Recently I asked my 9 year old grandson if he would like me to make him a baseball bat out of wood. He told me "Grandpa, you know they use aluminum bats now...", but he agreed that a wooden bat to 'look at' would be cool. Woodcraft recently had their Maple baseball bat billets on sale, so I bought one and began to turn it to shape according to the Rawlings 32 inch speciifcations (available online from Woodcraft). It was fun to make, if a little challenging when the long unsupported cylinder began to vibrate as it got smaller in diameter. This was my first experience with such a long, narrow turning. I managed to control the vibration (small controlled cuts...) and this is the final result. It would not have been 'finished' without personalizing it for my grandson, Alva - burned in with pyrography.
