Is Heartwood good in a bat?

[smasher1980]

Hi,

I have seen a lot of ppl talking abt heartwood in Bats. Most of the discussions I have read give me the impression that it is not a bad thing, it is more sturdy and strong, and ppl generally prefer heartwood on the outside edge of the bat..Why is it that willow is downgraded if it has heartwood? Is it just only cos of Aesthetic reasons?

Also, was wondering...is heartwood really good? Has anyone ever seen any bats which were all made up of heartwood? How would such a bat perform?

 

[shirazi_r]

Bats with heartwood are downgraded purely on an aesthetic basis. As fart as I've seen it has very little impact on performance.

As far as an all heartwood bat, I've yet to see one but it would be interesting to see how it plays.

 

[zeusky]

Normally heartwood is much harder as it is devoid of any sap. Like Riz said above, it has mostly to do with aesthetics. But with the smoke and mirrors willow grading going on right now, many top end bats have heartwood in them.