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[amnitg]

is this a dead knot under all that yellow glue? could this weaken the splice region ?

[JK Lewis]

Hi @amnitg , sorry for the delay on responding to your comment - I just saw it!

In my experience, knots are very tough and while they may look bad they don't seem to have a negative effect on performance. I can't see your knot very well, but it has obviously been well glued over so my guess is that it will be fine. If you try sanding or planing the glue off a little you could see how close it runs to the spine, but to me the angle of the knot looks to be left to right - towards the edge of the bat - rather than right to left - towards the spine.

This is a glaring example of how stickers can be used to hide imperfections, often enabling the batmaker to grade up a lower quality cleft. It is a bit unfair as the customer can pay more than he probably should, but I guess that most batmakers do it to some extent. Willow is a natural product of course, each cleft is different and batmakers work for money as well as love. In the end, for me, shot value is the only thing that matters. If the bat goes, then it really doesn't matter what it looks like.

[Northern monkey]

That would look lovely polished up

[JK Lewis]

That would look lovely polished up

Yeah, you're right. The original batmaker hasn't covered himself in glory with the finishing. @amnitg should send it over to Northern Monkey HQ for some TLC. 

[Seniorplayer]

Yes it's a dead knot  but shouldn't effect the blades ping the bigger problem would be if it became loose and  fell  out.