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Diary of a Wedge Grind


pitbull808

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Retail is NOT a bad word. It's what you do with it!
I've been seeing a lot of post regarding wedges, tour grinds, tour grooves etc. I have tried out many wedges in the past two years. Ranging from "tour" to limited edition sets, to everyday retail off the rack wedges. Prices have ranged from $75-500. Pretty crazy stuff but I consider a wedge to be a very important weapon in my bag. It's saved me from more then a few bogey's and helped me get up tight for birdies. I've always felt that there was something missing no matter what I purchased and how much something cost. One of my most favorite wedges I have ever had was a Hogan wedge from the early 80's that I had a clubmaker grind down for me. I used that wedge for about seven years till it just because unplayable. Since then, I've attempted using the gamut of wedges available retail and tour. Picking up thoughts and ideas from all of them about what would be the perfect wedge.....at least for me.

I purchased two retail Titleist Spin Milled Oil Can wedges the other week and immediately started a total change in them. I figured I'd document that change for the GolfWRX community who may not be familiar or too scared to have a brand spanking new wedge put to the grinding wheel...sparks and some really odd smells everywhere! I think the results may amaze you. It suprised the heck out of me....in a good way. It left me with a smile as wide as my shoulders! :beach:

I apologize in advance if the pictures take long to load on your computer, but I thought transformation would be interesting to see.


RETAIL Titleist Oil Can Vokey Spin Milled Wedges..........54-14 & 58-12
54001.jpg
54002.jpg
54003.jpg
54006.jpg
58006.jpg
58007.jpg
58004.jpg
58005.jpg

The Results after the Grind added
54-14
54009grind.jpg
54011grind.jpg
54010grind.jpg
54015grind.jpg
54012grind.jpg
54013grind.jpg
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I hope you enjoyed the "transformation" of my new wedges in the bag. In my opinion it helps to show that a retail item can be made to be as good or again in my opinion even better then "tour" with just the right amount of tweaking! The key is to find the equipment that is a good "base". Find yourself a good clubmaker who's tedious and meticulous and have him fit your equipment to you!

 

To answer a few questions before they arise...while I go to bed! No, I didn't grind the wedges myself. The only thing I can take credit for is buying them, removing the Oil Can finish and paintfill. I removed the paintfill with Gel Paint Remover from Home Depot. The heads were soaked in Coke overnight but there still was a lot of OC finish on the back of the wedge and oddly..the heel and toe of the face. I removed that with Naval Jelly. Then I applied a really crappy blue job to the wedges only to take them back to my grinder with my tail between my legs to have him redo it correctly for me. Clubs were then reshafted and white Iomic grips were added. Final swing weight was my requested D4 for both of them. :beach:

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Reid,

What does the grind on the 58 do? I might have to do that on one of my Cally Forged just to see how it goes.

 

I too had my Ping Black Tour wedge ground. I also had the shaft changed to DGS200 from the CS Lite. I removed all the paint fill.

Then it saw the course.

 

The next step is to "tour groove" them. The "tour grooves" on my Callys have spoiled me. I have to play for a bit more run out on the Pings.

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those look nice Pitbull. Question, why did you grind the tops? Just to make lighter? Very interesting... That part doesn't affect playablibity does it, you have thick grass in hawaii :beach:

 

The topline grind is mainly the "signature" of my grinder. It also takes some of the "chunkiness" away giving the illusion of a thinner blade.

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Reid,

What does the grind on the 58 do? I might have to do that on one of my Cally Forged just to see how it goes.

 

 

Toby...my grinder explains it to me as "bounce when you want it...and less when you don't". I've had it done previously on a Chrome SM wedges and found it to work perfectly in the bunkers...where as my Tourstage wedges with less bounce used to knife through the sand. I've also found it to work very well on hardpan and tight lies where my Tourstage wedges used to excell.

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Reid,

What does the grind on the 58 do? I might have to do that on one of my Cally Forged just to see how it goes.

 

 

 

Toby...my grinder explains it to me as "bounce when you want it...and less when you don't". I've had it done previously on a Chrome SM wedges and found it to work perfectly in the bunkers...where as my Tourstage wedges with less boune used to knife through the sand. I've also found it to work very well on hardpan and tight lies where my Tourstage wedges used to excell.

 

 

Looks like its off to the machine shop to visit my grind guy this weekend.

 

How deep does it have to be to have an effect? Is it better/more versatile if it is deeper? I have an extra Tour Cally 60 that is an extremely heavy head/longer hosel so I can take quite a bit of metal off that.

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Reid,

What does the grind on the 58 do? I might have to do that on one of my Cally Forged just to see how it goes.

