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Bat shaving is a bat modification that decreases the thickness of a bat’s inner barrel. The end cap is removed and a digital precision lathe “shaves” the inside of the barrel. The decrease of alloy or composite material allows the barrel to flex more at the point of impact, which translates to greater batted ball speed. The greater ball speed can add 40-50 feet with shaving alone, add bat rolling prior to shaving and that number goes up even higher.
There are many people who open up a bat and shave the inside with a drill hone (or drum sander). A hone will create “hot spots” and “dead spots” through out the shaved barrel. A hot spot is where the spot is shaved too much and the barrel will flex more. This sounds good because we want more flex for more distance, right? Not exactly, the hot spot will cause a weak spot on the barrel and increase the chance of cracking significantly. There are predetermined widths for bat shaving, which test the limits of the bat as far as strength and durability. Sanding past these limits will cause your bat to break prematurely. The dead spots are just the opposite of hot spots; they cause the bat to flex less, which causes a decrease in distance. A bat straight from the factory will often have inconsistencies of 5-10 thousands of an inch along the barrel already. The precision lathing of your bat will actually create the most accurate wall available. A constant wall allows the bat to have the same flex around the bat for increased distance and better durability (remember, a shaved bat is less durable). The main point is that sanding the inside of a barrel will never be consistent or precise, only a lathe can do that. Most people who shave on EBay (and even some on the internet) utilize a drill hone (drum sander); this is why you will see cheap prices on EBay for shaving services. The lathe should have a digital read out to lessen the chance of inaccuracies. One pass through the lathe is not as accurate as taking out material in 2-3 passes. It would be like using coarse grit sand paper as opposed to a fine grit sand paper. The fine grit will take longer but it produces a better product. When the bat is taken out of the lathe it will have lost 1-2 ounces of material depending on the manufacturer of the bat (different bats have different specifications). That weight needs to be put back into the bat at the handle and end cap, an extra amount can usually be put into the cap for an end load. If you did not know, all manufacturers create their barrels to weigh the same. They put metal weight into the handle and extra resin into the end cap to weight the bat anywhere from 26 ounces to 30 ounces. After the weight is added back the end cap is put back on using the correct glue, substandard glue could result in the end cap separating and even popping off.

Bat Shaving

Shaving Alloy/Aluminum Bats

Seems like a pretty simple question until we dig a little deeper. The quick answer is yes and after that comes the “but”. Very few bat shavers will shave Alloy bats (this is to include aluminum when alloy is mentioned). This is not to say they cannot perform this service they simply understand the physics of the process.
  
 When a ball hits a bat the walls of the bat flex to propel the ball, the wall then returns to the original shape. Composite bats are proven to withstand more flex than alloy bats and therefore more strength on the surface area where the impact of the ball strikes. The flex of a composite bat has the potential to be far greater than that of an alloy bat because the composite is far stronger. Composite fibers flex and return to shape with little adverse effects to the integrity of the bat. On the other hand, alloy bats are not as strong and the same amount of flex will dent the bat because the alloy material will not allow the bat to flex back into shape. Bat manufactures have created alloy bats that will withstand the impact of repeated ball striking by making the walls a specific thickness. Alloy bats will dent after a period of time as the material becomes more malleable after repeated ball striking. Composite bats have been proven to last longer with the same amount of impacts and the same wall thickness. This was great for people who purchased bats because they stretched their dollar with increased life of a bat. A caveat to the longer life was greater distance. The resin in between the composite fibers would break up and increase the flex of the bat, which increased distance. Baseball and softball associations realized this increase in distance and started to require bat manufactures to take action to decrease batted ball speed at the peak of a bats performance.
  
 Although it is illegal in all associations to do, people can still get their bats shaved to increase performance. Getting back to the “but” I spoke of earlier. An alloy or aluminum bat just is not as strong as a composite bat; therefore, when an alloy bat is shaved the flex of the alloy material cannot match that of a composite bat. The alloy bat is unable to perform even close to that of a composite bat, yielding minimal distances gained from shaving. Another problem is durability of the alloy after the walls have been decreased from bat shaving. The thinner walls means the bats will flex more but the dent/crack point tolerance will increase. The couple of bat shavers who perform bat shaving on alloy bats will shave out minimal amounts of material from the walls of the bat to try to increase durability. And here lies the catch 22 with alloy bats. If you shave out a small amount from the barrel there is not a noticeable difference in distance but if you shave enough to gain 5-20 feet of distance the integrity of the alloy is gone and the bat will undoubtedly dent quickly. What does this mean exactly? A shaved alloy or aluminum bat will dent or crack in a very short period of time and if the bat has been shaved and it does not dent or crack there will be almost no increase in distance. These facts are why almost all bat shavers will not shave alloy bats. If they shave the bat to gain performance they will have an upset customer with a broken bat. Also, if the bat shaver only shaves out enough material so that there is increased durability the customer is upset because there was not a noticeable gain in distance. It would seem thatsome bat shavers want to hoodwink their customers with the promise of making good hitters great by shaving alloy or aluminum bats.