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[seedy]

In that case how do you grade on performance without using the bat in a match situation?

[19reading87]

Grains are all personal Preference. My custom made county has 12 and performs amazingly. I had heard that the more grains the less life it has but I hit a lot of runs last season and the bat was still flying at the end. It shall go away for a refurb and then next season hopefully continue to get me more runs.

The old theory is... Less grains take longer to get "better performance" but last longer
                          More grains play better straight away but don't have a long life.

But like Tom(arytek) said above, wood is a natural material. It's going to break at some point.

[roco]

Grains varied as the redback had 14 ayrtek 10 bulldog 8 h4l 14 talisman 9 and that was made for sachin

[Whispering Death]

I think over the years we have been moulded into thinking that grains are the be all and end all - guess its a personal choice and picking the bat thats right for you based on cost vs performance

[tim2000s]

There's an interesting post on Middlepeg website somewhere, but it's a while since I read it. The gist of it is as follows:

6-12 grains is the indication of a younger tree at chop time. 20 odd grains is the indicator of an older tree. The older the tree, the less pliable and more brittle the willow is. A 20 odd grain bat is likely to have a much shorter life span than a 10 grain bat and split sooner, but performance won't be affected and it may perform better with less knocking in.

I have now way of testing or verifying the truth in this, but I can see the logic.

[Howzat]

There's an interesting post on Middlepeg website somewhere, but it's a while since I read it. The gist of it is as follows:

6-12 grains is the indication of a younger tree at chop time. 20 odd grains is the indicator of an older tree. The older the tree, the less pliable and more brittle the willow is. A 20 odd grain bat is likely to have a much shorter life span than a 10 grain bat and split sooner, but performance won't be affected and it may perform better with less knocking in.

I have now way of testing or verifying the truth in this, but I can see the logic.

I heard something similar that each ring is how old the tree is. Nowdays there are less trees with lots of grains as people tend to cut them down earlier at around 10-12 years... although no idea if this is true as surely that would mean that 3 grain bat that pinch hitter had was from a 3 year old tree :|

[mdl_1979]

Before I started spending hours of my life being a bat geek on here, I was very much a 8-10 nice straight, cosmetically pretty grains type of man.  Now, to be honest, the number/straightness of the grains doesn't really matter that much to me.  I'm far more interested in the rebound qualities of the willow.  I still think I am probably too set in my ways to go down to 6ish grains, but that is purely down to vanity.

[GJ]

On the subject of grains and all things willow, is there anybody here who seeks for butterfly stains in a bat? I know the majority dont find them attractive in a bat but there has been talk of them increasing preformance, strengthening the bat, etc, etc. Would be interesting to hear peoples thoughts on them.
My current bat has a butterfly stain around the near the toe area and goes quite well around that area.

[Whispering Death]

butterfly specks, i believe, reduce the grade of the bat due to the look. however, they do make the area stronger and therefore last longer.

It might be an idea for someone to make an entire bat with butterfly marks on it!

[Watsontotty]

Number of grains is a personal preference and in my opinion most people want lots of grains because they believe some of the false claims and opinions made by others. Ive owned bats with 7 grains, 8, 9,10,11,12,13,14 and my preference is 8-10 this is because in my experience ive had good performance and durability on bats like this. Ive had bats with heartwood butterfly marks specs etc and all i ask for is relatively straight clean grains as I'm not a fan of heartwood at all.

20 grain bat wont guarantee it will play better than a 10 grain bat but however a large number of people believe they do hence why its such a big deal when people buy bats. 

[maxy1]

that 3 grain bat that pinch hitter had was from a 3 year old tree :|

i presume this is in a topic somewhere but i cant find it with search , any chance of a link leo ?