Sticks: Maple or Hickory?

I used to use oak sticks for their durability, but they tended to fly out of my hands the very moment any sweat appeared. I seem to be able to grip hickory sticks a lot better. Hickory sticks have come a long way since the 60's & 70's. During that period, I used Ludwig hickory sticks - WAAAAAHH !! Sometimes I would break one with the first strike !!
 
Having recently toured the Louisville Slugger factory, the tour guide (who makes bats for Major Leaguers) highly recommends against maple bats because when they break, they splinter and send shrapnel everywhere. Ash, Hickory, and Oak are clean breaking woods.

You bat a lot of tomatoes and and beer cans back into the audience, do you? Remind me not to play those venues.
 
I wouldn't be able to tell you the type of wood in most of the sticks I use. I do know for sure that one of my favorites is Zildjian's Heavy Jazz sticks and they're made from laminated birch. I wear the shoulders down on these sticks, but I never broke one.

Other manufacturers I use or used are Hornet, Vic Firth, Vater and Pro Mark. All mostly in a 7A or 5A.

Dennis
 
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