Molding Instructions

Your Custom Bat Starts Here

The Original Rayline 1 is a custom wood baseball bat built around the way you actually hold it.

Using your hand-shaped grip impression, we create a custom handle geometry designed to match the way your fingers, palm, and swing naturally interact with the bat. The custom handle is not a sleeve, wrap, or add-on. It becomes part of the bat itself.

To build that handle, we first need to capture the shape and orientation of your grip. That’s what the Fit Kit is for.

The Fit Kit

The Fit Kit is an at-home molding system that lets you create a physical impression of how you naturally hold a bat.

Once your impression is complete, let it air dry for a couple days, then send it back to Rayline. We laser scan the impression, process the geometry, and apply it directly to the handle of your selected bat model and configuration.

What’s Inside

Mold Base + Handle Core

The mold base and handle core give you a consistent reference while you create your grip impression. This helps preserve the position, scale, and orientation of your hand shape when we scan it.

Grip Impression Clay

The clay captures the physical details of your grip: finger placement, palm pressure, grip angle, and the shape your hand naturally wants around the handle.

Return Instructions

Your kit includes instructions for packing and shipping your completed impression safely back to Rayline for scanning.

Step 1: Prepare the Clay

Open the grip impression clay only when you’re ready to use it.

Use the handle core like a rolling pin to flatten the clay into a sheet. Then wrap the clay around the handle core so there is about 1/4 inch of material around the grip area.

If the clay does not want to stick to itself, lightly wet your fingers and wipe the areas that need to bond. A small amount of moisture will help the clay adhere to itself and to the core.

Do not soak the clay. Use just enough water to help the surface tack together.

Step 2: Form Your Grip

Once the clay is wrapped around the handle core, grip it like you would grip a bat.

Squeeze firmly to capture the shape of your hands, fingers, and palm. The goal is not to make the clay look perfect. The goal is to capture how your hand naturally wants to hold the bat.

You can shape the knob by squeezing the clay while pressing the bottom of the handle core down onto a table. This pushes extra clay toward the bottom of the core, allowing you to form a knob shape that feels natural in your hand.

Step 3: Fine-Tune the Shape

Take a few dry swings with the mold in your hands.

Pay attention to how the grip feels. If something feels too sharp, bulky, thin, or awkward, adjust it while the clay is still workable.

The clay will remain malleable for about 24 hours, depending on temperature and humidity. You can come back every few hours to make small adjustments as it begins to firm up.

As the clay dries, it becomes easier to refine the final shape without accidentally deforming the whole impression.

Important: Mark the Grain Direction

Before the mold fully dries, you must mark the swing orientation using the Grain Indicator.

This tells us how you intend to hold and swing the bat.

For maple bats, grain orientation matters. The bat should be made so the ball strikes the proper face grain at contact. Align the Grain Indicator so it points toward the pitcher at the moment of contact.

If you do not mark the grain direction, we will have to estimate the orientation.

Step 4: Let the Mold Dry

Once the shape feels right and the Grain Indicator has been marked, let the mold air dry.

Allow it to dry for a couple days before packing it for return. Drying time can vary depending on temperature, humidity, and how thick the clay is.

Do not bake the mold. Do not use a heat gun. Let it air dry naturally.

Step 5: Send It Back to Rayline

Once your grip impression is dry, pack it according to the included return instructions and ship it back to us.

Keep the impression attached to the mold base and handle core. This helps protect the shape and gives us the reference geometry we need to scan it accurately.

Step 6: Laser Scanning

After we receive your Fit Kit, we laser scan your grip impression in-house.

From there, we process the scan geometry and combine it with your selected bat model, finish, and configuration.

This is where your Rayline 1 begins to take shape.

Step 7: Computer-Controlled Carving

Once the custom handle design is finalized, your bat is cut using computer-controlled carving accurate to less than 0.01 inch.

The bat is then hand-finished according to your selected options.

Your custom grip is not added onto the bat afterward. It is built directly into the handle.

The result is The Original Rayline 1 — a custom bat shaped from the way you hold it.