The early wood racquets of the 1870’s were often made of one solid piece of timber bent into shape after being submerged in cold water and softened further with steam or boiled water. The timber could then be bent around a shaping block bringing the two end pieces together which would form part of the handle. The throat piece or wedge were often made of harder woods. Given the stress factors applied by the vertical strings and impact during play, wrappings were used to reinforce the throat and many early racquets also have a brass screw holding the joint in place.

Some additional design techniques used included the thicker bow shapes at the throat like the example below from a Harry C Lee Lightning model. The brass throat reinforcement is rarely seen. You can also note the technique of laminating an additional piece of timber over the wedge which is blended into the frame and hidden under the wrappings.

The most preferred timber used was Ash, however may experiments were tried using a range of timbers. Ash when cut along the grain in the correct direction was an easy timber to bend. You can see the grain direction and width of the grain in the photos above. An Australian racquet maker relayed a story that English farmers used to plant a grove of Ash trees for the grandchildren’s inheritance, however as we moved into modern times the practice waned and literally the industry exhausted the supply of Ash forcing it to find alternate sources like Aluminium and steel.