Maple vs ash

[Tom C]

Lot's of exploding maple bat in baseball. Another person,the umpire this time, got hurt by a broken maple bat. I've never seen an ash mano which makes me believe the properties must be very very different. They do say ash splinters compared to exploding.

[Spruce]

Oh man...

Been thinking about this one a lot lately...

First of all, maple bats should be banned. #Period.
Not that you can get Mr. Selig to get off his ### and do anything that might help the game...

The proof is in the proverbial pudding. #Bats are shattering like never before, and someone is going to get killed.
Why wait for the pics of a pitcher or a fan with a maple bat through the jugular?
It's right around the corner...

Secondly, the wood for bats these days is poorly selected.

Here's your mando content.
When a maker selects wood for his or her F5, they want wood without runout. They want wood that grew perfectly straight, and then was milled along that split line. #

But bat makers obviously ignore this important point. #You can tell by the way the bats split, that they are made from twisted trees that are made from poorly selected lumber...

A bat should be made from a hand-split chunk of ash or hickory, period...

It might add a few points to your batting average, and save a life or two...

Seriously....

[jefflester]

Secondly, the wood for bats these days is poorly selected.

Sam Holman says if they paid triple the price for the bats they would get better quality that wouldn't shatter.

http://www.latimes.com/sports....8.story

[Spruce]

"Bats made of ash wood tend to crack and splinter when they break, while bats made of maple tend to snap into chunks with jagged edges that can fly wildly in any direction. "

That statement should kind of end the discussion, shouldn't it??

[jefflester]

"Bats made of ash wood tend to crack and splinter when they break, while bats made of maple tend to snap into chunks with jagged edges that can fly wildly in any direction. "

That statement should kind of end the discussion, shouldn't it??

Well, yeah.

[man dough nollij]

Very helpful thread. I will certainly think twice before I swing my F5 at a 90mph fastball.

[JEStanek]

Spruce, to quote Clint Eastwood's Preacher from 1985's Pale Rider "Nothing like a good piece of hickory."

Mand Dough Nollij, refer to this thread.

Jamie

[jefflester]

Very helpful thread. I will certainly think twice before I swing my F5 at a 90mph fastball. #

Good opportunity to post an image of the back cover of Thile's "Leading Off." Haven't been able to find a particularly good pic on the net though.

[CES]

Spruce, to quote Clint Eastwood's Preacher from 1985's Pale Rider "Nothing like a good piece of hickory."

Jamie, love that movie...

I'm a huge baseball fan and pretty traditional in most aspects, and while I hate the sound of aluminum bats at games, I would argue that we need to make the move to aluminum or ceramic bats engineered to have similar sweet spots/rebound as current MLB wooden bats...they should then make these bats mandatory (with length/weight options, of course) in college ball as well (given the safety issues and crazy scores already being seen with state of the art aluminum bats). It could easily be done, and then even MLB players could make it through the year on just a couple bats instead of dozens to hundreds. Then we'd have more wood for mandos (I do NOT argue that we should make the move to CF mandos unless by choice, however

[brunello97]

Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck!

Aluminum bats in MLB? I'm not planning on giving up the ghost for another 50 yrs or so, but please, please not in my lifetime. I've dealt with a lower mound, bandbox stadiums, the DH, free agency, artificial turf, the demise of stadium organs, lights at Wrigley Field, playoffs, steroids, Steinbrenner, Marge Schott, $6.50 beer. But the crack of the bat cannot be imitated. The ash borer be d#mned. The line has to be drawn in (the meticulously groomed) infield dirt somewhere.

Mick

Mando content: I have mandos of spruce, cedar, sycamore, maple, mahogany, walnut, rosewood, oh, and an amazing Schwab electric--made of ash. We need to be planting trees now for the Seventh Generation. Just in case the Cubs find their way back to the WS.

[Spruce]

"...and while I hate the sound of aluminum bats at games"

I hope you guys are watching the college world series right now...

Steve Detweiler of Fresno State has driven in all 6 runs with a dislocated thumb...

His last homer really showed what aluminum sounds like...

[GVD]

First of all, maple bats should be banned. #Period.
Not that you can get Mr. Selig to get off his ### and do anything that might help the game...

Isn't that the truth. I saw an article on this issue recently and it appears the big demand for maple bats came about as a result of Baroid Bonds switching to them a few years ago. Monkey see monkey do.

