Preparing Your Cricket Bat - Knocking In

By James Laver - World's foremost cricket bat craftsman

Almost all new cricket bats require knocking in before use. Knocking in, is the process of hardening and conditioning of the blades' surface. There are two reasons for knocking in;

• Protecting the bat from cracking and increase its usable life
• Improving the middle of the bat so the middle is bigger and better

The nature of the game of cricket is that a hard ball is propelled at high speed toward the batsman who swings the bat hitting the ball. This contact will cause a bat that is not prepared correctly to crack up very quickly, and have a short life.

Cricket bats are pressed in the bat-making workshop using a mechanical press. The mechanical press applies up to 2tons/square inch of pressure to the face of the bat through a roller. Willow is a very soft timber in its natural state. It has to be pressed to form a hard, resilient layer on the surface. Once this has been done, the bat can be shaped.

The finished bat still needs a final hardening, as the mechanical presses are unable to completely protect the bat, or get the perfect performance required from the blade. This requires knocking in by hand with a mallet. While it is possible to prepare a bat solely by pressing, this compresses the wood too deep into the blade, which dramatically reduces the performance of the bat. A bat pressed heavily will have a small middle and the ball will not travel as far as with a bat pressed lightly and knocked in by hand.

At the stage when the bat is purchased there are different ways of preparing your bat for the knocking in process. We recommend the following process - repeated trials in bat factories have shown us that this works far better than all other methods.

Raw linseed oil should be used to moisten the surface of the bat and enable the fibres to become supple and knit together, forming an elastic surface. This is more likely to stretch on impact, rather than crack. Raw linseed oil is used, as it stays moist for longer than boiled linseed. About a teaspoonful should be applied to the surface of the bat.

I recommend that oil should be applied 3 times before the process of compressing the face begins. Each coat of oil should be about a teaspoon full. Spread the oil over the face of the bat using a small rag or your fingers (always discard the rag after each application as it can spontaneously combust). Spread leftover linseed oil over the edges and toe of the bat. Let each coat of oil soak in overnight and repeat the process.

When the oil has been applied the knocking in process can begin. This should be done using a Hardwood bat mallet.

Start by hitting the middle of the bat just hard enough to create a dent. [This is surprisingly hard]. Hold the bat up to the light to see if you are making a dent.

Gradually compress the face of the bat around this dent so that the face of the bat is level and you cannot see the initial dent any more. The bottom of the bat toe (the part that is in contact with the ground) should never be hit with the mallet.

The edges require special attention; they need to be rounded off so that the hard new ball cannot damage them too much. The edges should be struck at 45 degrees to the face so that the mallet can compress the willow. Similar to the face, make one dent on the edge, and then gradually even out the edge so that the whole surface has a smooth, rounded appearance. The back of the bat should never be touched with the mallet (or the ball) .

If the bat is hit at 90 degrees to the face on the edge it reduces the width of the bat and is covering an area not mechanically pressed. The likelihood of cracking increases and you should not be hitting the ball flush on the edge in any case.

With a hardwood bat mallet the knocking in process should take from between 10 to 15 sessions of about 10 minutes each. Once you have completed this process, as a guide to see if the bat is ready for play take it into the nets and play a few shots with an old ball. If the bat is showing very deep seam marks to the point of almost cracking the face of the bat then it needs more compressing. One will always get seam marks on the face of the bat; they should not be too deep.

The price of a bat does not have any effect on whether a bat cracks or not. The best bats are usually more expensive, but liable to crack more than cheaper bats because the willow is often softer. When a bat has expired buy another one!

Back in the late 1800's the bats were subjected to huge amounts of pressure at the pressing stage to make the willow very hard. If the blade started to show signs of cracking during this process it was rejected. Linseed oil was very often used to saturate the blade in order to soften the wood, make it more comfortable to use (over pressed bats jar on impact), and get a bit of performance out of it. W. G. Grace would have a few of the junior members of his club using his linseed soaked bats for a season or so before he would deem them ready for use. Bats soaked in oil generally break up and don't perform!

When a bat is pressed very hard it is very difficult to hit the ball off the square. The thin protective layer of hard (pressed) willow is becomes a thick layer that is too deep into the willow. Hard-pressed willow does not have the desired elastic qualities of the soft pressed willow, meaning the ball does not 'ping' off the bat.

Caveat: Damage can never be totally eliminated due to the hard nature of the ball and the speed of contact with the bat. A good bat correctly knocked in ideally would last about 1000 runs including net use.

Bat Repair and Maintenance

This section is designed to give some helpful hints on what to do to aid the repair of ones bat whether it is going into hibernation or just beginning indoor training.

