About Wood Rackets
It began with a century of wood
The game of tennis was built with wood rackets. For about the first century of lawn tennis, after the game’s birth in 1874, nearly all rackets were wood.
The matches some consider to be among the greatest Wimbledon finals, almost 50 years ago, the 1980 and 1981 epics between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, were battles between wood rackets.
The famous unplayable serve that John McEnroe hit and protested “You cannot be serious!” when it was called a fault, was hit with a wood racket. That one shot alone perfectly demonstrates the considerable power that wood was and is able to generate.
Lamination - a giant leap
The best tennis rackets at the end of the wood era in the early 1980’s, made by companies like Dunlop, Wilson, Slazenger, Donnay and others, were the products of a century of innovation. A giant leap on that journey was lamination.
Clearly, any frame (or string) needs to be strong enough to withstand the stresses of repeated impacts with the ball. Very early on, racket makers were aware that lamination – multiple strips or veneers of wood glued together – created superior strength compared to a single piece. But at that time the available glues were not sufficiently strong. So for a long time, rackets did consist mainly of a single piece of wood bent to shape. Then, at first for military purposes, much stronger glues were developed. When this happened, lamination in racket manufacture came to the fore.
With lamination possible, the unique properties of different woods became more important. Racket makers experimented widely. Different species - such as ash, beech, hickory, maple, mahogany – all had unique properties of, for example, weight, strength, density, flex and shock absorption, and could be married together in a racket frame in specific combinations and designs.
Added to that, one or more strips or plates of vulcanized fibre or leatheroid, a natural cellulose material, provided still more strength and stability. They often appear on a wood frame as a thin black line.
Today, like some of the most famous rackets of the past, all Grays of Cambridge wood lawn tennis models are made with a 9-ply lamination. The strength, durability and performance of Grays’ construction is proven.
As each batch of timbers is unique, every Grays frame is unique. Grays rackets are hand-made by mastercraftsmen. Crafting each frame is a science and an art.
Sustainability
Since the beginning of this project we have been aware of the environmental aspect that has come sharply into focus in recent decades.
Wood has been described as “the ultimate renewable”. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
The timbers in Grays rackets are grown and processed by Grays. The company operates an extensive tree-planting program.
As climate change advances, we foresee wood’s environmental credentials advancing the relevance and place of all-wood tennis rackets in the market.