Want to know more about HAMR Bats?  Our Mission Statement can help you out:

The Mission of HAMR Bats is real simple...

"Build baseball bats that would make our founder's Grandad proud of how we did it!?

     But Grandad was almost never fully satisfied... unless you put into it all that you had, never cut corners and "over" engineered whatever you're building!  He was a man that built his homes (yes multiple homes), cabin and barn all with his own two hands, was the co-founder of his community fire-hall, out work guys half his age.  He was also a decorated WWII Navy veteran, ran a barber shop out of his home and built a circular saw mill on his mountain property. 

     It was something to behold - a handset mill, 48" and 56" blades depending on the job, run by an old tractor engine ( I think it was mostly an International engine) he pieced together from 25 or 30 different sources, rails and frame reinforced with steel i-beams.  He ran it for decades and produced I don't know how many thousands of board feet of "true dimension" lumber.  Plus he could out drink and win almost any fight no matter who was dumb enough to go toe to toe with him on either test.  Was the first one on a job site and the last one to stop working - even after out drinking everyone else the night before! 

     As a kid watching how hard he worked our founder imagined his Grandad's hands might be made of steel, then when Grandad "disciplined" the boy he knew for fact and for certain those hands were steel!  A true one of kind man that believed all your tools should be absolutely dependable and last a good long time or they're a waste of time and money. 

     He passed along lessons in simple easy to understand ways ( the only way our founder's hard head could get them) and from the age of about 3 Grandad taught him the Tool Rule, it says: "Any tool misused can be dangerous. And the most important tool ya got is between your ears!" Plus, "When's the best time to fix a problem? - Before it happens.  After that when's best time to fix a mistake? - immediately!"  Grandad was getting at having to use that most important tool the best you can ahead of time, then a long the way if what you'd planned didn't work as well it needed to fix it right then a there.  Keeps ya dependable, accountable and reliable. 

     Even though Grandad ran a saw mill and could make anything he wanted out of cut lumber - he never used a tool with a wood handle that wasn't made of split wood.  Seriously, no axe, pick, hammer (from claw to sledge), post hole digger, log peavy, cant hook, old hookaroon, hatchet, broom, spade, hoe, pitch fork, shovel, rake, wheel barrels handles, etc, etc and especially ladder rungs - all had to be split wood.  Why? Split wood works stronger and is a lot harder to break... simple as that!

HAMR Success Formula:

Step #1 = Use Split Wood... knowledge known and used all over the world for hundreds and hundreds of years

     If ya need proof take yourself to Williamsburg Virginia's Historic Triangle and walk around the museums there and in Yorktown and Jamestown.  Look at the vast majority of the tool handles - yeap, you guessed it - split wood!  Those craftsmen relied on those tools for their living!  Not to mention the split timber stacked fences commonly used all over the colonies and well past the civil war era - see examples at historic battlefields like Antietam, Gettysburg and others.

     Speaking of the Civil War... did you know that soldiers played baseball during the war?  One well known site was along the Potomac River at Williamsport, MD.  July 1861 Union soldiers used a field that's now part of the River Bottom Recreational area and they played in view of confederate soldiers on the southern side of the river.  One Abner Doubleday ( yes thee Abner Doubleday)  may have had a hand in this game.  See pic below.  The bats were of course made from hand turned split lumber, some almost assuredly had started as wagon tongues.  Once too badly worn it was common to use tongue wood for wheel spokes, clubs, shovel handles, axe handles, knife handles and even baseball bats.