By

Tyler Williams

&

George Dudich

HOW IT’S MADE:WOOD BASEBALL BATS

HISTORY OF BASEBALL

Baseball has been around for a long time. Nobody is really sure who invented it. The most common rumor is that a man name Abner Doubleday, a Civil War veteran, invented the game of baseball while at a military camp. Of course, baseball bats had not yet been invented. The first Major League game ever played was between the Cleveland Forest Cities and Ft. Wayne Kekiongas on May 4, 1871. Originally, players made their owns bats. These bats had no regulations of weight, length, or shape. By 1884 regulations were made. In 1884, Hillerich & Bradsby (Louisville Slugger) was the first company to manufacture and sell a baseball bat, which was made of ash. Today, many companies produce and sell baseball bats using various types of wood.

STARTING MATERIALS

• 36" wood bat blank

• wood lathe

• electric saw

• large spindle gouge

• small spindle gouge

• round nose scraper

• bees wax (or wood varnish)

WHAT IS WOOD?

• There is no chemical formula for wood because it is not composed of a bunch of identical molecules.

• Wood has three main components: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin

• Wood is a hard, organic tissue found in trees.

• Trees are mainly found in large abundances on Earth, mainly in forests.

• Wood is less dense than water, and is usually brown in color.

• Wood is able to burn; when it does so, it gets hot and turns to ashes.

• Wood is a great building material and conductor of heat.

• It is a recyclable and renewable material.

• However, wood often time rots and catches fire easily.

PROCESS (TURNING A BASEBALL BAT)

• Step 1:

• Obtain rectangular log at least “36 long.

• Cut all 4 edges of log with electric saw long ways at a 44 degree angle.

• Step 2:

• Find center of wood and mark the spot with an “x.”

• Step 3

• Secure wood to a lathe and turn the lathe on.

• Round wood with a large spindle gouge as the wood spins.

• Step 4

• Use a small spindle gouge to shape out the handle and barrel of the bat.

• Step 5

• Using a round nose scraper, take a small layer off of the wood to help smoothen the surface out.

• Step 6 & 7

• Sand the bat to finish the smoothening process.

• Apply bees wax (or wood varnish) to wood with a cloth and buff the wood.

EVOLUTION OF WOOD BASEBALL BATS

• Originally, wood bats were made of Ash. However, in 2001, Barry Bonds used the first bat made of maple. Today, maple bats are more popular than the original ash bats. Maple bats are a big step-up from ash because of the strength of the wood. This reduces broken bats (and injuries from the broken bats) and the number of bats needed (because they are tougher to break)

• Bamboo has also been used to make baseball bats in recent years. Major League Baseball banned the usage of bamboo bats because it breaks very easily. This may lead to injuries to not only the players, but the spectators attending the baseball game. Composite baseball bats are a combination of different materials (for example, a bamboo/maple composite). They are forbidden in Major League Baseball because the rules state that your bat must be one solid piece of wood.

• Bamboo and composite wood baseball bats may still be used at the amateur or collegiate level depending on league rules.

• (a) The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.NOTE: No laminated or experimental bats shall be used in a professional game (either championship season or exhibition games) until the manufacturer has secured approval from the Rules Committee of his design and methods of manufacture.(b) Cupped Bats. An indentation in the end of the bat up to one inch in depth is permitted and may be no wider than two inches and no less than one inch in diameter. The indentation must be curved with no foreign substance added.(c) The bat handle, for not more than 18 inches from its end, may be covered or treated with any material or substance to improve the grip. Any such material or substance, which extends past the 18 inch limitation, shall cause the bat to be removed from the game.NOTE: If the umpire discovers that the bat does not conform to (c) above until a time during or after which the bat has been used in play, it shall not be grounds for declaring the batter out, or ejected from the game.(d) No colored bat may be used in a professional game unless approved by the Rules Committee.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• "Maple vs Ash: Which Wood Type for Baseball Bats? | HittingWorld.com."HittingWorld.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.

• "How to Make a Baseball Bat." WikiHow. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014.

• "History of The Wood Bat." History of The Wood Bat. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.