There’s a sacredness about it all. There’s something magical about it all.
There are few experiences quite like it.
Walking in the door of a hurley-maker’s work-shop is like walking into a church for the first time. You’re not sure where to look because from the floor all the way up to the roof there’s art.
It’s something that’ll stick with you for life.
The smell of freshly cut wood was something you hadn’t even known before but you’d never seen this much saw-dust in your life either. It’s bright for the most part but there are old rusty tools and machines around the place too.
Usually, you have a while to smell and inhale the strong scent that’s wafting through the air. You look on at the hurleys behind the counter in awe and the big cuttings of ash that they’re made from.
There’s a craftsman inside with his head-gear on and he’s in a world of his own, dancing inside as he carves yet another hurley.
They come out to you then with the hurley you’d ordered last week, specific to a gram in weight and half an inch in height. That’s your wand now.
You pick it up for the first time and you tell yourself it’s love at first grip. This 30 something inch piece of ash is going to become an extension of your arm for the next few days. Some lads would even sleep with it to build that bond even more.
Within a week, the bright cream colour will be slashed with black marks from the rims of the sliotar. A mud-circle develops on both sides of the bás. The grains slide symmetrically alongside the next one along the middle. The grip gives you the feel.
This is the moneymaker.
Which hurley maker gives you this experience?
Who is the best hurley maker in the country?
With the early votes in, it appears that the number one hurley maker in Ireland is Star Hurleys in Kilkenny. Made by the Dowlings of Kilkenny, the Star is used by the majority of Kilkenny hurlers. It has a relatively big bas and is usually thinner than most other hurleys.
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