The Shadows are grade 1. If you want to be strict about it, if bats have any heartwood in it, then they can only be grade 2 I believe!
But if my bat is grade 2 based on cosmetics because of the heartwood, then I for one don't care. If you base my shadow on performance the. Grade 1+++ and then some!
As far as I'm aware black cat only do grade 1 with shadow and voodoo. Although they do a lower grade joker!
Spot on Pete.
As we all know grading is only an opinion, JS Wrights' system of grading is the industry standard, but only because they supply a very large chunk of the world's English Willow. Black Cat has its own willow, and so we grade it ourself.
We are more stringent than Wrights (and others) in some regard, less so in others.
An example being similar to your bat, Pete- if a cleft has 18 straight grains and half an inch of heartwood on the edge, we'd class that as Grade One.