Hard/Soft-Stepping

What does it mean to hard-step or soft-step iron shafts.

You have a shaft tip trimed for a 4 iron and you put it in a 3 iron = Hard Stepping.

You have a shaft tip trimed for a 4 iron and you put it in a 5 iron = Soft Stepping.

Hope that helps.

Fairways & Greens,

Tim

What's the effect on the club's preformance?

What's the effect on the club's preformance?

If I'm not mistaking it will make them play softer or stiffer depending if you hard step of softstep, am I right?

When I was fitted the choice was between a hardstepped Rifle 5.5 or softstepped FR 6.0 so I took that to mean that the hardstep would make it slightly stiffer and vice versa.

hardstepping will make the club a little stiffer (like maybe 1/3-1/2 of a flex). i think it will also change the feel and trajectory a little bit.

hardstepping will make the club a little stiffer (like maybe 1/3-1/2 of a flex). i think it will also change the feel and trajectory a little bit.

Correct. IMO the changes are minor but can be felt. I do clubbuilding and use "stepping" on a regular basis to get "inbetween" flexes. It will also help with minor trajectory changes.

Example: I am currently building a new set of Snake Eyes Quick Strikes for my son. A good choice as far as fit and forgiveness for him but these irons would tend to launch too high for him. I take a mid-launch shaft... hard step it... and that helps to balance out the launch charecteristics a little creating more of a mid launch club rather than a high launch club. When he swings all out, it puts him in a stiff flex shaft catagory. However his control suffers, so he doesn't tend to swing all out. This also works well with hard stepping. I can use a regular flex shaft for him and with hard stepping create more of a "firm flex" shaft.

Hope I'm helping instead of creating more confusion.

Tim

the other reason you do this is to hold one variable-- shaft weight-- constant while you change the other, flex. so, hardstepping and R300 twice will give you a very firm shaft (not quite an S300, but pretty close) but will be a lighter shaft, so you swing it harder. softsteppind an s300 is a good idea if you want a heavier shaft (because of load variables or how you compress the ball).

so don't just think in terms of flex: shaft weight is a big part of it too.

rank

If this is done by tip trimming & switching the shafts to a different head, then does this mean it cannot be done on taper tip shafts?

It can be done with taper tip. Put the shaft from a 5i into a 6i for a soft step or a 5i shaft into a 4i for a hard step then but cut to playing lenght. Youll need ot buy one extra shaft for a full 8 irons.

Dumb question but wouldn't putting a 6 iron shaft in a 5 iron make the 5 iron shorter in length than a regular 5 iron shaft?

Dumb question but wouldn't putting a 6 iron shaft in a 5 iron make the 5 iron shorter in length than a regular 5 iron shaft?

If it is uncut, then no. You can trim to length still. If it is a previously installed shaft that was a standard 6 iron length, then it would play half an inch short in a 5 iron.

The clubs are butt trimmed to length after insertion, so a 6 iron shaft placed into a 5 iron would simply be trimmed to the desired length.

sorry to bring this back but...
typical dynamic gold s300 .355t taper tip shafts are from 37"-41". 37" for the wedges and 9-iron. if you were to hard step these, what do you do with the shafts for the 9-iron and PW? - do they still use the 37" shaft??

yup, and you will now have the same shaft for your pw/9i/8i....unless you can get a hold os those hard to find 36.5" blanks

[quote name='hbear' timestamp='1297880000' post='2983168']
yup, and you will now have the same shaft for your pw/9i/8i....unless you can get a hold os those hard to find 36.5" blanks
[/quote]

so basically the PW and 9-iron will play the same like it wasn't even "hard-stepped"? so the PW/9i/8i will have 37" shafts as per the "Standard" hard stepping process.

yup...a small issue with hardstepping, even worse with 2x hard step. (same shafts in 7/8/9/pw)

However being such a short club, most guys don't notice much.

On the flip side, soft stepping does the same on the long irons...but since not many of us play 1 and 2 irons anymore, the issue is really a moot one.

well lets hope that i don't notice much difference, thanks.

Bringing back an old topic... :



If you are in between shaft flexes is it better to hard step the softer flex or soft step the stiffer flex?


Take DG S400 Tours vs. DG X100 Tours. Would I be better off hard stepping the S400s or soft stepping the X100s?

Hard/soft stepping is about 1/3 of a flex, so DG S400 hard stepped once is about 1/3 of a flex softer than X100 soft stepped once. So, if you want closer to S400, hard step; closer to X100, soft step.

If you really are looking for a subflex, for many irons you can actually tip the 37" shaft (assuming you're using tapers and the long versions of the shaft. I believe I recall a post from Joe Kwok from some time ago that indicated that in the days of the shorter standard DG tapers, as a clubmaker you could special order the two shorter shafts from TT, meaning that if the 35" was the standard pw/9 shaft for the old length standard, TT also made a 34.5" and a 34, so that you could go 2x hard in a set. This, theoretically, covered the gap of 2 inches in either direction.

