Cricket bat

Cricket bats are made in two pieces: the handle and the blade.

The handle is a composite of laminated layers of various materials. Top quality bats are made with Sarawack cane (Calamus sarawakensis) and fiberglass or carbon fiber; in the past rubber was used with the cane. In less expensive bats regular cane is used. One end of the handle is cut into a long V-taper that is spliced into a corresponding V-notch in the blade.

The blade is almost always made from willow, and must be made of wood. In top quality bats this is always a particular species of white willow or English willow (Salix alba v. caerulea) also called, fittingly, cricket bat willow; in lesser quality bats Kashmir willow is used (which is the same species as English willow, but the different growing conditions affect its quality). Willow has the distinct properties of being tough but very light which makes it the ideal material for such a large blade (English willow is the lighter variety of the two).

The handle is glued into the blade, and then twine is tightly wound around the handle to securely bind the laminations together. Finally, a rubber sleeve is pulled over the handle.

Bats can be no more than 38 inches long, and the blade no more than 4.25 inches wide and 2.64 inches deep. The weight is usually between 2lb 7oz and 3lb (1.2 to 1.4 kg), though there is no specified weight. Modern bats are heavier than older ones because of the desire for the extra weight needed to make more boundaries. Donald Bradman used a 2lb 2oz bat. (My bat is 2lb 8oz and 33¼ in long.)

After the bat is complete, a knocking-in process is used with a special mallet to compress the fiber of the blade. This makes it tougher and more resilient. Finally the blade is oiled or waxed to protect it and to help maintain proper moisture content. The Gray Nichols knocking-in mallet shown below has a removable handle which serves as a tool to aid the installation of the rubber grip on the handle.

Gray Nichols knocking-in mallet

WikiHow has detailed information on cricket bat maintenance.

The major commercial bat manufacturers are DSC, Gray Nichols, Gunn & Moore, Kookaburra, Slazenger, Salix, Sanspareils Greenlands, and Spartan. There are also custom bat manufacturers usually catering to professionals, such as DKP of England and Laver & Wood of New Zealand.

Sources: SixesCricket.com