Hopefully a nice thread this one
......
So after always wanting a go at this I thought I'd take the plunge and got in contact with John at Red Ink who kindly sold me some tools and a handled, pressed cleft. With zero wood working experience/skills I did the obvious/sensible thing and jumped straight in once I had purchased a vice and workbench
My intention was to hopefully make a bat which I could use in a game, at worst a net bat but either way to not (no swears please) it up and end up with firewood. It's come up way better than expected tbh and is bang on the weight I wanted at 2lbs 9oz bound and gripped. The edges are small by today's standards at 29cm but I wanted to keep the shape full with zero concaving (one step at a time!). Spine is around 64mm.
Most of the work was done with the drawknife, with a little work from a spokeshave and smoothing plane. Then orbital sander through the grits before a wax and buff with a polishing pad.
I really enjoyed the process and learned a lot along the way, which made me want to learn even more and improve on this one. Big thanks to John
@Red Ink Cricket for the help and advice, he's been great.
So I'll let you all judge my efforts now. Be honest as I'm all for constructive criticism! (But also take into account all of the above please!
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