Strange request.
A buddy of mine just bought an unfinished baseball bat. No it is not just a 4×4 which is what I asked him.
It is a maple baseball bat with the ends left on. I have not seen it but I assume it has just come off the lathe and he must now trim off the ends and sand and finish it. He figures it is a good project he can do with his son.
The bat is maple but I have no info past that. He was wondering what type of finish to use. Any ideas as to what a good, durable finish would be?
I assume it can’t be too smooth or the ball would tend to slide off too much.
Any help would be great.
Thanks.
Replies
cci,
my knowledge of any type of sport, the kind that involves a ball of any sort, is sorely lacking, if it exists at all. however, once in a while i let my students make full-size baseball bats on the lathe. the wood of choice is ash. the only finish we have ever used is boiled linseed oil. i suspect a bat is going to take quite a beating during it's career and that any on-the-surface finish will get abraded off quick as can be.
just as a side-note, it might be fun to burn the boy's name onto the thing with a soldering iron.
eef
Funny about the soldering iron, his dad suggested the same thing.
Does the boiled linseed oil dry hard enough?
How many coats?
Thanks.
I'm pretty sure that commercially-produced baseball bats are varnished, but I don't know what kind of varnish is used. I would guess that MLB players get to specify the type of varnish used on their bats.
-Steve
c,
blo penetrates the wood and then hardens. 2 or 3 coats should be fine with a day between applications.
i don't use poly for student work. about 17 years ago, when i first started teaching, i set a gallon of poly on the bench and gave each kid a cheap brush with which they were to finish their work. about 20 minutes into the project a bright flicker of light caught the corner of my eye. when i looked up i saw a kid stomping his right foot onto a burning paint brush. of course this caused the burning poly to spatter up his pants, and that too caught fire. after i put the burning child out, i got the full story. the kid standing next to him had ignited his brush with his cigarette lighter. that night i had a difficult time falling asleep as visions of burning children danced in my head. i know that blo is just as flammable, but i've just stuck with it because its a wipe on/wipe off, easy to use product.
eef
As Eef indicated, BLO is probably good. My son turned a couple dozen bats and for a clear finish he used shellac (because i had it available and i didn't think of BLO)while spinning it on the lathe, which burnished it at the same time. He also made some where he stained the lower half and spray painted the barrel black.
Being in high school at the time, he couldn't resist the temptation to cork one of them (remember Sammy Sosa . . . wonder where my son got the idea . . ).
The first few blanks he used were ash, but he started using maple and much preferred it.
Edited 6/20/2009 10:30 am by stpatrick
Maple bats are usually stained, then sealed with polyurethane: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4199403.html
Jim
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