If you speak to 1,000 different cricketers, including various coaches, you will get 1,000 different suggestions on preparing a cricket bat from oiling and knocking to not needing to prep the bat because most bats are 'Pre Factory Knocked—Match Ready'. Even if a bat is pre-knocked, it is only partial. No manufacturer thoroughly preps a bat, so we advise you to do your own prep!
As a coach, I am consistently requested to check a player's bat for suitability at some point. Even when it's not an easy ask, it really depends on you as a player and what you are happy with. A coach's job is to ensure players use suitable equipment for sessions that align with the ECB health and safety regulations.
A lot of players, 99% of the time, always ask me one question: "Why does my bat not sound or feel like the ones the Pro's use on TV? This can actually come down to a few factors:
1). The bats players use at an intentional level are custom Player-graded bats; they're generally unavailable to the general public; some manufacturers sell them, but they won't be cheap
2). Even international players prep their own bats even when they are considered 'match ready' or will send their bats to specialist bat makers and retailers who provide a full bat-knocking service.
I recently spoke to an extremely well-known and respected cricket manufacturer while getting one of my broken bats replaced. I wasn't surprised to hear them inform me how some customers send bats back in that have broken just after a few games, only to discover seam marks across the bat, no oiling, or pre-match knocking! Just because the bat came 'Pre Factory Knocked,' they assumed they didn't have to do anything themselves.
Some bat manufacturers have now stopped assuming liability and responsibility for damaged bats that have been returned to their factories. If the customer does not follow the advised steps to prep a bat properly before use, they no longer offer you a free replacement or repair service.
Whether your bat is £100 or £1,000, if you want to get the most out of it, you must give it the best TLC possible. You must take your time and have patience, even if you're eager to test it out.
Another question I am asked is, "Should I get a Lignum Vitae Bat Mallet?" Unless you're a professional bat maker and know how to use one properly, the simple answer is "NO!". You can seriously damage your bat if you don't know how to use one of these mallets properly.
Lastly, you should never use a new bat, even after fully prepping it on a bowling machine, even if the speed is feeding balls at a basic level. Bowling machines do not use leather cricket balls. It is a synthetic rubber/ Plastic ball that can seriously damage your bat if you haven't done at least 1 hour of thrown downs in the nets with an old ball beforehand.
Here is our guide to prepping your new cricket bat;
Step 1 - What do I need?
Shopping list;
Linseed Oil for Cricket Bats (Amazon)
Cricket Bat Wax (Amazon)
Cotton Wool
Stationary Eraser (Rubber)
Ruler or something with a straight edge
Deluxe Cricket Bat Mallet (Gray Nicolls)
Grip cone (Optional)
Anti Scruff Sheet (Kookaburra Armour Tech or Hammer Branded)
180, 220 or 240 Sandpaper
A few old cricket balls
A Pencil
Time and Patience! (1 week to 10 days process)
Step 2 - Oiling the bat
We want to oil the bat lightly; the idea is the linseed oil will help keep the bat protected against moisture, keeping the wood intact. We never want to over-oil the bat! This will deaden the fibres of the timber and affect performance. We want to avoid the stickers and splice of the bat at all costs. Ideally, we start with 4 - 5 tiny drops on the bat face and rub it in with two fingers until the oil is absorbed. Depending on how many stickers are on each edge of the bat, we want 2 - 4 tiny drops on each edge and at the back of the bat 4 - 5 tiny drops.
Once you have rubbed the oil into the bat, you should notice a slight change to the wood's colour, a slight yellowish tinge. Grab a piece of cotton wool and lightly brush it over the areas you have just rubbed the oil over. This will help collect and remove excess oil deposits on the bat, helping us avoid over-oiling the bat.
Leave the bat to dry fully face up for 24 - 48 hours. To help keep the bat horizontal, you could use a window ledge and blinds to help keep the bat upright. However, do not leave the window open if there is heavy wind or rain; this will cause the bat to get damp. If the ledge is cold, move the bat away to a warmer place.
Avoid wanting to pick up the bat and show it off or shadow bat with it. This will cause the oil to shift.
Once 24-48 hours have passed, the bat should be dry enough. A quick test is to give the bat's face a quick, short sniff. The smell of linseed oil should not be potent or strong, only a light smell. If the scent is strong, leave it to dry for another day. This is usually the case in cold winter weather. It takes longer for a bat to dry at average room temperature.
"Avoid placing the bat near a radiator or heater" to help the drying process as it can overheat the timber, causing more damage."Â
In the next step, we want to grab our 180 sanding paper and lightly sand the bat where we oiled it to remove the excess oil! The motion is up and down in the direction of bat grains only. Avoid pressing too hard; we are not trying to remove any wood, only the oil. If you feel like you might press too hard, a great tip is to start using a finer quality of sanding paper, i.e. 240 or 220, and then return to 180 once you get the hang of it.
Finally, you want to repeat step 2 for a second time with even fewer drops of oil: two drops less from the front and back of the bat and one drop less from the edges.
!IPORNTANT!
If your bat does not have a toe guard attached, you want to use a line of oil to rub on the toe area. We need to create a slightly darker layer as this part of the bat comes in contact with the ground the most during a match and will absorb the most dampness. Once oiled, we don't need to sand the excess oil. Just use a few pieces of cotton wool and rub off the excess. You don't need to repeat the oiling process.