Cricket bats often can benefit from a small amount of attention - attention that can improve performance or prolong the life of the bat or both. Relatively minor attention can add considerable life to the bat.

Most Common Problems With Cricket Bats

Over the years I have been repairing and reviving bats these are the most common problems.

Handles

The cricket bat handle is susceptible to an incredible amount of strain due to the nature of the way that the ball is played. The section about an inch above the shoulders is the weakest point. This can break very easily when a ball is driven with gusto at the very base of the bat (the toe).

The bat is endeavoring to pivot around the bottom hand but is not being allowed to do so due to the top hand being in position to complete the effectiveness of the shot. Usually the front section of cane is fractured and so the handle would need to be replaced, best done by a manufacturer of bats or a bat repairer.

Sometimes the handle becomes very flexible and has the feel of a broken handle but no fracture can be seen. This is due to the rubbers within the construction of the handle coming unstuck. Removing the string and gently pulling apart the canes sufficient to apply some adhesive should repair this. The best adhesive to use here is superglue (the thin watery kind). Once a small amount of the superglue is applied the handle can be clamped back together by rolling a few strong rubber bands down the length of the bat handle.

If the bat feels as if it has lost a bit of power small splits are visible running parallel to the splice going downwards from the shoulders. These are sometimes very hard to effectively repair depending on the extent of the damage. On occasion these are caused by the manufacturer not bringing the handle binding down low enough to hold the shoulders together or the rubbers in the handle go too far down into the handle splice thus causing too much movement.

If the splits are less than one inch long then one can help to stop them going further by soaking superglue into the crack repeatedly until the crack has filled and hardened. When the splits are noticeably longer the bat is best sent to a proper bat repairer or if still under warranty returned to the manufacturer.

The splice of the bat sometimes comes away to the point of observing movement when the handle is flexed. Applying superglue to the small hairline cracks visible can also repair this.

The Toe

The base of the bat (the toe) is very susceptible to damage. The balanced design of a cricket bat means that this is the weakest part of the willow blade and yet is subjected to the fastest ball and bat speed at point of impact. Yorkers are the worst kind of bat breaking ball to be bowled and most toe breakage is as a result of receiving one.

The Yorker can often result in a vertical crack running up the length of the blade on the front and back of the bat. If the crack is only and inch or two long it can be repaired by the simple superglue method described earlier.

If the cracks are longer than two inches a good quality PVA adhesive should be used. This will require clamping. PVA is used as it is slightly elastic and absorbs the impact of a ball well. It is incorrect to use epoxies as they will crack very easily as they do not have the flexibility of PVA.

I have repaired a bat that has been split right up the middle so that it had to be separated into two halves and clamped back together with PVA, the player then used the bat for a whole season. This is not always the case but worth a try, especially if you have a bat that is perfect for you.

Doweling has sometimes been used to help with the repair of this kind of crack but from experience it does not work consistently well. Doweling creates a weak point so that the bat then breaks around the dowel. I recommend going to a professional bat repairer for any major work to be done on the toe of the bat.

A thin smear of raw linseed oil a few times over the season is strongly advised to help dispel moisture that may seep into the toe when batting on a wet wicket.

The Face & Edges

The face and edges of the bat receive a continuous battering and they must be looked after to ensure they last and the middle performs well. The bat needs to be prepared as per the knocking in guidelines given on the L&W website. The use of raw linseed oil is crucial to ensure that the face and edges survive the impact of the ball, read more about this in our knocking in section of the website.

Once in use the face will start to crack in horizontal lines across the grain. This is quite normal together with small vertical cracks on the blade. The best way to deal with this is to use the superglue method to help reinforce the willow and then apply an adhesive facing. The best adhesive facing available on the market is a product made in Auckland and is quite often used to protect helicopter rotor blades from small stones chipping them. We actually sell this adhesive facing in our accessories section of this website US$8.00.

The face of your cricket bat will sometimes keep going for more than a season before it starts cracking if you look after it - it happens differently in every bat. As mentioned for the toe of the bat a thin smear of raw linseed oil over the face and edges helps the bat to retain its own moisture and reduces the rate of cracking due to allowing the fibres to stretch rather than crack.

I have mentioned Superglue throughout this newsletter, and it is crucial in a bat maker's workshop. When superglue is used it sometimes leaves a residue around the split area. This can be sanded off with fine grade sandpaper; apply a dab of raw linseed after the repair is fully dried. The glue is the thin watery kind that is commonly used to repair broken china. (Describe this to your hardware store and they will know what you mean). We sell the super glue for US$10 inclusive of deliver

The above extracts comes from the Laver and Wood website