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[sarg]

Ive been doing some reading of the older threads and reading other sources online. This is a hypothetical that I want answered.

Buying new bats online we are always concerned we will get a bat that has had the ping pressed out of it, eg over pressed. There are plenty of warnings from bat makers on over oiling killing response and suggestions to dry them out, but what if its a manufacture fault bought on by volume pressing. What can a person do themselves when its a plank?.

lets also assume:
-the cleft was actually fine until it was pressed
-It has not dried out.
-The buyer cannot return it or sell it on. This could be for geographic reasons etc etc
- knocking is not working

I read one bat makers response that the may soak it in water and repress it.

I wonder if the bat face could be heavily sanded back and continually mallet tested until it respond, then re-oil and knock it in again.

Has anyone heard of other fixes.

[skip1973]

We have tried water on a horrible bat, didn't make too much difference. I've got to say though planks are pretty rare, certainly some bats are better than others but you don't see many stinkers. We send straight back if we ever find one.

[sarg]

True, and in some cases you get what pay. I read people saying the cheaper low grade bats or SportDirect bats are over pressed for resilience rather than higher end softer pressed bats that instantly respond, but don't last as long. Similar for younger wide grain bats. I am old enough to remember most bats in the 80/90s needing lots of knocking and playing in before they would soften and play well. We would buy one bat and cherish it and it would be at its best just before it broke.

These days we can buy cheaper bats and just change them over. A guy at my club says he just buys the cheapest Puma off the shelf and uses it without knocking for the season. He's crazy not knocking it in at least, but his chances of buying such a bat are more likely. The other part of his logic is sound, that its his technique that makes runs, not the bat itself, but i'd personally like a bat that has some ping.

I actually subscribe to the logic that you just keep patiently knocking and netting until it fires. The difference is performance being a property of the pressing, handle and willow quaility. For the sake of the exercise just keep the answers coming until we reach an answer that is as close to best practice as possible. Is there a DYI fix for a over pressed plank?

[sarg]

Should i have said low grade bats are pressed harder so they don't break and cost the manufacturer warranty costs.

[i12breakfree]

if knocked and played in enough and ping is not getting any better then drop the bat in team kit for practice

I have seen complete plank so far in last 3 years (u can say out of atleast 70 bats) - GN scoop
That bat sounded horrible and even after a season of use never improved

[skip1973]

Should i have said low grade bats are pressed harder so they don't break and cost the manufacturer warranty costs.

Valid reasons for it though, quite often these are kit bats that get flogged by various members of the team, quality of the balls played with can be an issue. That said I have seen some terrific cheaper stuff, I found a $90 county this season as ugly as sin but as good as anything we had up to about $500.

[sarg]

No doubt. Sidetrack, but the club im at atm has done away with team kits. The club I was at last year had them. They had half a dozen Fielke bats that were great 10 + year slabs wood were biannually serviced by Bob Fielke and performed as good as anything new.

[Seniorplayer]

If a bat has no ping apart from making the willow softer and  repressing it  theres not much else  that can be done  but this  rarely works .

[procricket]

Sand the bat face down until you get to a thinner vineer of press the issue with over pressing is the depth of the press but if you sand and sand hard you will get the vineer that a press makes smaller and it should play better how much is down to the quality of the timber,

[sarg]

Sand the bat face down until you get to a thinner vineer of press the issue with over pressing is the depth of the press but if you sand and sand hard you will get the vineer that a press makes smaller and it should play better how much is down to the quality of the timber,

So i was on track! Sounds like you have seen it done. Well we have helped someone out in the future. Let us know how you go.

[procricket]

So i was on track! Sounds like you have seen it done. Well we have helped someone out in the future. Let us know how you go.

I have done it was a few old bats which through pressing and continued use i find a good deep sand work and the principle should work with a cleft too