Building a practice hickory-like club

I know this is overambitious and a bit silly, but I need something to do over the coming winter!

I've been thinking about building a steel or graphite shafted five iron with a non-taper grip and as similar shaft profile as I can find to a hickory shaft. This is to warm up with on range mats using range balls.

My hickory clubs are all around D0-D1 swing weight, but I've not assembled them myself and don't really know what the shaft, heads or grips weigh by themselves. I understand this varies greatly from hickory to hickory, but could anyone give me a rough idea of what a "stiff" hickory shaft might weigh, and a rough idea of what the modern equivalent of shaft flex would be for something around a 38" club? And is there any ball park figure of what a standard hickory grip might weigh? I know they are usually longer than modern grips, which will have an effect too.

Anyone here done something similar? I bet there are other overthinkers here too! ☺️ I know this won't be perfect, but it's mostly for kicks-and-giggles.

Many thanks in advance!

I've been tinkering around with the same idea, but haven't been able to execute it properly. For me the two biggest thresholds are the shaft weight and torque. A hickory shaft is going to weigh near of 200 grams, or a good 60-80 grams more than common steel. Then you have the high torque numbers of hickory. To get a shaft that will be anywhere close to the same amount of torque you'll be looking for a super soft shaft, which can then defeat the purpose of trying to build a club to act the same.

I think you really have 2 option here to make something close to hickory. The first is to get a Mashie head and a few similar profile shaft. This would become your practice clubs and you'd anticipate breaking the shaft every once in a while. Option 2 would be to find an early steel shafted iron and use it as it's shaft profile would be closer to what you'd expect with hickory.

Thanks for your thoughts!

I guess I could maybe add layers lead tape evenly distributed through out the shaft to add a bunch of weight, but I had not thought about torque. Not sure what type of shaft I would use..

I've talked to some people a lot more in the know than me about shaft options and they all just chuckled. A heavy high torque shaft is virtually useless in modern golf, so no one makes it.

Yeah I see, and I appreciate your comments. But maybe I can live with having a different torque profile. I think having a somewhat similar weighted club with a somewhat similar shaft flex, might be good enough for this experiment. It's mostly just to get warmed up and find a good tempo with before heading to the first tee.

I usually bring a couple of my own modern clubs to warm up with, which is totally fine, but the light weight stiff shafts are not ideal. Am hoping to build a club that's just slightly closer to my hickory clubs than my own modern clubs.

Couldnt you fill whatever shaft with foam/clay/marshmellows until it made weight without affecting torque?

maybe, but in the case of a shaft with high torque, it will most likely also be very soft. So now you're trying to manage shaft flex, torque, and weight. If you could take a shaft that is closer in torque but soft in flex it may be possible that what you fill the shaft with would help to stiffen the shaft, but if it would also stiffen the shaft it would probably also reduce the torque.

Anyone have any specs on the old Callaway metal core hickory shafts? I don't know how much wood was actually on those, but that would maybe be a good alternative.

> @hollabachgt said:

> A hickory shaft is going to weigh near of 200 grams, or a good 60-80 grams more than common steel.

You sure about that? Don't get me wrong, I don't know much about what people are using for hickory shafts today so it could be different. And am also curious about their weights.

But based on some articles on the history of the golf shaft, in the 1920's, steel still hadn't become accepted because they were too heavy compared to the hickory. And at that time the steel shafts were around 150-175 gm. Which would imply back then the hickory shafts were less than that. Not the 200 gm you're specifying. And even when they finally were accepted (~140 gm) they were still considered heavier than hickory but were accepted and became preferred because of the lower torque.

e.g. here is one source.

page 8/9 talks about the transition from hickory to steel:

https://www.hirekogolf.com/media/pdf/chapter1.pdf

I know that when rebuilt a set of MacGregor Master Model woods some years back the shaft weights were all around 200 grams. Being shorter for Irons I'd suspect they'd be lighter, but still heavier than modern steel shafts.

Early steel shafts were not adopted because of weight, many players of the day were reported at just not liking the feel of steel shafts. They were harsh compared to hickory and many players did not want to change as it impacted how they played their irons. When adopted, it would often occur first in a players woods. Which if the steel was heavier in the woods would impact the balance of them even more. There were alternatives in Aluminum shafts that players tinkered around with that would have been light, but they never stuck. Players began embracing steel once they got the coating figured out, either chrome or copper, and found them more consistent and reliable than wood. Which could be a crap shoot to replicate throughout a set of irons. When they did, it wasn't uncommon for players to dowel their irons with a hickory dowel to dampen the feel of the steel shaft.

