What a difference a few ounces makes. You may remember I made a bat using a heavy cleft (or the heaviest cleft I had at 3lbs 13oz) and that whilst shaping that cleft a few truths became apparent to this novice bat maker. Making a bat with a lighter cleft isn't necessarily easier, it's just that you don't have to make half as many sacrifices along the way. With that heavy cleft I had to completely forgo the possibility of making a BIG bat, it had to subtle and sedate. A lighter cleft gives you so many more options.
I picked the lightest cleft I had for this bat which was 3lbs 7.4oz. I'm not sure if this is a light cleft in the grand scheme of willow or how light they can go but for me it's certainly the lightest I've ever had the fortune of shaping. Just to give you an idea of how versatile a lighter cleft is I decided to leave part of the spine as high as it arrived until finishing. I didn't go crazy with concaving and the edges are only 23mm at their thickest, it's all spine.
I'd been asked if I could make a bat in the region of 2lbs 7oz but this one should be 2lbs 9.5oz gripped and bound. One important lesson I have learnt is being able to realise when enough is enough. When the naked weight got to 2lbs 7.5oz, I figured I should stop before I ruined it. Having said that, I did have to change the edges from their original profile. I slipped with my round bottom plane and took a generous slice of willow from the edge by accident. It was easily fix though.
I'm trying to shape the toe of the bat with a bit more of a concave profile, just for something different.
This rough bit is the rough cut spine, I used this little slither to illustrate how I left the spine as high as I could.
There's that rough slither in the middle again, lots of spine and the weight was coming off with ease, I love light clefts.
The slither was a little bit narrower once I'd refined the back, but still there.
Edges have gone down and the swell moved upwards, huge improvement on the balance of the bat.
As finishing begins it starts to disappear. Goodbye old friend...
Not a face for the "blemish free/straight grain" crowd. But once you burnish the face and edges these marks look beautiful.
Remind me to focus my camera before taking photos, Tisk tisk!
Small edges, big spine and only approximately 2lbs 9.5oz. The spine has to be around 60mm or more, it's larger than an 3lbs bat I have.
These are great, the wood twists and turns. A nightmare to finish sometimes though.
As enjoyable as it was to make a bat with a lighter cleft, I have to admit a heavy cleft present more challenges and as a result you feel like you're learning more. Don't get me wrong, I'd happily use lighter clefts all the time but there are certainly issues that you'd never come across with a cleft at this weight or lighter. You can ask yourself "How much more do I want to take off?" rather than "How much more do I have to take off?". I'm not sure about you but I know which one I'd rather ask myself.
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Topic: Beach's Bat Making (Read 28788 times)