bat design for 9 year old.

Hi Guys

Looking for some advice on bat design for my 9-year-old son.  He plays regularly at local club level (opening bat and bowler :) (Sorry proud father). Presently he uses a Woodworm Torch size 4, slightly moded to shorten and bring the weight lower down the bat.  Thing is the bat sounds hard (sorry if that’s the wrong term) and doesn’t seem to give much power, great for placement shots but the thing is at the level and age group he’s playing in all balls are relatively slow and gaps between fielders on the small pitch are very small.  My thinking is a bit more weight would help him get out to the boundaries a lot easier.  I’m sure he can easily handle the extra weight as he’s quite stocky and doesn’t get beaten for pace even when playing with 15 year olds.

What I’ve done is mod up an old bat to the same weight and balance as his present bat but added a slot to the back that accepts weights so I can work out max weight and balance.  I’m a mechanical and computer engineer by trade so the design work is right up my street and I have someone that can do all the CAD work. What I need is feedback and any advice I can get as cricket bat design principals are completely new to me and to be honest from the research I’ve done seem to still be a bit of a black art.

If anyone can post links to articles on the design principals of bat design (more technical the better but all info will help)? Done the google and yahoo thing but no joy.

Any and all feedback gratefully excepted.

Cheers for the reply,

his bat is a performance woodworm torch in grade 2 willow with no coating but i belive it is Kashmir willow (:

So who is this chap in the know then, looking forward to chatting to him if poss.