What is the difference between Ash and Maple?
Maple, while heavier, is a harder wood than ash, yet not too heavy to swing. The reason for maple’s density lies in its grain structure, which is the most visually noticeable detail between the two woods. Maple has a very tight grain structure with not much space between each grain.
How hard is maple wood?
Maple is a very hard, dense wood. The surface hardness is about 20% greater than ash. The harder the surface, the faster the ball will jump off the bat.
Do Ash bats snap easier than maple bats?
Ash bats do not snap the way a maple bat does. Ash bats will break just as easy, but usually they just wear out. The grain of an ash bat will delaminate over many uses. Birch is tougher than ash, and more flexible than maple.
Is Birch hard or soft maple wood?
The wood of soft maple is not as heavy or as strong as that of hard maple. Janka ratings for maple range from 700 for silver maple to 1,180 for black maple. Between 30 and 50 species of birch grow in Asia, North America and Europe. The wood of sweet and yellow birches is hard, strong and heavy.
Is ash or maple stronger?
The main difference between ash and maple bats is the density and strength. Maple is the strongest and most dense without much give, while ash wood is less dense and flexes more.
Is maple a heavy wood?
Soft Maple has a 950 lbf (4,226 N) hardness rating What is this? As you can see the hardness of Maple wood, especially Hard Maple has a significantly higher value of hardness than many other kinds of wood. This is why Maple wood is considered a hardwood. Maple wood is hard and heavy with great strength properties.
Do MLB players use ash or maple bats?
Maple is the wood of choice for the Nationals. Last season, about 70 percent of Major League Baseball players used maple bats, with 25 percent using ash and 5 percent yellow birch, according to MLB Players Association spokesman Greg Bouris. Fifteen years ago, nearly everyone used ash.
Is ash a heavy wood?
It absorbs stain well and is straight-grained. Ash is a relatively porous wood. While ash is tough, heavy and hard, it is usually easy to work.
Is maple heavy or light?
The heavier of the two is most likely to be hard maple, but this test isn't always 100% accurate. Look at the end grains – Hard maple tends to have a lighter, more uniformed color while soft maple tends to be darker and includes red, brown, or gray streaks. Also, inspect the spacing between the growth rings.
Is oak heavier than maple?
Density of Oak, Maple and Cherry Air-dried American maple (Acer saccharum) clocks in at 47.1 pounds per cubic foot. There are different types of oak. Red oak (Quercus rubra) clocks in at 48.7 pounds per cubic foot, while American white oak (Quercus alba) is 56.2 pounds per cubic foot.
What wood bat has the most pop?
The Best Wood Bats for 2022Take your game to new heights with the Victus TA7 Pro Reserve maple wood bat. ... Exploding across the wood bat scene, the J143M Old Hickory is one of the most popular maple wood bats in baseball.More items...
Why don't they make ash bats anymore?
Like most of the nation's estimated 10 billion ash trees, the species that has flourished in these forests and yielded the bulk of America's baseball bats for so many years will soon virtually disappear, decimated by disease as thoroughly as American elms in the early 1900s.
What is the strongest wood bat?
Hickory - Hickory batsHickory - Hickory bats are the heaviest and hardest of all the types of wood. They have no flex and little feel.
What are the disadvantages of ash wood?
Ash is considered a non-durable, perishable wood. When damp or in contact with the ground, ash wood is prone to rotting. Ash is also susceptible to attack by beetles and fungus, especially the sapwood. According to Advantage Lumber, ash wood appeals to common furniture beetles and powder post beetles.
Can dead ash trees be used for lumber?
Ash is a great species of lumber to work with. Ash is known for its staining potential and ability to mimic oak. It has great shock resistance, and solid workability. To this point, it has been an economical wood that was always readily available.
Is ash lighter than oak?
For one, each hardwood type has a unique texture, and its appearance makes it easily distinguishable from the other types, especially when you look at a piece of each put side by side. For example, ash is lighter in colour than oak.
Is maple a light wood?
