Are birch bats better than maple bats?
Birch bats have their advantages since they offer the best of both maple and ash. They flex more than maple, but don’t flex as much as ash bats. Birch bats are closer in strength to maple and fall between maple and ash in terms of density.
What is the best wood for baseball bats?
Ash wood is light but still very strong, and it’s been a favorite of tons of baseball players throughout the years. One of the main differences between maple and ash is that while maple is very firm and doesn’t have a lot of “give,” ash is a lot more flexible and therefore more comfortable to many players.
Do Ash bats snap easily?
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. This hard hitting imported wood does not flake like ash and out-performs maple.
What is the difference between Ash and maple baseball bats?
Maple bats allow for the best inside pitch protection and are easy to engrave because the grain is less visible on the bat. Ash bats, on the other hand, which are usually the Northern white ash type, have very visible grains and allow batters to swing much faster, which is likely because it is a lighter bat.
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.
Whats better ash or maple?
While ash is light and dense enough for bat-making, maple is dense and light enough for bat making. Don't blow your mind over that brain buster. Simply put, maple is heavier and also much denser. Maple, while heavier, is a harder wood than ash, yet not too heavy to swing.
What type of wood is best for a wood bat?
Overall, over the course of the last 20 years, Maple bats have emerged as the most popular species of wood used by players at the major league level. This is due to the hardness, durability, and overall performance of the wood. Maple bats make up approximately 75% to 80% of all bats used at the major league level.
Is maple good for wood bats?
Pros: Maple is a very dense wood, which tends to make it one of the best species to use for wood bats. Density is directly related to hardness and durability. The denser the wood used to make a bat, the more durable a bat will be and the more pop it will have. Also, maple is a diffuse-porous wood (close-grain).
What type of wood bat has the most pop?
Maple batsWhich wood bats have the most pop? Maple bats have the most pop because they are denser and harder than other types of wood bats. Other types of wood bats, such as ash, are less dense which makes them less durable and gives them less pop.
Do ash bats break easily?
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.
Are maple bats stronger than ash?
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 ash wood good for baseball bats?
Ash wood bats are the lightest and softest of all the wood bats. Ash bats also provide the most forgiveness and flexibility, making them an excellent choice for any younger baseball player needing to swing a wood bat.
What wood bats do MLB players use?
Wood baseball bats used in Major League Baseball are generally made from one of three types of wood: maple, birch, or ash. Each one has its own benefits and drawbacks, making it important for players to choose the right make for them. Maple wood is the most popular.
Whats better for a wood bat maple or birch?
Many players say that a Birch Bat is the perfect mix of a Maple Bat and an Ash Bat, because it has the hardness of Maple, but the flex of Ash. However, it's really not that simple. Birch definitely has more flex than Maple, but it doesn't compare to the flex of Ash.
Is an ash tree a maple?
Next, you'll have to differentiate between Maple and Ash by looking at the leaves. Maple trees have the classic Maple leaf shape (think Canada's flag). So if you see the opposite branching pattern, but it has these leaves, you can rest assured it's a Maple tree, not an Ash. Ash trees feature compound leaf patterns.
How can you tell the difference between ash and maple syrup?
Ash trees have robust twigs to support dense clusters of leaflets. Maple trees have individual leaves supported by delicate twigs. A tree with opposite growing branches and big, fat twigs is likely an ash. Trees with opposite growing branches and thin, delicate twigs are probably maples.
What is the difference between maple and birch wood?
Birch is a light brown wood with a honey finish whereas maple is naturally much lighter. The differences are much harder to spot once they are coated with a wood finish because maple can be stained easily to mimic a variety of other woods and colors.
Which is harder, ash or birch?
Birch is tougher than ash, and more flexible than maple. This hard hitting imported wood does not flake like ash and out-performs maple. A lighter wood, birch allows athletes to swing larger barreled bats through the hitting zone.
What happens when you hit an ash bat?
When a ball is hit with an ash bat, there is a trampoline effect. The ball doesn't just jump off; it first compresses the wood, then like a spring board it leaves with much more force than maple. This spring board effect is one of ash's greatest strengths and weaknesses.
What is composite bat?
Composite wood bats are typically some combination of different wood types that have been fused together to make a more durable bat. For this reason composite bats will last the longest, and will also be among the most expensive wood bats.
Why is maple so popular?
The harder the surface, the faster the ball will jump off the bat. This is one of the reasons maple has become so popular - that and the fact that Barry Bonds and other big league sluggers swing maple. Maple is a closer grained hard wood than ash. The grain is not as easy to see as it is with ash.
Do ash bats snap?
The flex of an ash bat will appear to have a larger sweet spot. 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.
Which is better, a maple bat or an ash bat?
More energy is transferred to the ball, and the extra power that comes from maple bats versus ash bats translates into about 10-15 extra feet of distance. Due to maple’s strength, a maple bat is better at handling those miss-hits ...
What Is the Difference Between Ash and Maple Bats?
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. Read on to discover how these differences could affect your performance.
What bat has the smallest sweet spot?
