So I decided to make a start on the second bat tonight.
Instead of going in without weighing it and attacking the back with a travisher, I decided to do this one "properly".
I therefore weighed the bat straight out of the packet and have removed the paint entirely by hand sanding this time.
The weight when I started
After not long what appeared to be some grains started to appear. Along with grains some knots were also revealed, and possibly a butterfly stain?
It was looking rather promising, but revealing the back also revealed the reason it had been painted
I took all of the paint off with 80 grit sand paper and only by hand sanding.
Once this was all removed, I gave the whole bat a light bit of oil. This both wiped the sawdust off and bought out the natural look of the willow.
I've got pretty mixed feelings about this one. When I took the paint off the face to reveal a butterfly stain I was pretty excited.
For a £45 bat the couple of knots don't bother me at all, they're well away from the "main hitting area" so won't have any impact on performance.
I was slightly disappointed by the filler in the back, but at the end of the day it's an entry level bat that had been painted. The majority of people who buy these will use them in blissful ignorance of what's beneath the grain sheet and paint. I plan to finish this off and see what the end result is, as chances are it could still turn out to be a gem. It still looks a good bit of willow for the price, but the wood filler has left me thinking, it could just have been a bit better.
I'll update this thread with more pictures and the final weight once I've finished cleaning the bat up.
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Topic: Sports Direct exclusive players - the reveal (Read 30390 times)