Florian Bryan (left) has a look at the bat that Allison Coles has just finished sanding. (Nancy Russell/CBC)
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A new business that creates hand-crafted baseball bats, the P.E.I. Bat Company, was inspired by a special request from owner Allison Coles' buddy.
"A fella came in and asked, can I make a bat?" explained Allison Coles, who runs Coles Moulding and Woodworking in North Milton.
That fella was his friend, Florian Bryan, who'd become frustrated with the price of commercially-produced baseball bats after his grandson Caden broke four expensive bats over the season — including two in one game.
Florian Bryan holds the personalized baseball bat created for his grandson Caden. (Nancy Russell/CBC)
"My buddy here is an expert woodcrafter. He's got the brains, he's got the technology, he's got the equipment," said Bryan.
Coles wasn't sure he could fulfill his friend's request, but after doing some research he agreed to give it a try.
"And here we are," Bryan said, waving at the collection of about 50 bats his friend has produced.
So far, Allison Coles has produced about 50 baseball bats at the new P.E.I. Bat Company. (Nancy Russell/CBC)
"We had a piece of piece of wood and I put it on the lathe and started to turn it," explained Coles. "The one that came out, I was very surprised at how it felt and I'm not a baseball person."
"So I said, maybe we have got something here."
Testing for the best wood
One of Coles' biggest challenges has been finding the right kind of wood. He's done his homework, sending samples to the University of New Brunswick's Wood Science and Technology Centre, which tested them for strength and elasticity.
Coles has produced about 50 bats so far using ash, birch, maple and aspen, mostly from Nova Scotia, but he's now looking at P.E.I. wood.
Allison Coles carefully sands a bats in his workshop in North Milton. (Nancy Russell/CBC)
"It's difficult to get what you want," explained Coles. "There's only one or two sawmills left on P.E.I."
Keeping production as inexpensive as possible has been another challenge.
Coles turns his bats one at a time, and each takes about 20 minutes — a process he'd like to reduce to more like five minutes.
"There's growing pains with this," observed Bryan. "The first one will go okay and then the next one won't. It's just typical woodworking."
'Loving every minute of it'
"Just loving every minute of it," said Bryan, who drops by regularly to check on his friend's production line.
He hopes the local baseball community on P.E.I. and across the Maritimes will support the venture.
"I mean we're not going to have Tony Batista's name on it," joked Bryan. "It's just going to be Allison and Florian on it. So it may not have the impact."
Allison Coles turns the pieces of wood one at a time to create the shape of the bat. (Nancy Russell/CBC)
A lower-end, lighter version of the Miltonvale Slugger will sell for around $80, while a higher-end hardwood bat will go for about $100.
Bryan's grandson Caden, who inspired the company, received a personalized bat for Christmas, and gave it a thumbs-up.
"I almost had to forcibly take it from him to sit at the dinner table because he wouldn't take it off his shoulder," he laughed.
