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[Seniorplayer]

My preference is a minimum of 12 ruler  straight even grains.

[Cys1]

How many bats with 12+ grains have some or a fair bit if Heartwood on the blade? I would say a fair few if not the majority.
Does that then mean that it could be the presence of heartwood that improves immediate performance in bats and not just plenty of grains? We then get into heartwood vs sapwood and not just grain count.

Personally I think 8-10 straight grains will do well more often than not. The key however is in the pressing, if you get that down, you can make a bat of almost any amount of grains ping! Suppose the secret lies in what a certain amount of grains means to you , when deciding how hard or soft to press that SPECIFIC blade.

[shoab68]

another interesting debate on grains could be light grains vs thick prominent grains. I noticed that thick grains are better.

[GarrettJ]

Never had a bat with more than 10 grains but this year im going with an 18 grainer with heartwood

My last bat was a beast, 9 grains. Mike from blank bats has seen it, not sure he used it or not

On the question of how long does a bat last ....

I think thats until its cracks badly or the face starts to fall off. I had my last bat for 3 seasons and it lasted around 4000 runs but i dont net more than 10 times a year. I do however lightly sand the face and re oil once a month. Its still going strong but the inside edge fell off.

Northern moneky ... How did you know your bat was gone after 500 runs?

[Northern monkey]

Just didn't feel right, last couple of innings
Had a good look at the toe, and it's cracked right through ,,,about halfway up the blade in length

Means I can use my Aldred now tho