Types of Wood

Tamo - Northern Japan *Ring Porous Wood


80% of Tamo is concentrated in Hokkaido. The materials found in Mt. Hidaka, Hokkaido is the best in the world. Tamo resembles the White Ash, but the grain is more suited for baseball bats than White Ash. It is more flexible and stronger at an impact. It’s unbreakable because of its supreme flexibility compare to other woods.

Until the year of 2000, 90% of the bat used among Japanese players was made of Tamo. But due to the deforestation, Tamo is now very rare species. The usage of the materials has changed from Tamo to Maple.

We at Hakusoh, (compared to other companies) still have enough stocks of the rare Tamo woods to supply the pro-ball players in Japan, SHOHEI OHTANI being one of them!!!


Hard Maple – Northern America *Diffuse Porous Wood


North-Eastern part of the U.S. and Eastern Canada provides good materials of Maples. Sam Bat company was first to use Maple for baseball bats. Barry Bonds, the home run king, used it and made the use of Maple famous.

Now, most players around the world are using Maple. We think that Maple bats made “Fly Ball Revolution” possible.

White Ash – North America *Ring Porous Wood


It is been used for many years and is the oldest materials. The texture of White Ash is fragile and easy to break, but the resilience of the bat is great after impact. Wood warping is unusual compare to Maple.

Birch – North America *Diffuse Porous Wood


It is a new material with similar characteristics of Tamo and Ash. Birch is suitable for players who hit the balls in the direction they want. Good material for a GAP HITTER.

About 2005, MLB has officially permitted Birch as a new material for baseball bat.

Yachi – Northern Japan *Ring Porous Wood


Having coarse grain compared to other materials, it was painted with resins and compressed to avoid cracks. Sadaharu Oh, ex-Japanese Pro-ball player was a fan of this Yachi wood. For some reason, this compressed bat processing was banned officially in the NPB (Nippon Professional Baseball Organization).

Hakusoh made it possible for little league and college players to use this material with the 70 years of bat production history.

Bamboo – Taiwan *Diffuse Porous Wood


Bamboo is also one of the popular materials used to make bats. It is cut and glued together and shaped into a baseball bat. Bamboo is very hard to break and it is often used with Maple to make composite bats combined.

Ho (Japanese Magnolia) – Northern Japan *Diffuse Porous Wood


Ho has been used to make fungo bats for a long time, because of its light and flexible characteristics. It is also used for composite fungo. Due to its softness however, it tends to indent at impact.
During the SAMURAI period, this traditional wood has been used as a scabbard for the Japanese sword!!

Sina – Northern Japan *Diffuse Porous Wood


Sina is similar to Magnolia as it is very light in weight, soft and has beautiful white appearance and is also suitable for fungo bat.
Hakusoh is now producing Drop 6 youth composite bat using Sina as a main material. Presently it’s on sale.

Hakusoh imports raw materials from various countries, such as U.S.A, Canada and Taiwan. In this page, we introduced some of the materials that are popularly used in Japan but not found in the U.S.A.


Hakusoh is still searching for new and better materials.