A customer reached out to me recently for a full refurbishment of a cricket bat. Up until this point I had been refurbishing a few bats here and there. These were mostly bats that my friends and were using over the recent seasons. I did a couple of other refurbishments of better known players in New York.
The customer came in one evening with his friend to drop off the bat. The bat had no stickers and no bat rubber. The toe was rough, the bat had a thick layer of oil application which had built up to a shiny finish over time. The bat looked almost reddish yellow. But it had no obvious heavy damage. But what stood out most to me was how old this bat looked to be. This looked at least a decade old. It had a hump on the back, a remnant of the time when cricket manufacturers were experimenting with various shapes of cricket bats. The same era gave us some iconic cricket bats such as the Kookaburra Bubble and Beast, the Gray Nicolls Scoop, Viper, and Xiphos.
Unfortunately, I was not able to find out what the make and model of this bat was. It had not been in use for quite a while. There were shadows of where the original stickers had been but unfortunately the owner was unable to provide any additional information on the bat. The empty weight of the bat at this stage was roughly 2 pounds and 14 ounces. The owner wanted to reduce the weight and improve the pickup.
The edges were already very small, consistent with the bats of this era. The bat face was firmly pressed. Luckily the bat was not exposed to any moisture. I did not find any rot or mold. The refurbishment process was simple enough. Unfortunately, I had to shave away the bump on the back which gave the bat its vintage look along with the small edge shapes. I had great fun working on this bat. Always appreciate seeing these bats. Possibly one of the best era of batmaking. The embodiment of “they don’t make ’em like that anymore.”
The final weight of the bat was about 2 pounds 13 ounces with the rubber grip, stickers and bat face installed. I wish I could have brought it back to its original look. But I was unable to find any information on the bat. Nevertheless, I am happy with the end product. This bat will still play better than a lot of the new bats in the market right now.
