Batmate Test

Atlanta Clay has started carrying an item called a Batmate.  I'd never heard of this so I checked around on line and found a little information.  It's a thin piece of rubber that you wet and then lay between your wheel head and your bat.  It keeps the bat in position even when the holes for the bat pins have worn and the bat is loser than when new.  Most people seem to use a piece of newspaper or clay to help secure the bat when it starts wearing and becomes loose.  I've been doing that but have found little scraps of newspaper in places where I don't want newspaper, or found that the newspaper piece had fallen off before I put the bat on the wheel head.  I usually discover this when I'm centering a large lump of clay.  It's easy to fix but still inconvenient.  The Batmate eliminates that problem.  You just set it in place on the wheel head, put your bat on top of it and go to work.  Yesterday it stayed damp enough to work well all day so I didn't have to think about it again.  I normally use Masonite bats but I did have a plastic bat to test, it holds them both quite well.
I would guess that you could make something like this for a few dollars less from some shelf liner from the local big-box store but the batmate is under $9 at Atlanta clay and I really like having a local clay and tool supplier stay in business so it's totally worth it to me to buy the batmate from them.  I do highly recommend this product.
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