Some sports are well known from the equipment that athletes for those sports, from tennis racquets and court nets to hockey pucks all the way to baseball bats and catcher’s mitts. Baseball is one of the most popular sports in the world today, and whether a player is a casual gamer or a pro athlete, they will need a quality bat to use. Bats are traditionally made from ash wood, but they can also be made of metal, complete with padding on the inside for durability. A player can find these bats for sale at most sports goods outlets, and they are ready for use right away. But it is possible to break in a wooden bat, and some players may want to artificially speed up that process. In that case, a player may look for baseball bat shaving services nearby, and doctored bats may offer superior performance in casual games. Rolled bats are not allowed in sanctioned games, but they can do just fine for practice and casual games. When is it time to look for baseball bat shaving services, and what exactly will they do?
Rolling Wooden Bats
These baseball bat shaving services can distress a wooden baseball bat to modify its wooden fibers as desired. As a wooden baseball bat is used, the pressure of striking baseballs will bend and break the bat’s fibers, and after enough of this, the bat will be fully broken in. Its body will be more flexible, and it can strike the ball further than a fresh wooden bat will. A player may have a few prized broken-in bats in their collection, but they can also speed up this process on a new wooden bat, at baseball bat shaving services. That, or the player may look up rolled bats online and buy one.
If a bat owner visits baseball bat shaving services, they can hand over their wooden bat, and this bat will be passed through a series of pressurized rollers that will distress the bat and break its fibers properly. Care will be taken so that the bat is not simply damaged or broken from excessive pressure. The end result is a rolled bat that may closely mimic the performance of broken-in wooden bats, making them ideal for casual games or for practice sessions. These rolled bats are not allowed at sanctioned games, and an expert on the field may be able to spot them on sight. But wooden bats can make for good proxies for other bats during practice, so that a player does not have to risk breaking their prized wooden bats during practice.
Doctoring Metal Bats
While ash wood is the traditional material for making baseball bats, many bats today are made of metal, and they have a hollow body complete with interior padding to keep the bat stable during gameplay. And like wooden bats, metal bats can be doctored, making them ideal for casual games where league rules are not enforced. But it does no good to pass metal bats through rollers, since they do not have wooden fibers. Instead, metal bats can be shaved at baseball bat shaving services, or they can be purchased online.
To shave a metal bat, that bat will have its end cap removed, and this will expose the hollow interior. The bat is then placed on a lathe table and secured with an assembly, then slowly fed to a rotating grinder surface. That rotating grinder will grind away a few ounces of the bat’s interior padding, and once that is done, the bat is removed and its end cap is put back in place. The end result is a bat that is more flexible, and can send balls further when they strike. But care should be taken, because removing too much padding will make the bat fragile, and it might shatter when it strikes a baseball. Similarly, no padding should be removed from the bat’s handle, or it may break during use. Finally, the owner of a shaved metal bat should not use this item in weather under 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Otherwise, though, a shaved metal bat may offer superior performance in casual games for any batter.