How to knock in a cricket bat: hours, mallet and the edge test

What knocking in does for a new bat

A new English willow bat comes off the press with soft fibres on the face and edges. The first hard ball that strikes an unprepared face leaves a dent, and a run of dents turns into a crack. Knowing how to knock in a cricket bat is the difference between a blade that lasts three seasons and one that splits in its first month.

Knocking in compresses the top layer of willow into a firm skin. The middle of the face gets harder, the edges round off, and the toe stops splintering when it meets a yorker. It is slow work with a mallet, done at a table, and nobody can hurry it.

Kashmir willow is denser and needs less. Two to three hours is enough. English willow bats in the higher grades have more open grain and need the full treatment described below. The grade on the sticker does not shorten the hours. Softer willow pings better, and softer willow needs more work.

If the bat has a bare face, follow the maker's note on oil the day before you start. A bat with a face sheet skips that step and goes straight to the mallet.

How many hours to give it

Plan on six to eight hours for a full-size English willow bat. Spread that over a week or two. One hour a day is better than one long Sunday, because the fibres settle between sessions and a dent you missed shows up the next morning.

A bat sold as pre-knocked has usually had one to two hours on a machine. Treat that as a head start, not a finished job. Give it another four hours by hand.

A junior bat in sizes 4 to 6 needs four to five hours. The face is smaller, but the willow is the same, and a junior cricketer will take it straight to a hard ball.

Keep a count. Write the hours on a strip of tape on the back of the handle. When the tape says eight, do the edge test below.

The mallet to pick

Use a wooden bat mallet, not a hammer and not a rubber one. A bat mallet has a round hardwood head, usually domed to the shape of a ball, on a short handle. The head weighs around 400 to 500 grams, which is close to a match ball with enough extra mass to compress the fibre with a gentle tap.

A rubber mallet bounces off and does little. A carpenter's hammer has a narrow face and leaves marks. A ball in a sock works for the last hour, but it cannot shape the edges.

Wooden mallets sit around ₹350 to ₹600 at MRP. Pick one with a smooth, unvarnished head, because varnish flakes off onto the face. If the head has a flat side and a domed side, the dome is for the edges and the flat is for the face.

The first two hours: light taps on the face

Lay the bat face up across your knees or on a folded towel on a table. Hold the mallet near the head so the swing is short. Tap the middle of the face, moving in slow lines from the splice to the toe. Each tap should sound dull, not sharp, and leave no visible mark.

Stay at least two centimetres in from the edges for the first two hours. Do not touch the splice or the shoulders, where the handle enters the blade. That area is glue and cane, and a mallet there loosens it.

Pace is about one tap a second. Thirty minutes of this is tiring on the wrist, and that is a fair session.

After two hours the face should feel slightly harder under your thumbnail and look a shade duller where you have worked. If it still dents under a firm press of the mallet, stay with light taps for another hour.

Working the edges and the toe

From the third hour, bring the mallet to the edges. Hold the dome at roughly 45 degrees and roll it along the edge so the corner begins to round. You are not trying to flatten the edge or widen the face. You are closing the pores on the corner where an edge catch lands.

Work both edges equally, about two hundred taps a side per session. The toe gets the same treatment but gentler, because the toe is end grain and splits most easily. Tap the toe along its front face, never on the bottom.

Increase the force slowly from the fourth hour. By hour six a tap should carry about the weight of a firm knock on a door. Never swing from the elbow. If a tap leaves a mark deeper than a pencil line, you have gone too hard, so return to lighter taps on that area.

Leave the back of the bat alone. It takes no ball and needs no work.

The ball-on-the-edge test

This is the check that tells you when the hours are done. Take an old leather ball that has already been through a few nets. A new ball is too hard and will mislead you.

Hold the bat by the handle with the face toward you. Press the ball firmly into the middle of the face. Then press it against each edge, and then against the toe. Use the kind of force you would use to push a drawing pin into a soft board.

Look at the willow where the ball sat. A seam mark that fades in a minute means the surface is ready. A dent you can feel with a fingertip means that area needs another hour. An edge that shows a clean line where the seam pressed is not round enough, so give it another two hundred taps.

Once the ball leaves nothing on the face or edges, drop it from shoulder height onto the face a dozen times. No dents means the face is done.

A hanging ball on a string is a good last stage. Fifteen minutes of soft defensive shots against a hanging ball gets the face used to a moving object before a net session, without the risk of a bowler's full pace.

The first nets and the first season

The first proper session should be against old balls, with throwdowns rather than fast bowling. Short-arm defensive shots only, for one hour. Check the face for dents afterwards and give any mark two hundred more taps.

The second session can be a full net with old balls. After that the bat is ready for a match ball. Keep it away from wet ground and out of a car boot in summer heat. Both soften the willow faster than any bowler.

Expect a small crack across the toe or a hairline on the face at some point in the first season. Neither ends the bat. Light surface cracking can be sanded and taped at home. A deep crack on an edge, or one running toward the splice, is work for a repair shop.

A hardwood bat mallet from the cricket mallets page ships prepaid or cash on delivery across India, and the bat is ready for its first ball about a fortnight after it lands.