
Do you offer knocking in service with your bats or do you have someone local who will do it for you if a player wants a match ready bat.
Yes I do offer a knocking in service and I do it myself. As in everything I don't trust anyone else to get the feel that I want and on top of that I don't employ anyone else. All done by my own fair fair hands.
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Yes I do offer a knocking in service and I do it myself. As in everything I don't trust anyone else to get the feel that I want and on top of that I don't employ anyone else. All done by my own fair fair hands.
We offer a knocking in service? All done by our own fair hands? ;)
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Paul, great video, loved hearing the change in the way the cleft sounded. I watched this video with my 6 year old daughter (She has never played cricket but loves coming to watch me play, mostly for day in the sun running around eating hot dogs etc. :) ) She heard the difference more than I did and then proceeded to explain to me how/what the difference is :). She was disappointed that we could not see your shaping video on the mobile, so we have that lined up to do tonight on the laptop.
On a funny note: She likes your Jeans (2 flaps on the back pockets, yup girls notice everything), your workshop is nice/clean and asked me where you are from, when I said England she said is that why you sound different in a funny/nice way like you are eating hard candy while you talk.. lol
Good work, thanks for sharing your technique.
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What grade is the bat you are testing ping on towards the end. The handled bat not the cleft.
thanks
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Grade 1 the bat in the pressing video
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Slightly different thing and a different timber used with different qualities. You can press a cleft more and need no knocking in but the bat will be hard and a small middle. I don't think the knocking in machines really do it properly to be honest. One thing in that process is that even if it did prepare the blade the handle will still be stiff as the day it was bound in the workshop. Throw downs are the still the best thing ever if you can get enough of them in my opinion, ( I realise this from the few thousand I used to have to give dean Jones every day of my cricketing life under him as skipper) Baseball bats are taking impact on a smaller area really, round bat round ball ash has a different natural quality to willow, not a flat faced bat round ball with an even harder seam, let alone cricket balls that are coming over filled with nuts and bolts to make the middle and weights right. You may think I'm joking but I've seen some that were tested at Loughborough uni that weren't cheap balls either. There are certain things in life that you can't short cut. We are dealing with natural products that we as humans cannot change their properties so we have to take our time with them. It's tough in this day and age of instant everything, but I truly believe it's something that's worth taking your time with.
I fully understand the value of knocking in a bat. But what i hate is why the customer has to prepare the bat after purchase ( there is a paid service blah blah... understood, but why to do it, paid or not). We dont have to prepare a hockey stick, tennis racket, table tennis racket etc. Why the pressing machine cannot be built such that it eliminates knocking. The press has not changed from the ones we see in old videos from 1950s. This is not a question for you alone, just generally thinking why the pressing process/machines have not evolved. Maybe there is a reason...
Using the bat in nets and getting used to it before batting with it in a game makes complete sense, no questions there...
Opening up of the bat after being used in few games is also a bit questionable. It does ping better, but just a little not a whole lot in my opinion. I think what happens it that after using the bat for a long time, your timing and bat speed reaches optimum level giving a feel that the bat pings better but actually its the batsman who has got used to it.
Just my 2 cents...
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I think what happens it that after using the bat for a long time, your timing and bat speed reaches optimum level giving a feel that the bat pings better but actually its the batsman who has got used to it.
Are you trying to be Ed Smith?
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Regarding loosening up the handle could you not just press down hard,trying to bend the handle a few times?.. much quicker than the microscopic changes with each throw down
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yes you can and this is something that I do in our process but you want some of it to be natural and you don't want to over do it and damage the handle either
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So when you talk about looseness, do you mean in the splice area?
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No not at all, let the laminates in the handle loosen and also the bindings to loosen a little as they are bound tight to hold the handle together. If the splice loosens the bats broke basically.
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No not at all, let the laminates in the handle loosen and also the bindings to loosen a little as they are bound tight to hold the handle together. If the splice loosens the bats broke basically.
That's what I would have presumed. It's just that previously you spoke of liking a stiff (bat) handle?
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Yes I do but you need a certain amount of flex. That's why I prefer an oval handle. You certainly don't want a handle flapping around like a stick of liquorice that's for sure. You need just a certain amount of give in it not massive bend.
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Yes I do but you need a certain amount of flex. That's why I prefer an oval handle.
Oval handles flex more?
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I spoke with a reputable custom bat maker, here in Oz, the other day who swore by 4 piece high-quality cane handles. He suggested that many 12 piece handles have crap cane mixed in with high-quality cane, were often inferior and really just marketing fluff.
He also suggested that podshaving was a craft but bat pressing was an art....he told me how it took years to perfect the art of pressing a bat the right way.
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Funny things bats. I had a woodworm hardrive Gold that was absolutely hopeless, like a plank. Used it as a net bat. after about 2 years it totally changed now it cracks beautifully off the face. Also all my mates reckon the handle's gone as it flexes so much, but that seams to put a lot more torque into the shot. I imagine it was over pressed and just uncompressed after a while. Think its going to fall to bits shortly so my piggy banks filling for an Aldred
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I spoke with a reputable custom bat maker, here in Oz, the other day who swore by 4 piece high-quality cane handles. He suggested that many 12 piece handles have crap cane mixed in with high-quality cane, were often inferior and really just marketing fluff.
He also suggested that podshaving was a craft but bat pressing was an art....he told me how it took years to perfect the art of pressing a bat the right way.
Yes the handles are a tough one. I tried all different types and settled on the ones I have now. They cost me more but they are quality. Again I think it's down to keeping the quality of the materials as good as you can get and then sticking with what works for that company to get the best out of them. It's alright flogging thousands of them but if they are no good it won't be sustainable. It's something I am experimenting with at the moment.
Pressing yes I think he's right shaping isn't a really hard thing to learn as everyone will find their own shape what suits them best and then you learn the art of making other shapes as you go, but you have to know about pick ups and feel to shape well. Now pressing is really a feel thing. I got my press about 7 years ago. I spent three years learning how to get the clefts to a point of fairly respectful levels of performance then the next thing was getting it consistent with every cleft and the years since have been learning to refine it to where you are getting the ultimate feel and longevity out of each cleft on a consistent basis. When you have no investors you can't afford poor quality or wastage you have to try and provide the best out of everything. I am very happy with what I am producing right now and have great feed back from all levels of cricketer from club to international but your always learning as nothing is ever the same because you are dealing with a natural product
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I heard that while at Somerset, Ricky Ponting used to stand on his bat handles to get them to start loosening up and get more whip in the handle
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Yes has been done for sure. We do ours in the vice
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I imagine you do something like in this video? Around 8 mins?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7LoEBEydm8 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7LoEBEydm8)
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Yes to some degree. It's always find it amazing that people will sand the wood out the back of the bats to get the concaving. An art in its self I imagine I think I prefer doing it with planes and shaves but as I always say everyone does things in different ways