American Ash, Red Oak, Bamboo Baseball Bats

American Ash, Red Oak, Bamboo Baseball Bats By: Cole McKinney Pd. 2

American Ash and Red Oak: Step One • Fraxinus americana and Quercus rubra wood is taken from forest in upper state New York • The wood has to be from a specific wood area and meet a specific criteria • Farmers and loggers also sell wood that is specific to the company manufacturing the bats

Step Two • Draft horses are used to drag wood out of forests because building roads in between the trees is almost impossible • The logs are then transported to saw mills in New York and Pennsylvania • 65 logs are usually in one truck load • In the summer logs are laid out to dry

Step Two (cont’d) • Once in the wood shop they split the wood into 40 inch pieces and are then checked for quality • A custom built splitter splits the wood along the grain • The wood is then cut with a machine that has 24-48 knives to get precise measurements

Step Three • Once the wood is in a round tube shape it is then put in a kiln to dry for 30-35 days • The wood is watched carefully to make sure it doesn’t burn or char

Step Four • After the drying process the wood is cut again into 2.75 inch’s in diameter • The pallets are then shrink wrapped for protection and shipped off to Wellington, Florida for processing

Step Five • After arrival in Florida, the bats are then inspected again and then put into racks that hold up to 10,000 pieces of wood • The wood is then put into a state of the art CNC lathe. The lathe can turn one round tube of wood into a bat every thirty-eight seconds

Step Six • Every bat once off of the lathe and in the form of a baseball bat, is hand sanded • When the bat is hand sanded it allows for better quality checks

Step Seven • The bat is then moved to a different area of the factory to be put in a clear coating for protection from scratches and dents that the bat may receive

Step Eight • The bat is then checked one last time for dents and scratches along with the rest of the quality of the bat. It is then branded with the trademark seal and the players name who ordered the bat

Step Nine • The bats are then individually bagged and boxed and ready to ship out of the manufacturer

Bamboo Bats • Bamboo or bats were introduced into Major League Baseball because many wood bats would start to splinter under contact with the baseball • Also metal and aluminum baseball bats had to be banned because to many people were getting injured because the ball can come off of the bat faster and harder

Step One • Since bamboo stalks are hollow they cannot be turned into a baseball with just one piece of bamboo • The bamboo stalk is cut down with many others and then put into bundles • The bundles are then split down the middle

Step Two • The bamboo stalk that is split down the middle is layered within another stalk for support and for durability • The process continues into the bamboo is not hollow anymore • Then the bamboo bat is put into a lathe that shapes and cuts the wood into its bat shape

Step Three • The bamboo bat is then sanded and dipped into seal and individually wrapped and ready for shipping anywhere in the world

Citations • “How to make Ash and Oak bats.” Carolina Clubs. N.p., 2008. Web. 7 Nov 2011. • "Baseball Bats." eNotes. Gale Cengage, 2002. Web. 7 Nov 2011. • "Wood Bats." Wood Bats.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov 2011. • Thompson, Caroline. "History of the bamboo baseball bat." Livestrong.com. N.p., January 11, 2011. Web. 7 Nov 2011.

American Ash, Red Oak, Bamboo Baseball Bats