How do you tell the flex of a steel iron shaft when there's no label?

[pmcuk]

Buying shafts off ebay you find yourself at times with sets of shafts including some that have no markings or no flex indication. Often the sellers themselves don't know or are mistaken.

 

I don't have a machine that measures flex so what else can I do?

 

1) Put the shaft in an iron and try it out on the range. This has worked before, but means I have to cut it so narrows options.

 

2) Check the weight of the shaft. I have a DG High Launch shaft I'm trying to identify - Reg or Stiff. I have an existing 7i Reg shaft which is around 107g. I'm trying to identify a 5i shaft which is 116g. I calculate that the extra length of the shaft adds 6g so that gives me 110g which is ambiguous. The stiff flex is about 5g heavier from specifications (R=111g, S=116g).

 

3) Bend the shaft in my hands and compare with a known shaft. This is a bit inconclusive - hard to tell exactly.

 

4) Look for markings under the grip? Close to the tip is the usual logo "True Temper Dynamic Gold High Launch Made in...." but no flex. If there are markings under the grip would they give the flex? If so how do you interpret the code of letters and numbers?

 

Other?

 

I'm sure others have been in this position. Any bright ideas?

[ballana]

Short of taking them to a pro shop or club fitter that can measure the flex with the appropriate equipment, in some cases, some manufacturers do either place stickers or print specs on the shaft at the butt end. There is generally a lot of information printed on the shaft under the grip that will mean something to a manufacturer and not much to us common folk, but if it's a set of Dynamic Gold's you may see something recognizeable like a reference to the flex such as S300.

[zip7111]

Cutting the grip off is your best bet. If you post what is under the grip we can help you from there.

[hbear]

Are they true temper? (Edit: reread your post....seeing if I can find a spec chart) If so they have shaft charts that can tell you exactly what iron shaft you have based on the number of steps, distance between steps and distance from tip to first step.
No need to cut off the grip.

Edit: here is the chart. Apparently the high launch has the same step pattern as normal dynamic gold when I looked at old discussions with true temper.

http://www.truetemper.com/wp-content/uploads/DYNAMIC-GOLD-FOR-WEB-PAGE.pdf

[pmcuk]

The chart may be helpful. The DG R flex is .580 butt diameter and the S flex is .600. I have a High Launch 2 iron Reg shaft uncut to compare with, and the diameter is the same. This may not be helpful, since the Golfsmith catalogue has all HL shafts at .600.

No writing on the butt unfortunately. The uncut one has DGHIGHIRJ3 40 50

When I removed the grip I saw the shaft had a steel extension. When I removed that the shaft weighs 108g. So looking more and more like Regular flex.


.

[hbear]

Hard to go on weight as weights are raw weights and not trimmed ones.....add the fact that tolerances are not all that tight.

Seriously, measure the steps, it's the easiest and most accurate way to identify.

[pmcuk]

[quote name='hbear' timestamp='1404872412' post='9663707']
Hard to go on weight as weights are raw weights and not trimmed ones.....add the fact that tolerances are not all that tight.

Seriously, measure the steps, it's the easiest and most accurate way to identify.
[/quote]

The steps and cut length are identical to an AP1 5 iron, Reg flex. Can't see the steps under the grip on the 5i though, only the first 9.

Steps on the shaft in doubt are 1.75" x 9, 1.25" x 1, 1" x 2.

Does the fact that the steps start at the same place from the tip mean anything? Would the Stiff flex have a different tip to 1st step measurement?

[GWD]

It is really quite simple.

Break the shaft over your knee.

One strike = Senior (A) or Ladies
Two strikes = Regular
Three strikes = Stiff
Knee breaks first = X-stiff

Easy peasy. But, there may be some irregularities and disadvantages in this method.

[hbear]

Stiff would have a shorter tip to first step.

[pmcuk]

[quote name='GWD' timestamp='1404916045' post='9666059']
It is really quite simple.

Break the shaft over your knee.

One strike = Senior (A) or Ladies
Two strikes = Regular
Three strikes = Stiff
Knee breaks first = X-stiff

Easy peasy. But, there may be some irregularities and disadvantages in this method.
[/quote]

LOL. Very good!