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[Silver Bullet]

For people that have tried the new War Bird, what is your opinion on the counter balance ? Does it work ? I have a bat that is 4 ounces too heavy. I've tried to shave off some off the wood and created a duckbill toe. That took off probably a 7th of an ounce and also improved the pick up slightly, but it's still way too heavy for me. Being in Canada, with a horrendous exchange rate this year and almost no second hand market, I'm looking at ways to some how salvage this bat.

Anyone think an improvised Counter Balance might work ?

[Over Gully]

Understand your point, lucky for us in countries where cricket gear is easily available in a shop we can actually pick the bat up and feel it before we decide to purchase. I'd never buy a bat online, but that is just me. I've seen photos of people who have played around with the counterbalancing at the top of the handle with lead tape, etc. The only things you could play with would be that or maybe adding an extra grip to the handle, otherwise you're gonna have to take more weight out of the blade. 4oz out of the blade is quite a significant amount, think of the difference between a 2lb 9oz bat and a 2lb 13oz bat with exact same edge size and spine height. You've got to concave something fierce to remove 4oz out of the bat...

[Slogger]

Hi Silver Bullet,

I definitely recommend counter weighting bats. I put a roll of lead tape (it was about 8mm wide) and a whole grip cut into 3cm strips around the top of my handle. It improved the pickup drastically.
How well it works might depend where you hold the handle as well. I tend to give my bats a light choking so it would probably work better for me than someone who hold the bat more like Gilchrist.

[brokenbat]

For people that have tried the new War Bird, what is your opinion on the counter balance ? Does it work ? I have a bat that is 4 ounces too heavy. I've tried to shave off some off the wood and created a duckbill toe. That took off probably a 7th of an ounce and also improved the pick up slightly, but it's still way too heavy for me. Being in Canada, with a horrendous exchange rate this year and almost no second hand market, I'm looking at ways to some how salvage this bat.

Anyone think an improvised Counter Balance might work ?

4 ounces is a bit much. I would suggest the following :

1. Remove toe guard and scuff sheet (if on)...that's 0.5-0 7 oz right there.
2. Add lead tape (golf stores sell it...also on amazon) on handle to see if helps
3. Consider shipping to US for weight reduction if nobody in Canada. Though I think there has to be a Canadian shop that offers the service.

[brokenbat]

Oh and stickers. Depending on brand, stickers add anywhere between 0.3 to a full ounce !

[CrickFreak]

4oz is lot of wood to get rid off, its almost 2cmX2cm cross section of the bat or may be more. Duckbilling is a good place to start and if it has reached a limit where the the toe can crack easily then next option is to concave. Concaving requires tools and expertise. Duckbill toe is comparitively easy to do using a hand plane, i have done it. I would say take the wood off (especially 4-6 inches upwards from toe ) to bring the dead weight down by 2-3 oz then put a lead tape around the handle. That will add 1-2 oz on the handle and will improve the balance significantly. The dead weight will still be high but will have better balance. If not lead tape then bind the handle with additional twine. Binding can add 1 oz easlily.
In one of the B3 blogs, they did an experiment to prove counter balance does not help much.
Removing stickers dont help much. It reduces the dead weight but not the overall pickup because most fo the stickers are higher up near the handle. Remove the stickers near the toe if there are any.

[Northern monkey]

Pre concaving days, the bats only had 15mm edges etc
I managed to remove 2-3oz by sanding the huge spine and around 3mm off the whole profile ,checking the pick up as I went, of a laver I had.
It doesn't look pretty, but I couldn't use the bat before the sanding, after the weight removal, I won the batting avgs with over 600 league runs, and the bat went on to score a lot of runs, before a cheap ball destroyed the middle on it.

If you can't sell the bat, then removing weight until it feels right is a definite option
A lot depends on what tools you have to hand,(I work for a furniture manufacturer) as to how long it takes to remove the wood.

A bit of concaving is fine, but when you get a profile similar to M&H Compton bat, then to me that's stupid..

[tushar sehgal]

What's the weight of this bat @Silver Bullet

[Silver Bullet]

2lb 13 with 2 grips.. Pings very well, but picks up its weight I'd say.


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[Aussie In England]

I've got an impala redback where the handle has a counterbalance but I've never really seen the point of it.

[trypewriter]

I've never been a fan of counterbalancing. It can artificially improve the pick up, but I don't think it improves balance over all, and, of course, it actually adds to the dead weight. If a bat is unusable because of weight, it suggests to me that it's more than just a pick up issue, rather that you can't play your full range of shots and are maybe late on some shots. Basically bud, you need a new bat.

[bostoncricketer]

I have tried the lead tape method on a couple of my bats. It might help making it feel 0.5-1oz lighter but 4oz might be a bit unrealistic without actually taking some wood off. I had read about a bat maker in Canada in this article http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/552924.html. His email is mark@zoombats.com. May be he could help.

[brokenbat]

2 oz can be taken off by removing scuff sheet, stickers, toe guard, and sanding the face with a big drum sander. I would try that before anything else.

[Chad]

IMO, counterbalancing only really works if the bat is within an ounce of your usual weight. 4 ounces out is too much, think of it this way - you've still got the same mass at the opposite end of the handle! No matter how well it picks up, you've still got to be able to move that mass efficiently with your arms/wrists, which will only happen if you get stronger, and even then, you might still have a preference for a lighter weight!

[Silver Bullet]

I have tried the lead tape method on a couple of my bats. It might help making it feel 0.5-1oz lighter but 4oz might be a bit unrealistic without actually taking some wood off. I had read about a bat maker in Canada in this article http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/552924.html. His email is mark@zoombats.com. May be he could help.

I don't think this guy exists. I've contacted him numerous times over the years via various avenues. Never gotten a response. No harm in trying again, I guess.