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The Maple Bat Specialists

Superior Maple From the Start

Most manufacturers work with sawn billets. They're easier to produce, faster to break and get you back sooner. At Viper, we only use hand-split wood billets: which are more labor intensive, harder to break, and have a limited supply. We're banking on your satisfaction and a more environment-friendly approach.

Proven Craftsmanship

Getting the most out of wood has been our sole focus for over 15 years. We do not subsidize them with metal bats, mitts or anything else. They've consistently proven they can stand all on their own.

Wide Selection & Customization

We offer around 150 unique models and compound that with literally hundreds of configurations, ensuring your bat will really be your bat.

Find Your Maple Bat

Our selection can be kind of an intimidating. Want some help figuring out which series is right for you?

Guided Search Browse All

What age group are you shopping for?
(Transition tends to fall around 12-14 years old-- whenever Youth bats are too small and Adult bats are too heavy.)

Adult Youth Transition

Baseball or softball?

Baseball Softball

Do you want something that's all finished and ready to ship, or would you like something you can customize?

Custom Ready to Ship

What quality are you looking for?

Ultra Viper Standard Budget

Why Maple?

A Brief History

Relatively speaking, maple is a newcomer to baseball, first seen in the 1990’s and, at the time, a far cry from the game's main competitor, Ash. It had an inauspicious start, with manufacturers struggling with how to cut it with acceptable consistency.

Model 73 - Maple Wood Bat

Nevertheless, in 2001, when Barry Bonds hit a whopping 73 home runs in a single season with his maple Model 73 lit a fire maple like never before.

Fast forward to 2017 and maple and ash seem to have switched places!

The Trouble With Maple

Maple Billets For Baseball Bats

When it was first introduced, manufacturers found it near-impossible to cut maple with any consistency.

The problem was maple's high moisture content. Traditional kilns could only bring the content to around 15%, leaving lots of room for fluctuation. Then, along came VAC and RF Kilns. With these new technologies, that remaining moisture content was cut in half.

Finally, maple wood billets were open for serious business.

Maple's Nature

The majority of maple bats are made from rock maple or sugar maple. These woods are naturally hard and dense.

  • The surface hardness of maple is about 20% greater than that of ash.
  • Maple's density allows players to use smaller bats that have the same overall weight.
  • Due to being a closed-grain wood, maple is less flexible than ash or birch.
  • Whereas ash has a clearly visible grain, maple is so tight that it's not as easily seen.
  • These characteristics make it so a maple bat will not flake or separate the same way as ash, resulting in a longer lasting, more durable wood bat.

Why Viper Maple?

Sounds like a silly question?

A little. On a basic level, we get the same material as many others. Maybe a little better due to professional pickiness, but it's still maple.

Without giving away too many secrets, we have, over the past 15 or so years, developed specialized instructions and processes to maximize quality. These start all the way back at our mills, carry on through storage where we maintain specific environmental controls, and become exhaustive to the point of obsession once we actually start cutting a bat.

(For those truly interested, we go much more in-depth on this subject in our article on Wood Bat Creation.

Find the Maple Bat Right For You

With just a few general questions, we can narrow down our wide selection to help you find the bats most likely to work for you.

Find My Results Browse All Maple

Maple Bats By Category

Hover over a category to get the details on a series.

APEX Series - Composite Maple Bats
APEX Series

Ultra Durable

Exclusively Maple

Reinforced handle for extreme durability

All APEX come with a 60-Day Warranty

Custom Series - Maple Optional
Custom Series

Custom Adult Bats

Wide selection of standard models

Standard -3 weight

Ideal for most players, thanks to a broad selection of models and customizations.

HD-Series - Always Maple Bats
HD Series

Super High Density Bats

Features high density maple

Density benefits durability and pop

Compact designs aid speed and control

Platinum Series - Always Maple, Ready-to-Ship
Platinum Series

Premade, Fast-Ship

Exclusively Maple, A-Grade or Better.

Beautiful, sleek matte black finish

No waiting. Ready to ship on your order

APEX Softball Bat - Always Maple
APEX Softball Bat

Elite-Quality Softball Bat

Exclusively Maple

Reinforced handle for extreme durability

All APEX come with a 60-Day Warranty

Softball Bats - Maple Optional
Softball Series

View All Wood Softball Bats

4x Knobs for Personalized Grip

Ultralights for Faster, Easier Swings

Softball Blemished Bats - Optionally Maple
Softball Blem

Discounted practice bats

Dropped from production for flaws

Unfinished, not model specific.

Youth Bats - Small Barrel, Optionally Maple
Youth Small Barrel

Little League-Compliant

Made specifically to be Little League-compliant by constraining the size of the barrel.

Hand-split maple for tougher bats, safer breaks

Youth Bats - Big Barrel, Optionally Maple
Youth Big Barrel

Fully-Featured Youth Bats

Extra weight of wood is a great muscle builder.

No barrel size restriction

As faithful as possible to adult counterparts.

High-Grade Blemished Baseball Bats - Always Maple
X-Series

Discounted, Exclusively Maple Blems

These just barely fall short of our standards.

Cupped and given sleek black finish

Standard Blemished Wood Bats - Optionally Maple
XX-Series

Cheap Practice Baseball Bats

Fall short of our standards, not suitable for games

Heavily discounted

Cost less in bulk.