I have used 2x soft x100 sensicores for many years, and I've tinkered with hard stepping S300s and S400s to try to find a slightly softer feel. When hard stepping, in most applications you can actually tip the 37" taper. I don't think I've run across a hosel that was so snug that I couldn't adjust the tip 1/2" or so.

The DG was clearly designed with a tip to first step philosophy, since the softness of each longer shaft is related in part to the longer tip section. Another element is that TT as a standard thing did use the same shaft for the PW and the 9. I've never really gotten a good explanation for why this should be so, as it implies that the standard DG set has the PW soft stepped or 1/2 soft stepped (when the OEM uses 1/4" as the length increment between the PW and the 9). My suspicion is that having the PW be just slightly soft to the 9 helps with feel on less-than-full swings/chips/pitches, but it seems like a small amount.

I have built identical sets of irons, with one set 1x hard S300 sensicore and the other 2 soft X-100, and it amazes me how you can feel the difference in flex between the two. The shafts were years apart in production runs, so there is always a chance that the newer s300s were slightly softer. I've had a suspicion that S300 has gotten somehow softer slightly over the last two decades.

Hard and soft stepping between R and S for DG tapers doesn't work quite the same, because the 0.580 butt section of the R flex shaft has an impact on the flex, as well as the tip to first step distance. People will argue that it isn't perceptible, but DGs have a different flex feel depending on the hosel length, the hosel depth and the finished heel to first step measurement. The X-14 Pro Series with a standard taper DG installation is a very different feel from a standard hosel, because the heel to first step measurement shows that the X-14 installation is effectively hard stepped quite a bit compared to a club with a standard hosel. The same idea applies more generally. The increment in the tip to first step is small, so it follows that very small differences in how shafts are installed can result in small changes in how the shafts feel.

I actually have a set of X-14 Pros that have an identical step pattern with a set of Mizunos with 2xsoft X-100s, but soft S400s were used to get that same relative step pattern.

The gold standard is to frequency match on the slope you want to achieve, which means doing a little shaft sorting and tweaking with tip trim for DG tapers, if you want perfection. (Or do some more elaborate zoning along with Pureing).

Great topic here I have a question what if your into longer clubs how will this effect the flex? I recently built a 38.25 inch 6 iron with a x-100 dynamic gold shaft that was 3 times sot stepped it play Whippy launches the ball to high but goes pretty darn good and for me it's easy to hit. I'm now considering getting tt x-300 steel shafts my clubs will play long 39 inch 5 iron for example. What should I do soft step once with the additional .75 inches on just about each club or not at all? To sum up my question from this forum it's been said that each soft step is 1/3 of a flex what about length? My goal is to play 30 to 50% weaker than a standard x-300 or 50% to 70% stronger than a s-300 with the added length as well.

Hi, softstepping (s/s) installs a softer shaft, creating greater distance from the tip to the first step ( a.k.a "stepping the shaft up) by about a subflex or 1/3 of a full flex (9cpm) or 3cpm. For example taper tips: installing the more flexable 41"(1i) into the 2i head. Said another way: Softstepping the 2i by installing the more flexable 1i (41") shaft. You'll notice limitations,like not being able to s/s the 1i head at all or not being able to s/s the 2i 2Xsoft...but very few play the 1 or 2i anyway.

Cheers

[attachment=994179:2011_soft_stepping.pdf]

I've always played S400's or s300's but tried some standard X-100's last yr and liked them a lot

I decided to go with Tour Concept X100's soft stepped once and the feel is great for me. (My 7i carry is in the high 170's). S300's almost felt a little whippy when I went after a shot

Not sure where they would frequency out at but I do love the help I get with launching the 5 and 6 irons higher and it is still easy to hit knockdowns with the short irons

I never even knew what soft stepping was until about 4 or 5 yrs ago.

So what is the length of a step? 1/2" 1" ???

After I went through a fiting for Ping I20 irons, I ordered all shafts 1/2 inch longer than standard. Does that mean that my clubs are really being soft stepped without the excess length being trimmed off? Will Ping just put a 5 iron shaft in my six iron, etc.?
If I wanted my shafts to be 1/2 inch longer than standard but also wanted them hard stepped to make the shaft flex slightly firmer, could that be done? How?

I'm wanting to play a stiffier flex than my rifle 5.0's.
I have my eye on some dgs300's which I have used before.
I play 4 to PW. The shafts I have seen are 3 to PW. Would I be right in thinking that putting the 3 iron shaft into my current 4 iron would make it play a little softer and also the extra 1/2 that I'm looking for?

It may take the edge off the s300's a bit.

I need help I have a set of TT Monaco's and the 4 iron snapped and I cant find one, so I have a 3 iron I want to soft step and put in my 4 iron, what do I need to do for this to happen the set has been soft stepped 3x in the other shafts. But I have never touched the 3 iron shaft because I use a hybrid. Can somebody help on how I can match this up. thanks.

The 4 iron shaft was a 1 iron shaft (3x soft step), so now your 3 iron shaft will be MUCH stiffer than the shaft that was in there before.