Step 3 - Knocking in the bat
Before knocking the bat in, remember to keep the bat at a 45-degree angle at all times, and do not strike the mallet flush onto the bat's face. Doing so can seriously damage the bat and cause deep surface cracks.
How to start: Grab a pencil and ruler and lightly draw out a similar layout as shown in the picture below. Use a half-cm cross-hatch pattern on the edges and 1.5cm for the toe. We do this to avoid over-hitting the edges and toe, which can seriously damage the wood. You roughly want to draw out 27 squares, depending on how long the front face sticker is. Treat the cross-hatched edges and toe as three extensive independent areas.
We use this approach so that we know exactly where we have knocked in the bat. Without these grid lines, the chances are greater than none; you will miss or under-knock many key areas of the bat. Ultimately, these are the areas where the bat starts to break and crack the quickest.
1. Lightly Knocking;
Firstly, start by slowly and lightly knocking the cross-hatched edges up and down the bat for 5 minutes each, followed by the toe area for 5 minutes. You should see the pencil markings disappearing. You should also notice the edges rounding off rather than it being a straight, sharp edge. Once done, you want to lightly and slowly knock each square 100 times each, which means you will have done 2,700 hits on the bat, including 15 minutes on the edges and toe area, roughly another 500 hits (3200 hits total). Remember to take long rests in between, and don't try to finish off everything quickly, as you can injure your hand, arm, and shoulders.
Once you finish, rub out the entire pencil grid. For the next part, we need to draw a slightly different grid.
2. Medium Knocking;
Using the pencil and ruler, draw out four squares per row, roughly 2.5cm in height per row, as shown in the picture below.
Remember, depending on how big your bat sticker is, you may get more or fewer squares and rows. Now, you want to hit each square with medium power at a 45-degree angle 100 times (3,600 times in total).
Once you have finished, redraw the same grid layout. During this process, you may notice small surface cracks running in a vertical direction similar to bat grains, just like in the picture below.
Do not worry. This is the sign of a good bat, as the compression and air are escaping, making the wood fibres softer and tighter. However, if you notice the same lines horizontally across the bat's face or too deep of a split, you hit the bat too hard too quickly. It would be best if you reduced the hitting power. Don't stop! Just carry on the process. We can sand these out at the end of our entire knocking-in process.
3. Hard Knocking;
Using the pencil and ruler, lightly redraw the same grid as the previous step. At a 45-degree angle, we now want to do hard hits (Shorter and faster hits with more power) 100 times in each square (3,600 times in total).
4. The final finishing hits.
Once you have completed the 3 knocking steps, depending on your bat, you will have made close to 10,000 hits on the bat. However, we are not 100% finished! We may have missed the odd area where the wood is harder than we thought.
Close your eyes and slowly glide your fingers on one hand across the face of the bat. You should feel and notice where the bat has been knocked in. It should be pretty flat with hardly any up-and-down wood. If you come to a point that feels hard and almost like a bump, circle it with a pencil and cross until you have checked the entire bat, just like in the picture below.
We want to hit these points lightly to medium a couple of times, maybe 20-30 hits until we glide our fingers over and notice it is all levelled.
Congrats, the knocking process is completed.
Step 4 - Boning the edges (Optional)
This short additional step is not compulsory; however, many players do it to avoid having sharp bat edges to prevent the bat from cracking and breaking. Usually, this is achieved during the knocking-in phase; however, if you feel like you haven't fully rounded off the edges of your cricket bat during the knocking process.
Grab a metal pole or a 'grip cone' holding the bat edge at a slight angle; press on the edges lightly, and run the grip cone up and down the edge of the bat until you see the indentation of the edge starting to flatten. If you don't have a pole or grip cone, you can always use the handle of your bat mallet. Bear in mind that it will create faint scratch lines on the handle during this process.
Step 5 - Final sanding and bat waxing
Now that we have completed our knocking in, we want to grab a 180-sheet of sandpaper and lightly sand the bat's face and edges to remove loose fibre and blunt the surface splits we spoke about earlier.
Once done, grab a pea-size amount of bat wax, rub it in both hands and apply it to the bat face slowly and slightly, gently massaging it. Lay the bat horizontally, with the bat face side up, for 1-2 hours until the wax has dried out before adding an optional anti-scruff sheet. This will allow the face sheet to stick to the bat properly without coming off immediately. However, some people don't add a face sheet as it does add slight weight to your bat. It is an excellent recommendation to use one if you have an expensive bat to give you longevity and protection against awful match balls and those used in net sessions.
Step 6 - Throw Downs.
Grab a friend or family member and head down to some nets. Get your friend to throw some half-volley-length "OLD" cricket balls at you from a few steps away for you to drive into for an hour or so. Avoid using any brand-new fresh balls!
After your throw-downs, if you notice ball seam marks on your bat, you must go home and lightly to medium knock the bat for another 1-2 hours over the bat face. This means the bat needs a little bit more knocking.
Now, the bat is fully ready to use in the nets or matches...enjoy getting the maximum value out of the bat!
Good luck and happy cricketing from Ali Choudhry Cricket Coaching.
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