There is a reasonable amount of contention regarding butterfly willow, from batmakers such as Len Newbery, James Laver and Paul Aldred, who think it is amongst the best performing willow, if not the best, to other makers feeling it's good for heating the building. It made me wonder whether any blemishes improve performance above even straight grains, and if so which ones improve performance the most and which ones deminish performance the most.
I don't care how ugly the face of my bat looks as long as it goes and I don't mind showing that 'UGLY' face of my bat to the bowlers bowling to me more often. I guess, they may hate it more than me......lol!
On a serious note, shape (small edge, high spine), mid to high sweet spot, light weight and pickup and last but not the least, handle shape (exaggerated bottom oval hand) is all what I look for in my bats. I may not go for a bat that has more than 30% heartwood but that is just due to the fact that it may be too hard. Any well pressed bat but ugly willow works for me!
Author
Topic: Favourite Blemish (Read 3104 times)