Welcome to the Laver & Wood Cricket Bat Lore Newsletter

Pressing cricket bat willow - the process explained.

Each month cricket bat maker James Laver writes a passage about cricket bats and the lore that surrounds them. Please feel free to print all or part of this message in your cricket clubs newsletter. You may print any
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Pressing cricket bat willow - the process explained.

The game of cricket involves a bat that is made of a soft material and a
ball made of a hard material. The ball, although hard on the outside, is
designed to change shape slightly on impact thus minimising damage to the bat. The bat is designed to withstand the pressure of the hard surface of the new ball.

The best cricket bats are made using English cricket bat willow known as
salix alba cearulea. This wood is best used when its moisture content is
about 12 - 14%. Any drier and the willow will crack under the strain from
the impact of the hard ball. The willow needs to retain some of its
moisture to enable the fibres to stretch rather than crack. Raw linseed oil
helps introduce moisture to keep the fibres supple. Raw linseed oil is used because it stays moist for longer and does not create a hard brittle
surface like other oils when they dry out.

Cricket bats have been pressed since the early 1800's as standard practice for the bat maker. Prior to shaping and balancing the piece of willow was subjected to a huge amount of pressure by striking the surface of the willow with a heavy mallet. Pressing in this manner resulted in a very hard layer of compressed willow that made the bat very resilient to wear and tear. The only problem with this method was that the bat was very often too hard and did not have a good performance.

An English batmaker from the 1890's, C Bussey, invented a mechanical press that rolled the face of the bat. Bussey maintained that if the bat cracked under the strain of the machine the bat was unsuitable for use due to an inherent weakness in the wood fibres. These bats were widely regarded as good bats because they lasted for many seasons of hard use. It was, however, very hard to hit the ball all the way to the boundary rope as they were limited with performance.

Bats today are all pressed mechanically by several different types of
roller variations that have pressure applied by pneumatic, hydraulic,
sprung or weighted cantilever systems. Most pressing machines apply
pressures of around 1 ½ - 2 ½ tons per square inch. The pressure is applied in increments of about ¼ ton. Generally the bat is passed under
the roller of the press about 6 times. The piece of willow is secured into
a bed fixed to a sliding base. This base is driven either using a motorised
system or hand propelled with a crank handle or geared wheel.

The willow is ideally reduced in size by about 5mm. This reduction in size
is necessary to achieve a layer of hardened willow on the surface of the
hitting area of the bat. The layer of hardened willow is necessary to repel
the hard new ball and achieve a springboard quality to the face of the bat.
If the bat is pressed too hard the performance of the springboard action is drastically reduced due to the depth of compressed willow being too deep. The thick, hard layer absorbs most of the shock by transmitting it through the handle to the player's hands.

If the willow is pressed lightly it will be very soft on the surface,
resulting in cracking when struck by a hard new ball. There is not much
vibration through the handle though as the softwood absorbs most of the shock.

Ideally the batmaker would like to see the pressing depth to be between 5 and 8mm so that it is able to withstand the shock of the fast ball and also be able to propel the ball from the face of the bat. The ball will only be propelled from the face of the bat if it strikes the centre of percussion
(sweet spot or middle) of the bat as this is the only area of the bat that
has the spring quality to it.

Once the bat has been pressed the balancing and finishing can be done.
After the finishing process has been completed and the bat is ready for
sale it still needs to be conditioned before use so that the best
performance and lifespan is achieved. The conditioning or knocking in is
best done with a hardwood mallet. Please e-mail if you would like our
guidelines for knocking in. I have covered this topic in a previous
newsletter so will be glad to send you a copy.

To work out if your bat is too hard or too soft one should use an old ball
in the nets initially and inspect the bat on completion of a few shots to
see if there are any deep seam marks on the face of the bat. If the are
seam marks that are only just visible then that is fine. If the marks are
on the verge of splitting the willow the wood is slightly too soft and the
knocking in guidelines need to be followed. If the bat is causing excessive vibration and there are no marks on the face of the bat whatsoever, especially when the bat is hit in the sweet spot very hard, then this is an indication that the bat is too hard. Sometimes a handle that is too stiff also causes vibration but if the face is clean and has no performance then one either needs to oil the bat with raw linseed oil and leave it to absorb for a few days or consult the manufacturer. Never apply too much oil to the face or toe of the bat, this will affect the warranties placed on the bat by the manufacturer.

Next Month: How to choose the shape and size of a cricket bat?

James Laver
Senior Bat Maker - Laver & Wood
james@laverwood.co.nz
www.laverwood.co.nz

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