A "bat maker" does as the title would suggest make bats. Making is taking the raw ingredients and forming them into a fully finished article fit for purpose. As the current Tree to Batsman route has 4 main players maybe they should to be listed.
Willow Merchant,
A company buying standing tree's and felling, riving, clefting and seasoning the clefts.
Bat Maker,
Buying the cleft, shaping, pressing, splicing and finishing it.
Brand,
Buying the bat, labeling it, promoting the brand and wholesaling to shops.
Shop,
Stocking, advising and selling bats.
BAT MAKING,
This is essence involves rough shaping to a shape that will be able to fit into a press/presses and able worked into the desired finished shape. It does vary according to the maker/manufacturer but generally includes the same methods. The pressing again is very similar to watch but some people have adapted differing principles and presses to vastly altered the process with regard to performance. Shaping can be either by hand or by machine, with the right skills either can produce the same shape no matter how extreme. Finishing is the process of sanding the shaped bat as well as polishing and binding.
People seem to be able to call themselves a bat maker by merely carrying out finishing and that is their call but I do think that the deliberate act of buying in a part "MADE" bat would indicate that the making has been carried out already. As for adding "Master" to the term bat maker I would think they have either over inflated their ego instead of a drum sander by mistake or they have genuinely spent so many years in all areas of bat making that is has been bestowed on them by their peers.
I think that a clear system on the forum would be great but who would want to sign up to it and why? Tom Evans has made a point elsewhere and referenced it well with his own personal experience of shaping a part made clefts that the pressing is key and so you can sell a great bat without the need to be a bat maker, but then don't shops do this every single day without a fancy title?
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Topic: Definitions (Read 2092 times)