Adding Weight to Irons

[Dmas]

Hi,I am buying a new set of MP68 irons. I am currently playing MP14 irons that are cut 3/4" short with lead tape on the back to get the swing weight up. I am short in stature with shorter legs and longer arms and I have found that 3/4" short works best for me. I also am actually playing the 14's quite heavy. Not sure of exact swing weights as I just kept adding tape at the range to each iron until they felt right. I know I checked my 6 iron and it came out at ~ D6. So I got a bunch of lead tape on them. My questions are this. If I order from Mizuno at 3/4 short, how much weight will they have to add in the hosel to get them to D2? Will this change the sweet spot significantly? Will the lead tape on the back change the CG of the head if I spread it out evenly on the back? I am not as concerned about the cosmetics of the irons as much as playability. I recently demoed the 68s at the range and on the course at standard length/2 degrees flat and I absolutely fell in love with them. From past experience though, I feel shortening them will make them even better for me. I just hate to mess too much with an iron head that I like so much to begin with. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thx

dave

[mat562]

A 3/4" short club, all else being equal, will be something like 4 or 5 swingweight points lighter, naturally, than a standard length iron. That equates to around nine or ten grams of headweight.

If you order a custom set from Mizuno, it's possible that they may be able to select heavier headweights to minimise the amount of correction that's required to get your desired swingweight. That said, it's likely that some sort of extra, deliberately-added weight will be necessary to hit the desired specs. The likely scenario is that this will be achieved by tip weighting. The majority of irons are tip weighted anyway, to allow for natural variance in the finished headweights that most manufacturers will see in their product lines. In the case of your proposed set, it's likely that the tip weighting will simply be increased across the board to account for the specs you're after.

Tip weighting isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the effects become more marked as large amounts of weight are added to the heel of an iron. With a lot of added weight, there's a tangible effect in the form of the sweet spot moving slightly towards the heel because of the extra mass in the hosel. It's generally only a fraction of an inch, but many people will pick up on it and it may negatively affect the way the clubs play in your hands.

As you're well aware, it's also possible to add weight via lead tape. The advantage of lead tape is that it's added to the head neutrally, and thus doesn't centre the added weight in any particular position. There's a limit to how much of it you can add, but generally speaking it's possible to accomodate most requirements for extra weight (in an un-gound club where there hasn't been a large loss of material) with lead tape alone. Many people don't like the look, but you're obviously attuned to it. It doesn't result in the changes that you'll see with very large tip weighting as it's simply a way of increasing the overall spread of weight over the entire clubhead.

My advice would be to speak to Mizuno directly and get a definite idea of what sort of specs are going to be possible at your desired lengths were you to order a new set. If you've already hit the irons, and liked them, there's nothing to stop you doing exactly as you did before. Try them a bit shorter, add weght, hit balls, and keep going until you get them the way you want them.

[Dmas]

Thank you mat562 for the excellent response...I'll give Mizuno a call.

[Dmas]

Well I called Mizuno and the rep said get out the lead tape. He said that at 3/4" short the best they will be able to do for me was something like C8...ouch!

[BCC]

[quote name='Dmas' post='2101335' date='Dec 3 2009, 03:33 PM']Well I called Mizuno and the rep said get out the lead tape. He said that at 3/4" short the best they will be able to do for me was something like C8...ouch![/quote]

That would be with DG's or possible PX. You'll not come close to that with a KBS. Had a customer ordered wedges @ -1/2" and pleaded for the heaviest head Mizuno had and with a GP Lite grip they SW @ C 8 with 6gr tip weights. Yes----bring out the tape !!!!

[joey3108]

3/4" under at D2 swing weight with 50-51gr grip will be some where at least C7-8 or less even with A head. Graphite shaft's head will be heavier a few more grams but only comes in 370 hosel and still not gonna be enough IMO.

The best ideal way to do this is Tungsten Ingots Modification (pic).

A combination tip weight and the right placement on Tungsten ingots will be your best bet IMO.

You definitely have to custom build this. Mizuno custom dept will not do a Tungsten Ingots mod.

Cheers!

joe