Maple wood is incredibly strong, looks great, and stains nicely. Woodworkers and furniture aficionados gravitate towards maple for its light, creamy color, smooth grain pattern, and impressive durability....Maple Wood.ColorWhite with some reddish-brown huesHardness1450 on the Janka scaleCost$3 to $8 per board feet2 more rows
Is maple an expensive wood?
Moderate price – A mid-priced hardwood, maple is typically less expensive than oak, cherry, and walnut, but more expensive than birch, hickory, and alder.
Why is maple wood so expensive?
Ash, Maple, and Cherry are more abundant as they grow larger but have highly sought after aesthetics in the grain which make them less expensive than Walnut but more expensive than some hardwoods.
Is maple a good wood for woodworking?
Along with cherry, walnut, and oak, maple is considered to be among the favorite hardwood choices for furniture building. Maple is generally considered to be strong, durable, and pretty when properly finished.
What Is the Best Material for a Pool Cue?
There are a few different types of pool, snooker, and billiards cues, not just ash and maple. However, ash and maple are the two most common types, at least as far as wood is concerned. There are some quite popular non-wood or partially wood cues, however, so materials like fiberglass and graphite should be considered as well.
What Cues Do Professional Pool Players Use?
Professional pool players almost always tend to lean towards maple. More specifically, most professional-level pool cues are made from straight-grained hard rock maple. Although there are often times other materials to supplement the maple cues (though sometimes not), they are almost always hard rock maple at their core.
Why is Ash Used for Snooker Cues?
The reason ash is used for snooker cues is because of the generally lighter weight of the balls in snooker. This isn’t just the case for snooker, but many other billiards games as well.
Final Thoughts
So, there you have it. There is a reason there are both ash cues and maple cues. In the vast majority of cases, maple cues are for American pool, while ash cues are for snooker, English pool, and other billiards games with lighter and smaller balls than standard American pool.
Hardwood Ratings
Specific gravity, the most important predictor of wood strength, measures the ratio of wood density to that of water. Ebony has a high specific gravity of 1.12. American balsa, among the softest and lightest of woods, has a low specific gravity of 0.17. The Janka hardness rating measures wood to rate its suitability for flooring.
Maple
Maple trees are classified as either hard or soft. Sugar maple and black maple are hard. Hard maple is a workable wood resistant to abrasion, with a uniform texture and fine grain. The wood is strong, stiff and shock-resistant. The grain of sugar maple is usually straight, sometimes displaying attractive curly or bird's eye patterns.
Birch
Between 30 and 50 species of birch grow in Asia, North America and Europe. The wood of sweet and yellow birches is hard, strong and heavy. The specific gravity of sweet birch is 0.65; that of yellow birch is 0.62. Paper birch wood is lighter and not as stiff, hard or strong. Sweet birch has a Janka rating of 1,470.
Poplar
The genus Populus comprises 35 species, including poplars, cottonwoods and aspens. Poplar woods are soft and white, with uniform texture and straight grain. The specific gravity of poplar woods ranges from 0.31 to 0.43. The Janka ratings for bigtooth aspen and quaking aspen are 420 and 350.
Summary
Consider strength, durability and personal taste when selecting wood products.
Ash Bats
Northern white ash is the most common wood bat available. It has a little flex in the bat (similar to some aluminum bats) which is popular because it may have a little extra whip.
Maple Bats
Maple bats exploded onto the scene about 15 years ago. Maple is a harder, more dense wood than ash. It doesn’t have the same flex as an ash bat, but once you get used to using one, it isn’t really noticeable. Even though its a harder piece of wood, it still breaks pretty easily when contact is made at the end of the bat.
Birch Bats
Birch bats in my opinion have the best characteristics of maple and ash, put together in one bat. Birch bats have a flex similar to ash but doesn’t flake, which is similar to maple. In other words, the birch has the durability of maple with the flex of ash.
So which type of wood is better for a baseball bat?
I have taken tens of thousands of swings with all 3 types of wood. Now I have been using these birch bats for a few years and I really like them.
About Author
Doug Bernier, founder of Pro Baseball Insider.com, debuted in the Major Leagues in 2008 with the Colorado Rockies, and has played professional baseball for 5 organizations (CO Rockies, NY Yankees, PIT Pirates, MN Twins, & TX Rangers) over the past 16 years.
