.335 vs. .350 tips

[bucco09]

difference in playing characteristics?

is there a feel or playing characteristic difference(s) between a .335 tip and a .350 tip? (specifically referring to a driver/shaft tip)
is it a durability issue...?
i did a search and found lots of posts, but nothing that really answered my question.

any info would be great, thanks ya'll

J

[scotte]

Hi, I have a pretty fair amount of experiance with driver tinkering and tipping. The 350 seems to be kind of the way of the future with 460 heads of today.

 

Feel wise with the diamana in an 83 x flex original blue board 335 in the smt 455 head, vs the 350 (same shaft,flex,weight) in my cleveland comp no real difference in feel, the cleveland just feels more "hot" or springy of the face, but I doubt if the shaft is doing that. Ball flight and distance is close, but the cleveland is about 5 yds longer

 

The only real difference is that the 350 should offer a tiny bit higher degree of stability. just like a piece of 2 inch pipe (1/8" wall) is more stable than a piece of 1.5 inch pipe (1/8" wall)

 

The tip does not feel any stiffer or weaker in one or the other.

 

Durability, the 350 could withstand a dig in the dirt better, but we are not talking by much. you are dealing with 15 thousands of an inch.

 

Good luck,

 

Scott

[thewitt]

Stock "brand name" .350 tip shafts are made with cheaper graphite fiber to keep their costs under $10 in quantity, and made thicker in the tip for strength.

 

After-market shafts built to .350 tip are more tip stiff than the same shaft model .335 shaft - by a considerable margin.

 

They will play differently than the .335 tip version of the shaft.

 

-t

[ifixclubs]

id have to agree with thewitt on this one...this is also why most of the drivers on tour are shafted with the .335 tip version...the .335 to me fells like i can make the shaft load better and the feel seems to be a little bit more responsive...

[bucco09]

ok, makes sense, so what happpens when you put a .335 tip shaft into a .350 head with a shim....how does that change the playing characteristics, if at all? thanks

 

bucco

[ifixclubs]

putting in a .335 into a .350 hosel doesnt change the playing characteristics of the shaft...

[scotte]

the next thing you know these guys will tell you that 370 irons feel totally different than 355 irons.

 

you see 15 thousandths of an inch is about half the thickness of your fingernail. Its just not enough.

[ifixclubs]

the next thing you know these guys will tell you that 370 irons feel totally different than 355 irons.

 

you see 15 thousandths of an inch is about half the thickness of your fingernail. Its just not enough.

actually they do feel different...if you compare a dyn gold s300 unitized(parallel) tip to a tapered shaft you can easily see the step patterns is different...the step patterns are a little further appart in the unitized tip...

[arkstorm]

In an interview with one of the major shaft manufacturers (I think it was Aldila, but can't remember for sure) the engineer which was interviewed reported that the tolerances in the manufacturing process are such that the fiber count in the tip of a .350 shaft can be adjusted so that it has identical characteristics as the .335 version (i.e. same flex pattern, torque, weight, etc.) When asked why tour players seemed to favor the .335 configuration he said it is just the standard most of the tour vans are used to and to say that one diameter has better or even different feel than the other is all in one's head.

[drpino]

from what i gathered, the main reason why general market retail uses .350 is for cost-cutting purposes, both from a manufacturing standpoint and to limit the number of warranty claims/repairs due to shafts breaking at the tip.

[thewitt]

If there is no design difference between the .355 tapered iron and it's .370 counterpart - as in the case of Rifles for instance - there is no playing difference.

 

The .355 taper tipped shaft is only tapered in the last 5/8" which is all inside the hosel. The reason that these shafts are tapered is to be press fit into the hosel during manufacturing so that the club assembly can be completed while the epoxy cures.

 

You can choose to ignore the playing differences in .335 and .350 shafts if you wish, it doesn't bother me at all.

 

I have several of my own shaft designs on the market and have bid on a number of large (OEM) contracts (unsuccessfully so far) so mine is not an opinion, it's experience.

 

-t

[tom mm]

On 4/16/2007 at 3:48 PM, thewitt said:

Stock "brand name" .350 tip shafts are made with cheaper graphite fiber to keep their costs under $10 in quantity, and made thicker in the tip for strength.

 

After-market shafts built to .350 tip are more tip stiff than the same shaft model .335 shaft - by a considerable margin.

 

They will play differently than the .335 tip version of the shaft.

 

-t

I recently purchased a atmos shaft that was supposed to be .335 . It wasn't even close to fitting in un prepped and i felt uncomfortable taking enough off to fit sent back. atmos said they did not make any .350 seem like you might have some ideas   

[denkea]

17 hours ago, tom mm said:

I recently purchased a atmos shaft that was supposed to be .335 . It wasn't even close to fitting in un prepped and i felt uncomfortable taking enough off to fit sent back. atmos said they did not make any .350 seem like you might have some ideas   

There are a lot of shafts that will not fit into a hosel until prepped.  Some shafts have quite a bit of paint that needs to be removed.  

 

[Golfdoctor]

It's just like Titleist graphite irons would most likely use a 370 tip shaft, as their steel shafted irons are .355 tip shafts.

[Stuart_G]

36 minutes ago, Golfdoctor said:

It's just like Titleist graphite irons would most likely use a 370 tip shaft, as their steel shafted irons are .355 tip shafts.

??   Did you accidently respond to the wrong thread?   This (very old) thread is about wood shafts not iron shafts.

 

And no club OEM makes any iron head models that are exclusive to either steel or graphite shafts.  They all have options to use either and the head doesn't really care what the shaft material is made out of.