Anyone know how to straighten an original hartland bat?
 

I bought a box from an estate titled linens and baseball men and was pleasantly surprised to find five hartlands with 3 original bats. Two of bats are badly bent I am sure from years of leaning against a box. I am hoping there is a way to straighten these out. Any ideas.

Hartland bats
 

Hi Mark:

Long time no talk. Hope all is well with you and yours!

Are we assuming the three bats you got in the estate sale are for the statues you got in the same group? It looks like you got 2 Musial's, a Williams and an Aaron correct?

The reason I ask is that the original Babe Ruth bat came with a little "crook" in it so it would stay in the hole of his hand. The Ruth bat is the only one that "goes down" meaning it hits the floor where all the others go up in the air out of the players hand. So the bat would better stay in Ruth's hands they put the "crook" in.

From what I can see from your photo yours MAY be a little more pronounced than the Ruth bat, but can't tell for sure. Would you say the two in question were large bats or small ones? What is the length from the wide tip of the bat to where the "crook" starts?

I'd be sure it was not a Ruth bat before you try to straighten them out as the original Ruth bats are harder to find.

The other one is Willie Mays. No idea regarding the bats.

The bat with severe bend came from the Ted Williams figure and the other from a Musial. I believe it is considered a short bat..

Now that I look at them again they are the same length so they are probably both normal bats. My set is in storage in Georgia so I can’t compare to my known short bat. I assume these bats are original to the statues they were found with, but I thought Musial took a short bat.

straighten a Hartland bat
 

If you still want to straighten your bats here are a few ideas. But don't blame me if anything goes wrong! :)

First pour some boiling water in a small mug about half way full. Hold the top end and dip the bent end into the boiling water. Leave it in for a little while and take it out to see if it more pliable where you can carefully straighten it out. You may have to "dip" a few times.

Second way is to heat it with a hair dryer. Again when it gets heated enough you should be able to return it to the desired shape.

Good Luck. Let us know how you make out if you decide to give it a go.

They aren’t perfect, but I think they turned out pretty good. The one that was bent badly turned out way better than I expected and best of all they didn’t break.

Vastly improved without breaking. I'd call it a success.

Hartland bats
 

They look great!!

So which method did you use?

I put them in hot water then put weight on them for several hours

Nice results!

I personally think some of these bats (beyond Ruth) were bent from the very beginning, so yours are well within the range of normalcy.

Great work!

Hartlands
 

Saw this post and will try! Thanks.