> @hollabachgt said:

> Early steel shafts were not adopted because of weight, many players of the day were reported at just not liking the feel of steel shafts. They were harsh compared to hickory and many players did not want to change as it impacted how they played their irons. When adopted, it would often occur first in a players woods. Which if the steel was heavier in the woods would impact the balance of them even more. There were alternatives in Aluminum shafts that players tinkered around with that would have been light, but they never stuck. Players began embracing steel once they got the coating figured out, either chrome or copper, and found them more consistent and reliable than wood. Which could be a crap shoot to replicate throughout a set of irons. When they did, it wasn't uncommon for players to dowel their irons with a hickory dowel to dampen the feel of the steel shaft.

You have a source to back any of that up?

Sure, I'll start looking through my archives to cite the appropriate sources. Anything particular that really chaps your backside?

How about an early graphite shaft with added weight? The early graphit shafts used to have a lot more torque than the steel shafts, and you can probaly find one with a stronger flex as well? Or would it (torque, flex and weight) still be far from comparable to a hickory shaft?

> @hollabachgt said:

> Sure, I'll start looking through my archives to cite the appropriate sources. Anything particular that really chaps your backside?

I could be misinterpreting things here but it sounds like you backside is a lot more chapped than mine. I'm just curious, nothing more. Since we're talking about 90-100 year old information, it must have come from somewhere. I'm pretty sure we can rule out personal experience as the source when it comes to what choices were made back then and why.

Just curious, what about using an early pyratone steel shaft club - I used to have a set of the Spalding Bobby Jones irons with those shafts. Seemed like they were pretty heavy shafts. You would also have a more hickory style club head as well.

> @rwc356 said:

> Just curious, what about using an early pyratone steel shaft club - I used to have a set of the Spalding Bobby Jones irons with those shafts. Seemed like they were pretty heavy shafts. You would also have a more hickory style club head as well.

That’s probably a good idea! I’ll see what I can find. Thanks!

Good luck hope if it works .

Bob

> @84425 said:

> How about an early graphite shaft with added weight? The early graphit shafts used to have a lot more torque than the steel shafts, and you can probaly find one with a stronger flex as well? Or would it (torque, flex and weight) still be far from comparable to a hickory shaft?

This sounds like a pretty good idea to me. Perhaps one might start with an old driver shaft or two and experiment with perhaps the larger end, ie: tip it only and leave the butt end alone? Maybe somewhere in that shaft would be the flex/torque profile you are looking for. You could add weight to both ends if you needed. Maybe using the butt end of one of those super whippy warm-up clubs? Heck, you might even look at non-golf materials like those solid fiberglass driveway marker rods? Please don't jump on me - just trying to think outside the box here. ☺

> @Swingingk said:

> > @84425 said:

> > How about an early graphite shaft with added weight? The early graphit shafts used to have a lot more torque than the steel shafts, and you can probaly find one with a stronger flex as well? Or would it (torque, flex and weight) still be far from comparable to a hickory shaft?

>

> This sounds like a pretty good idea to me. Perhaps one might start with an old driver shaft or two and experiment with perhaps the larger end, ie: tip it only and leave the butt end alone? Maybe somewhere in that shaft would be the flex/torque profile you are looking for. You could add weight to both ends if you needed. Maybe using the butt end of one of those super whippy warm-up clubs? Heck, you might even look at non-golf materials like those solid fiberglass driveway marker rods? Please don't jump on me - just trying to think outside the box here. ☺

>

>

I like your outside the box thinking here! But it would definitely put my amateur club building skills to the test! Lol.

Take an old hickory shaft. Cut it about 2 inches about where it would have been at top of hosel. Clean old taper. Put in drill press or lathe. Take a .370 drill and drill straight though. Take a 125 gram steel shaft of your flex - soft step one- roughen tip so it will be glued all the way inside the wood. Take wood adaptor and shaft and glue into a Mashie. Cut and skip on a Gripmaster leather grip . You will like this to warm up

> @hollabachgt said:

> I know that when rebuilt a set of MacGregor Master Model woods some years back the shaft weights were all around 200 grams. Being shorter for Irons I'd suspect they'd be lighter, but still heavier than modern steel shafts.

>

> Early steel shafts were not adopted because of weight, many players of the day were reported at just not liking the feel of steel shafts. They were harsh compared to hickory and many players did not want to change as it impacted how they played their irons. When adopted, it would often occur first in a players woods. Which if the steel was heavier in the woods would impact the balance of them even more. There were alternatives in Aluminum shafts that players tinkered around with that would have been light, but they never stuck. Players began embracing steel once they got the coating figured out, either chrome or copper, and found them more consistent and reliable than wood. Which could be a crap shoot to replicate throughout a set of irons. When they did, it wasn't uncommon for players to dowel their irons with a hickory dowel to dampen the feel of the steel shaft.

Actually there was a club shop in my area back in the day that used Hickory Dowels in irons for some customers. About a year or so ago I was reshafting a 985 1 iron I found on the scrap pile broken shaft. I was heating it up to remove the shaft about the time my wife popped into the shop. She thought I was BBQ ing something because of the smell of the hickory plug burning. Naaw I told her just a Harold Dale special which was the golf shop I refered to