Maple has the smallest sweet spot (the prime hitting area along the barrel). Maple bats have anywhere from a 1-2” smaller sweet spot area. Maple is also not ideal for the batter who miss-hits off the barrel end. Because maple is such a dense wood, a maple bat does not flex as well as an ash bat. That flex, found most in ash bats, is what allows ...
What wood is better for engraving ash bats?
For looks, the nice smooth grain structure makes engraving and colors jump off maple bats. Ash has a much grainier wood structure than maple, so engraving fill-in colors tend to soak in to the pores in ash bats much easier.
Why does a maple bat not flex?
Because maple is such a dense wood, a maple bat does not flex as well as an ash bat. That flex, found most in ash bats, is what allows the shock–produced from hitting off the barrel end–to escape. On a maple bat, that shock may travel down the bat to the handle (the weakest part of the bat), which is where you will see the break.
What are the shortcomings of ash bats?
Another shortcoming of ash bats is that they aren’t as forgiving when hit on the wrong "side" of the bat. When hit on the side of the engraving, or opposite, an ash bat can flake apart.
What bat to use for a jammed ball?
So, if you tend to get jammed, more so than any other miss-hit, a maple bat is your best bet. In game, a maple wood bat gives the best feeling of crushing the ball. The unmistakable crisp loud “pop” when the ball is hit solid will turn heads.
Maple Bats
Maple (the rock maple or sugar maple type) is popular with pros for several reasons. It is a robust and dense wood that doesn’t have much give or flex. Its density correlates with its hardness and durability – denser wood makes the bat harder to break and transfers more energy upon impact, sending the ball much farther on hits.
Birch Bats
Birch is becoming a lot more commonplace – For instance, Raleigh native and former MVP Josh Hamilton and Mark Trumbo both use birch bats. Would its growing use mark the beginning of the end for maple? Possibly.
Bamboo
Technically, Bamboo isn’t a wood bat material but a type of grass. And since the inside of Bamboo is hollow, a bamboo bat is made by pressing several bamboo strips into long/rectangular billets. These billets are then fashioned into the shape of a baseball bat.
Composite wood bats
Composite wood bats blend two or more wood bat materials fused to make some of the most durable wood bats you can buy. They are also some of the most expensive wood bats on the market.
European Beech Bats
Beech isn’t a popular wood bat material, but neither was maple. European Beech is a potential game-changer. It is denser and packs more flex than ash, maple, or Birch. European Beech, in this case, is better since American Beech is slightly heavier.
Maple vs. Ash
While maple is fairly hard, with a maximum Janka hardness rating of 1,180 lb f (black maple), ash is yet harder. Some species of ash are extremely hard like blue ash which has a Janka rating of 2,030 lb f, even harder than some species of oak.
Maple vs. Ash: Appearance
Maple wood is well-known for its pale, whitish color and tight, even grain. You will not see pores visible in the wood like other woods, and the surface is overall smooth. Maple tends to become yellow over time. Sometimes curl or figuring can also be seen, and spalting is a prized phenomenon in this species.
Maple vs. Ash: Durability
We consider both kinds of wood non-durable, but between maple and ash, the latter is less durable. It is because of the susceptibility of attack by the emerald ash borer. If used for indoor purposes, maple and ash are equally durable, especially with a suitable finish.
Maple vs. Ash: Price
Maple is one of the most sought-after woods in the United States after perhaps walnut, cherry, oak, and mahogany. It is moderately priced but hard maple is the most expensive. The price tag increases considerably with figured maple wood.
Maple vs. Ash: Sustainability
If you are looking for a sustainable type of wood, maple is one of the best options. These trees grow abundantly in the United States and are harvested sustainably. It is far more sustainable than woods like mahogany. Maple is not listed as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List or the CITES Appendices.
Maple vs. Ash: Uses
The most popular use of maple is for making furniture. The wood’s natural resilience makes it a practical choice in moldings. We also use it for butcher blocks and hard maple makes some of the best pool cues and baseball bats in the land.
Maple vs. Ash: Comparison Table
Both maple and ash are two of the popular types of wood in use in the United States today. We compare them to other premium woods like mahogany and oak. But unlike maple and ash, there is limited availability of these two kinds of wood, especially mahogany. Maple and ash are both readily available and reasonably priced.
Where to store maple wood baseball bats?
Many players will store either a maple or ash wood baseball bat in climate controlled areas, or large humidors. Although ash is also affected by these same climate changes, the end result does not seem to be as drastic.
How does climate affect maple bats?
Climate conditions also affect the performance of both the maple and ash baseball bats. In cold climates maple has a tendency to “explode” at the point of contact. During the summer months increased humidity levels will affect weight and flexibility as well.
Is maple harder than ash?
The surface area of maple is approximately 4% harder than that of ash. You will notice while hitting with ash bats that the barrel will have a tendency to groove similar to a golf club head. This result is in direct correlation to the wood fiber, grain, and cell structure. Ash is a more porous and open grain wood meaning that when under compression, it will begin to flake and separate. Maple with its added density and closed grain will compact under the same conditions which will result in the presence of “lace marks”.
