So, I bought an Edgar Martinez LVS ash bat a little while ago and while the bat shows obvious use with a good amount of tar, tape, and a few blue marks—the finish is spotless. It was sold to me as light use but it obviously went to the plate a decent number of times since the barrel has a lot of residual tar from his gloves (he grabs the barrel to carry his bat if he strikes/pops out)... But no dents, dings, seam marks, etc.
I noticed immediately that the finish is VERY thick, like a clear coat of plastic, filling the burned in marking and coating them over. It appears to be a "smith finish", some sort of polyurethane that covers the barrel and is sanded off on the barrel end. So thick is almost looks like the bat is wrapped in plexiglass... If I can get a pic that shows how thick it is, I'll post it for reference.
That said, I have a Roberto Alomar bat which I had always thought to be a "smith finish". The same sort of coating filling in the signature and centerbrand with varnish, but it looks nothing near the amount of heavy clear coating this bat has. The varnish on that bat is much thinner and cracking/flaking off in spots. I've also seen Posada & Griffey Jr. bats similar to the Alomar, a thinner version of the coating (but still more that the general bat varnish).
My questions/thoughts are this:
Does the smith finish resist baseball marks for the most part? It seems to do so, at least for a player who isn't crushing the ball. The coating is so thick I could easily imagine hitting rocks and only leaving little nicks in the surface, nevermind a leather baseball.
Does anyone know if the player control how thick this finish can be? Are there variations on how many times it gets dipped into the coating? Sort of like Griffey's bats get dipped twice, but Edgar wanted his bats dipped seven times?
Just thought it was interesting and I could only find a few threads on GUU about this type of finish.
I noticed immediately that the finish is VERY thick, like a clear coat of plastic, filling the burned in marking and coating them over. It appears to be a "smith finish", some sort of polyurethane that covers the barrel and is sanded off on the barrel end. So thick is almost looks like the bat is wrapped in plexiglass... If I can get a pic that shows how thick it is, I'll post it for reference.
That said, I have a Roberto Alomar bat which I had always thought to be a "smith finish". The same sort of coating filling in the signature and centerbrand with varnish, but it looks nothing near the amount of heavy clear coating this bat has. The varnish on that bat is much thinner and cracking/flaking off in spots. I've also seen Posada & Griffey Jr. bats similar to the Alomar, a thinner version of the coating (but still more that the general bat varnish).
My questions/thoughts are this:
Does the smith finish resist baseball marks for the most part? It seems to do so, at least for a player who isn't crushing the ball. The coating is so thick I could easily imagine hitting rocks and only leaving little nicks in the surface, nevermind a leather baseball.
Does anyone know if the player control how thick this finish can be? Are there variations on how many times it gets dipped into the coating? Sort of like Griffey's bats get dipped twice, but Edgar wanted his bats dipped seven times?
Just thought it was interesting and I could only find a few threads on GUU about this type of finish.
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