Laver & Wood’s Cricket Bat Lore Ch 20. The Weather & Bat Making
Humidity & Batmaking
At Laver & Wood we make all our bats by hand, and this means with the traditional hand tools used by batmakers’ from two hundred years ago. Draw knives and two types of planes are the main tools we use to shape bats, and all these require energy and strength.

A Laver & Wood Signature being numbered.
When we have a wet day, or a humid day, making bats becomes difficult. When our humidity monitor is reading over 65% we know it is going to be a tough day on the planes. Humid weather is energy sapping, and shaping bats with planes on these days is really hard work. Usually we spend a humid day fitting up bats, sharpening tools, doing maintenance and repairs and setting up for when the humidity lowers to an acceptable level.
To find out more about how Laver & Wood make cricket bats to our customers’ specifications please purchase Laver & Wood’s Cricket Bat Lore Volume I from Amazon.
More Laver & Wood Cricket Bat Lore chapter introductions can be found below.
6. Grain Structure & Willow Colour
8. Laver & Wood’s Guide to Cricket Bat Handles
10. Handle Breakage
13. The Coefficient of Restitution and Centre of Percussion – What are these?
14. The Importance of Pressing Cricket Bat Willow
16. Tools used in Traditional Batmaking I
17. Tools used in Traditional Batmaking II
18. Tools used in Traditional Batmaking III
19. Tools used in Traditional Batmaking IV
22. Bat Repair and Maintenance
23. Knocking In
24. Oiling Bats
25. Moisture Damage
28. Why Bats Break & How to Protect Them