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Would you like to add information to this article? Interested in writing or submitting an article? Have a question about this article? Hard Maple for Baseball Bats 
Question
1) Do I cut 3x3 or 4x4 billets out of it, or other?
Forum Responses
Be very careful with straightness of grain. Weak, prone-to-breakage bats will be produced from otherwise clear wood in which the grain does not run straight. Do you carry appropriate liability insurance?
From contributor M: I always thought white ash was the wood of choice for bats. Adirondack Sluggers were always ash. Now most are aluminum. Maple may be too dense and heavy to meet weight requirements if these are to be used where league rules apply. From contributor D: We just sold a second kiln to a company that dries HM bat billets. That will bring their capacity up to 17,100 billets per month so, if you know what you're doing, hard maple baseball bats are big business. From contributor I: Ball bats have to be right around 12% MC to make a good bat. The grain must be straight. The piece must be knot and check free. Hard maple works very well for ball bats. Ash is still preferred. Red oak is too brittle. It breaks to easily. Some tell me that vacuum dried ash and HM is harder? I don't know if there is any truth to that or not. It is better to dry as a square and then turn the bat. Drying as a round can get tricky - egg shaped wood. From contributor I: Red oak, when dried and oil treated the right way, can make a great bat. It will out-hit ash by about 50 feet. I don't know much about baseball, but I hear that Babe Ruth used a red oak bat. Also, when I say "vacuum drying," I'm referring to hot water plate vac drying. There is something about RFV vac drying that will make the center of a RO square very brittle.
From contributor D: This is how HM billets look when they are being loaded into a vac kiln.  We suspect that wood dried in our kilns is less brittle because we never use excess heat. The wood is in the range of 15 to 25% before its temperature starts to climb above 100F. Penn State suggested a test. They will provide the wood, they will air-dry and conventionally dry part while we vacuum dry the rest. They will do the analysis. Then we will know.
From contributor I: What's the red on the end of the squares? I see a lot of vac dry operations painting the end of their squares. What's the reason for this? From contributor D: As soon as the squares are cut, they get end seal to prevent end checks. Since most wood is cut to length before it goes into a vac kiln, you can't have any end checks. If the wood is going to a lathe, not even tiny ones that have closed. From contributor I: Maple will check quick if it is cool and dry outside. If it's warm and humid, one doesn't have to worry as much about end checks, but about stain. I used to end seal some species of hardwood before vac drying because the end seal forces water out through the sides of the wood instead of out of the ends. This helps create more even drying in a vac kiln. From contributor D: Actually, we recommend wax emulsion and it doesn't have much if any affect under vacuum. Therefore, it doesn't force any water out the sides. The comments below were added after this Forum discussion was archived as a Knowledge Base article (add your comment). Comment from contributor W:
Comment from contributor O: I had a bat made of hickory for my son in 1999. He used it in a wood bat summer league and then for batting practice in college for 4 years. He also used it in a wood bat summer league for 4 years and it still refused to be broken. It’s still in use after another 4 years in an adult wood bat league as well. The pattern was S44, 33" and it's not heavy. The balance is perfect and the ball jumps off the bat. I’m not sure why hickory is not used commercially, as it works great for handles.
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