NEWBatch 01 Black Walnut is live

The first game was played on wood.

Solid American hardwood shafts — milled in small batches, finished like fine furniture, serial-stamped by hand. Five species. One of one, every shaft.

Shop the shafts See the proof

FROM $99.9930″ · 60″NCAA & NFHS LEGAL

THE RACK · FIVE AMERICAN HARDWOODS

UP TO10×

less sting than alloy. Damps like the best composites — naturally.

3×

less heat pulled from your bare hands than aluminum. November-proof.

1 of 1

Grain is a fingerprint. Every shaft is serial-stamped.

days to check somebody with it. Don't feel it? Send it back.

01 — Choose your wood

Harder isn't better. Harder is different.

02 — Make it yours · +$10

Your name. Your number. Engraved in the grain.

Engraved into the wood itself, not printed on top. It wears with the shaft and never peels.

J. SMITH · #22

Engrave mine

Up to 18 charactersName, number, team, a date — whatever goes on the wall after senior night.

Every speciesDark on the light woods, deep and subtle on walnut. Same price on all five.

Team stampsOrders of 12+ get your program's mark on every shaft. Team orders →

03 — How it's made

Built like fine furniture. Made for the crease.

No spray-can lacquer. No oiled-and-done. Four steps, every shaft, held to a published Grain Spec.

Read the Grain Spec →

Select

Every shaft starts as a single straight-grained board of American hardwood — hand-selected, kiln-dried, and checked for slope of grain before it's cut.

Profile

Milled on specialized high-speed equipment few shops have, leaving a clean, true octagon end to end — the 7/8″ × 1-1/16″ profile your hands already know.

Finish

Sanded by machine and by hand, then sealed in a catalyzed conversion varnish — the premium cabinetry finish — and oven-cured coat after coat until it's fully hardened. Shrugs off sweat, rain and turf.

Stamp

Species, batch and a serial number on every shaft. Grain is a fingerprint — yours exists once.

04 — Batch № 01 · Black Walnut

The tree said 25. So we made 25.

Inventory equals what the tree gave us. Each shaft is numbered within the batch, and when they're gone, Batch 01 is gone. No restock.

17 LEFTOF 25 MADE

Claim one — from $179.99

05 — The Defensive Ten

The best D in the game. And the wood that fits it.

Poles, LSMs and two-way middies at the top of the sport — with our pick for the species and length that matches how each one plays.

See all ten →

Our picks for the best defenders in lacrosse right now, and the First Grain shaft that fits each game. Players shown are not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsing First Grain Lacrosse. Stats verified October 2026.

06 — The proof

Yes, it's heavier.

We put the weight row first. If your whole game is a 135-gram stick, we're not your shaft. If you throw checks for a living, the mass is the feature — and your forearms will thank us by October.

Read the full proof →

Hickory compared with aluminum alloy and carbon composite shafts
Property	HICKORY	ALLOY	CARBON
Weight, 30″	250–285 g	135–195 g	130–165 g
Vibration damping	3.4–6.7%	0.5–1.3%	4.0–6.4%
Thermal conductivity	0.16 W/m·K	130–167	~0.35
Core	Solid wood	Hollow tube	Hollow tube
Grain	One of one	Extruded	Molded

Sources: Wood Database; Russell (Penn State) damping measurements; Engineering Toolbox; published shaft specs. Full table on The Proof.

NCAA

✓ LEGAL

Rule 1-18 names wood first: “wood, laminated wood or synthetic material.”

NFHS

✓ LEGAL

High school rules carry the same language.

Box

✓ APPROVED

Canadian Lacrosse Association has approved wooden shafts by technical bulletin.

Pro

✓ NOT PROHIBITED

No league bans wood. No checking rule is material-specific.

“We're not the alternative. We're the original.”

First Grain Lacrosse · Est. 2026

07 — The story

Grown, not molded.

The Haudenosaunee gave the world this game — the Creator's Game — and it was played on wood. We make modern performance shafts from the original material, and we say exactly that.

A father and two sons who've played wood for years — one at the faceoff X, one on D. American hardwood, milled in small batches, finished like fine furniture, stamped by hand.

of every shaft goes to Indigenous youth lacrosse. Structural, not seasonal — announced with the brand, not after it.

Read our story →

60″ · Defense pole

Sorry about
your forearms.

Shop poles from $214.99 →

30″ · Short stick

Middies and
attack. Solid.

Shop shafts from $99.99 →

SENIOR NIGHT · ENGRAVED

Four years. One pole.

The gift that ends up on a wall →

Team orders · 12+