Welcome to the forum. First rule is, when we speak of a new bat being bought, pictures are required, otherwise said bat does not exist.
(You can embed via uploading images to an image hosting website of your choice, if you wish to share)
How long do you have to prepare the bat? If you've got a month to spare, I would recommend the following steps:
- A light coat of raw linseed oil on the face, edges and toe in the exposed parts of willow, avoiding the splice. Let it penetrate into the surface for a day or two and don't oil the back yet
- Another light coat, and wait for 2 days
- Inspect bat, and if there's still a little bit of oil on the surface, give it a good wipe with kitchen towel, then leave for another day for good measure.
- Now we can start the knocking process, I would recommend doing this over a couple of days, and not to rush it. Start off on the edges, you can knock them at a 45 degree angle, but make sure to do it lightly and evenly
- I would recommend about 30 mins on each edge, probably spread over 2 days
- Next up, give the toe a good 30 mins of knocking. (In case it's not clear, this is the bottom 2-3 inches of the face)
- Give the rest of the face a good knock after this. It will be tempting to hammer the middle a fair bit to hear the sound, but I generally try not to knock the middle too much, as it isn't needed so much
- After this, give the bat a feel and ensure that there is no moist feeling around the edges due to any residual oil that hasn't been taken in by the fibres
- Apply scuff sheet, and then give the bat a good once over with the mallet for about 10 minutes
- For toe protection, you can use varnish, more oil, shoe goo or a toe guard
- Finish up by giving one coat of oil to the back of the bat in all the exposed areas of wood. Remember to avoid oiling around the splice.
As a general rule of thumb, start off lightly striking the willow, slowly increasing the force as the knocking process proceeds. Just enough to make small indentations is the perfect amount of strength to put into it. Would recommend watching some Youtube videos of knocking in guides.
Hope this helps!
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Topic: New bat process (Read 3446 times)