Optical Glass Crystal Baseball Bat

I first got the idea for the Crystal Baseball Bat™ in 1999 after seeing the poor quality of a hand-blown glass variations by some local Seattle glassblowers. These local artists had mastered their glassblowing skills; however, the actual quality of the glass they work is inferior to the glass that is in each Crystal Baseball Bat. Appropos to the subject, premium glass made in the USA was selected. Because the optical glass I work with is the finest glass made in the world I knew I could do much better. However, I could not shape this optical glass with heat, which is the way glassblowers work. I would have to actually grind down the surface to the desired shape and size while polishing the surface to perfect clarity.

I start off the grinding process with a 3" diameter, 36" long, 30 lb optical crystal blank that is manufactured in Pennsylvania. I then turn the optical glass blank down with a glass lathe that I personally created for the manufacture of the Crystal Baseball Bat.

With the custom glass lathe I can then shape the size of each Crystal Baseball Bat to the same dimensions as the wooden bat of the customer’s own personal bat. Most MLB wooden bats are from 32”-34” long and weigh about 2lbs. While the Crystal Baseball Bat has those same dimensions, it weighs in at around 8lbs.

Because of the inherent fragility and delicacy of working with optical glass, extreme caution must be used throughout the whole grinding process so that there is virtually no room for error throughout any of the 16 separate stages and over 2 months of painstaking work that is all a part of creating a Crystal Baseball Bat. Once the Crystal Baseball Bat is completely finished, the exceptional properties are delightfully exhibited within its beautifully transparent nature.

Each Crystal Baseball Bat is custom designed to not only match the owner’s own wooden bat size and shape but also to personalize it with their own trademark, etched on the outside surface. The ultimate personalization comes when they choose to have a custom-designed image or logo, laser engraved on the inside of the barrel of the baseball bat. This is another labor intensive process that is completely separate and must happen before beginning the grinding process, which results in a stunning 3-D image/logo floating inside the Crystal Baseball Bat.

Go to the Crystal Baseball Bat page.