 

 

 

Toby...my grinder explains it to me as "bounce when you want it...and less when you don't". I've had it done previously on a Chrome SM wedges and found it to work perfectly in the bunkers...where as my Tourstage wedges with less boune used to knife through the sand. I've also found it to work very well on hardpan and tight lies where my Tourstage wedges used to excell.

 

 

looks very solus like. very nice

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Reid,

What does the grind on the 58 do? I might have to do that on one of my Cally Forged just to see how it goes.

 

 

Toby...my grinder explains it to me as "bounce when you want it...and less when you don't". I've had it done previously on a Chrome SM wedges and found it to work perfectly in the bunkers...where as my Tourstage wedges with less bounce used to knife through the sand. I've also found it to work very well on hardpan and tight lies where my Tourstage wedges used to excell.

 

 

looks very solus like. very nice

 

I guess you could say that....except my grinder started doing it 10 years ago. :beach:

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Reid,

What does the grind on the 58 do? I might have to do that on one of my Cally Forged just to see how it goes.

 

 

 

Toby...my grinder explains it to me as "bounce when you want it...and less when you don't". I've had it done previously on a Chrome SM wedges and found it to work perfectly in the bunkers...where as my Tourstage wedges with less boune used to knife through the sand. I've also found it to work very well on hardpan and tight lies where my Tourstage wedges used to excell.

 

 

looks very solus like. very nice

 

I guess you could say that....except my grinder started doing it 10 years ago. (cool)

 

 

your grinder should have paid a visit to the patent office!!! :beach:

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Awesome wedges! I've been doing that to my lob wedge each of the last five

years. It does freak out my buddies that I take a brand new wedge to the grinding

wheel before it ever sees the course! My first few attempts were real hack jobs

but I've gotten better at it as I do more of them. I'm going to have to buy a belt

sander to get that final "finished" look.

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Those are really amazing, if only i had a grinding machine :beach: did u lose much swing weight?

 

 

 

Al

 

 

There was some weight lost....but the Vokey 58 which had the most taken off was a huge chunk of metal to begin with. Which was exactly one fo the reason's I chose it to do the grind on it versus other brands. Both clubs managed to stay at my requested D4 with no tipweights.

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Those wedges look awesome!

 

I'm jealous that you guys have a "grind guy"! I can't even find a good clubfitter here in town. The closest thing I have to a grind guy is my dad with a belt sander...my dad knows nothing about golf!

 

Regards,

Tyler

 

 

***EDIT: spelling***

 

It's really not as hard as you think. Find a couple of old wedges to experiment with.

Just start off with very light pressure and go from there. Some guys will use a sharpie

to outline the areas to be ground off. This gives you a good pattern to go from. Heck,

if you have access to a belt sander, you are halfway there. I have to go in my Pro's

shop to do the final finishing on his belt sander.......

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those look nice Pitbull. Question, why did you grind the tops? Just to make lighter? Very interesting... That part doesn't affect playablibity does it, you have thick grass in hawaii :)

 

The topline grind is mainly the "signature" of my grinder. It also takes some of the "chunkiness" away giving the illusion of a thinner blade.

I remember that Honma the old days use to have that beveled top line to make it looks thinner.

 

Very nice Reid! :(

 

Boy that 58 would lost quite a bit of weight, right?

 

Tell us how it plays bro!

 

Joe :)

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Do you have any before/after topline views???

 

Matt...here's a few photos of the topline on th 58*. It's much easier to notice in real life....especially with my lousy camera skills. :)

 

58topline.jpg

topline.jpg

 

 

I remember that Honma the old days use to have that beveled top line to make it looks thinner.

 

Very nice Reid! :(

 

Boy that 58 would lost quite a bit of weight, right?

 

Tell us how it plays bro!

 

Joe :)

 

Joe...you have a good memory! You would think I would lose a lot of weight but I believe the Retail 58 is D5 off the rack. After the head got reshafted, and an Iomic grip was put on, the weight was right at my preferred D4.

 

 

Reid,

 

Those look very nice, your grinder has good hands.

 

A quick question. Is the gunblue the heated chemical salt bath type, or the over the counter sponge applied type?

 

Let us know how the wedges play, and how durable the finish is. I'm thinking about doing a grind on my 588 60* RTG.

 

Thanks,

 

Serge

 

 

Serge...the blueing used is the one anyone can find in their local gun or sporting goods shop. Super Blue from Birchwood Casey, applied by hand very slowly. I've seen Super Blue used on Clevelands, and the color comes out much darker almost to a black on the RTG's. If I can, I'll take some photo's later to post of those. They look fanstastic with blood red paintfill.

 

The blueing will wear off with use but is cheap and easy enough to reapply when it does.

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