GVD

[Bruce Evans]

Aluminum bats in MLB? #I'm not planning on giving up the ghost for another 50 yrs or so, but please, please not in my lifetime. #I've dealt with a lower mound, bandbox stadiums, the DH, free agency, artificial turf, the demise of stadium organs, lights at Wrigley Field, playoffs, steroids, Steinbrenner, Marge Schott, $6.50 beer. #But the crack of the bat cannot be imitated. #The ash borer be d#mned. # The line has to be drawn in (the meticulously groomed) infield dirt somewhere.
Mick

Mick, you are a man of character and high regard. If we ever meet, I would be pleased to buy you a beverage of your choice.

How do you feel about changing to 3 balls for a walk? We'd see a lot more strikes thrown and a lot more hits and it would speed up the game. Not until after we are gone of course, but what do you think?

Mando content: Bring your mando when I buy you that beverage and we'll pick.

[Fred Keller]

I'm with Mick and I also think the whole "speed up the game" nonsense is utterly ridiculous.

Baseball has its own rhythms and its own time frame, just like any good fiddle tune. Press the game to speed up and sure, you'll see more hits, more running around, more swinging, but you won't see more baseball. You'll get action without substance much the same way one can speed the everloving snot out of a tune and flense it of all music.

Let those of us who still enjoy a game without a freaking clock have our baseball!

[mandolooter]

well ash wouldn't make a very good mandolin. Its too dimensionally unstable I would think...makes a beautiful table or cabinet tho!

[Santiago]

Banjos should be made of smoldering ash. How do you cork an F5?

[Jeff Hildreth]

Ash is stable Ash has been used for years in wooden skis, canoe paddles woven baskets.. etc

It would make for a not so good instrument, Martin discovered that

Similar to oak in that is is porous and stringy but it does smell like toast

So what about laminated baseball bats... as in 3 or four pieces glued up or is that against the rules

[Rick Banuelos]

Not being a fan of maple bats (I don't like their shattering properties or durability issues), I've taken to hitting mostly with either northern white ash (the old stand-by), and more often with Canadian Yellow Birch. Having broken a few bats in my day, I've found that the birch breaks without shattering or spear-chucking, while ash (as always) just starts to flake and splinter.

There are also laminated composite bats with very similar properties to the real thing, like Baum Bats and the newer DeMarini models that have been approved for play in short-A and rookie leagues. These bats don't shatter; they simply crack when it's time to get a new one.

The switch to maple bats parallels the advancement of aluminum bats in many ways. When I was playing competitively, metal bats were simply a cost-effective alternative for schools and teams on a budget, and had the same kind of balance and sweet spot as the wood bats I'd hit with for fun. Moving to the higher leagues was relatively simple; a player already had the hand technique necessary to hit with wood. Newer aluminum bats are made with cutting edge materials, have a 6" sweet spot, and trampoline the baseball toward infielders with staggering speed. That's not my cup of tea. Neither is the maple idea, where you sacrifice durability for weight and rigidity. A light, hard bat is nice, but it isn't a substitute for a great swing.

My father taught me to hit with wood exclusively so I'd have the proper technique when swinging, and taught me Bach so I'd have good left-hand technique while playing guitar.

At least the wood bat idea worked.

[JEStanek]

... How do you cork an F5?

I give you the Cork Trussrod.

Jamie

[mandroid]

Seems Bat blanks are turned out of trunk wood, are they not? ,
efficiency of cutting a lot of board feet at once, favors using the trunk of the tree.. if they used Branches , It seems the grain would run lengthwise , and be a bit stronger.

No Carbon Fiber baseball bats yet?

[JEStanek]

There's a carbon fiber laminate bat... patented in 1986.

Jamie

[Spruce]

well ash wouldn't make a very good mandolin. Its too dimensionally unstable I would think...makes a beautiful table or cabinet tho!

Ash is totally stable...

And it's obviously the wood of choice for my Broadcaster copies....

[MikeEdgerton]

I have a friend that has a Guild guitar built out of Ash. It sounds great.

[Ted Eschliman]

Nothing like the sparkly cackle of a Swamp Ash Telecaster, or the ash of a baseball bat. Just say "yes!" to "crack."

Much of a fan as I am of alternate materials for wood these days, at 50 years of age, I have yet to take a swing at a ball with an aluminum bat. Boy, am I old or what...

[Jim Broyles]

Jeez, Ted, I'm older than you, and we had aluminum bats in our church softball league when I was in my 30's. I guess you haven't really played that much, huh?