Also been working on these couple of clefts to practise concaving. I don’t always get the lightest willow in the very small quantities I buy in so working out a shape that offers in my opinion the best shape and size whilst trying to keep weight down.
These are both 2.8 in naked form so will be around 2.10 when finished which I know isn’t that light to some but I feel iv managed to ensure pick up is good through a thick handle and feel to me is about an oz lighter.
I keep the spine fairly low into the bat to not exaggerate the concaving as feel a high spine with concaving just looks likes a skate ramp and also making a mid/low middle allows more wood to be removed from the top third of the bat a bit like the GM Chrome from a few years back.
I would say the left bat is light to moderate concaving and the bat on the right is moderate to high amounts of concaving.
The bat on the left was a storm damaged cleft that I was gifted in my last order and the other is a G2 that had a knot in the shoulder area when a raw cleft but by a touch of luck it came out when shaping.
Been a bit of debate on her around concaving as this is no science at all but at the same weight currently bar 0.09 of an oz the heavier conclaves bat picks up better and feels much lighter to me but the light concaved bat has a much deeper and punchy could off the mallet and with a ball. Could all be down to willow being a natural product, so who knows.
Any way hope people like the pics and brief write up, working on a couple of new colour ways for my stickers for next year but keeping the design the same.