Blade users thread (NO DEBATING CLUBHEADS! NO Buy Sell Trade!)

[Nard_S]

Loose heads: 962B are good to go w/ .355 taper, the others have bore issues to sort out. The Mac-Cobra is .370 parallel but the Maruman is partially .370, not sure why, maybe cheesy hard step, dunno. Closer inspection shows I love unitized .370 when done to book or hard stepped a bit. My other Mac-Cobra's, my other Maruman SX have that setup. Step count deceived me on this and now I'm "enlightened" :)

[iNeedMoreGolf]

Blades are for whimps. Super duper game improvement is where its at... why rip a small patch a fairway when you can take a huge one and have the ball rocket past the green to prove how strong you are? Lol jk i love all irons..

[NRJyzr]

So I got my first round of 2020 in yesterday. I'd planned on taking my MP-37s along, but I hadn't been yet able to have the 2 iron I'd acquired to go with it adjusted for loft and lie, and my rudimentary protractor measurements on my Auditor club ruler show it's a little too close to my 3 iron. Same with the Maxfli Revolution 1 iron I have used off and on, it appears to have been bent weak at some point. Put my recently acquired Ram TW282 1 iron to the test, it shows to be around 16-17*. Sounds perfect. In the bag went the TW282s.

This club has a Ping DGX Cushion shaft. I haven't been playing DGX for a while, wasn't sure this was such a smart idea, but decided to give it a shot anyway. Adding to the uncertainty was something I found when I was regripping for use yesterday, the stamping on the butt section showed it to be the 40.5" DGX shaft. I have a hard stepped DGX shaft in my 1 iron, LOL. Put it in the bag anyway.

On to the course. Hit a good iron shot on #1, just babied it too much into the wind so left me short of the pin about 40 feet. On #3, I started hitting thin irons, the lovely low line drives that look great in a baseball game. I think I got two RBI in three holes. Realized I was swinging too flat, started hitting it better.

Amusingly, in the middle of this skull parade , I got a chance to hit the 1 iron off the deck, on a par 5. I'd hit a not too good tee shot up the right side, left me with quite a bit left to the green. I'm in the rough, but my ball is sitting up a bit, why not? Hit it great, drilled up the fairway. Woo! Hit it a few more times off the tee, hit a snap hook on the next effort, but hit it good the other two attempts. No problems with the DGX shaft, which surprised me.

Distance was short, but what do you expect after 5+ months off, with only one half hour range session over the winter? Overall, I had a lot of fun hitting my TW282. I'm still not fond of the Precision shaft (these have 6.5's), but I got through it OK.

The other interesting thing was my SW. I'd gripped it with a GripMaster leather grip, one of the Roo grips. The last time I'd tried leather, I wasn't too impressed (half dozen years ago) when the weather was cool and dry. Like it was going to be yesterday. FIgured I should give it another shot, have two Best Grips waiting to be installed on something, and put this Roo grip in play as the first tester. I was pleasantly surprised, nice and tacky, even in 48* temps with little humidity. Going to install the two Best Grips on my MP-37s, give them a good test.

 

[Nard_S]

@NRJyzr , interested how you make out with the leather, especially thoughts between the Best's and Grip Master's.

[Christen_The_Sloop]

I was just perusing various Maruman threads, The Woosie collection and another and of course I see your posts and then I see the collection. Last night in a moment of weakness I bought another (cough, cough) two sets. Found the Conductor SX 3-PW with SR Vanadium shafts which I am not sure I will like and they are not the 40cx, just plain SX, though they looks very similar... And another set of Founders 200 series. I was looking for s300 shafts to put into my Daiwa Pro SS-1 heads and some second hand shop here mislabeled the Founders (with s300 shafts) so I basically stole them.

So, I've got two sets coming this week and luckily I am off work for the next two weeks, so I can receive them without the wife suspecting anything. I have said this before though countless times and she's caught me a lot. My average is actually kind of minor league.

 

[Nard_S]

Sound like prudent rational buys that are necessary.

The Woosie set I have says "SX" but there is a "40CX" small stamp on them also. So don't know what delineates what. The "41CX" is near same head by another name, seems the belt line of muscle is slightly lower by a few MM's. I would like to acquire the "31CX", have a #2i in it w/ a FM 6.5 Precision shaft, it's is the lowest launching I've ever swung. The 31's are very similar to the Curtis Strange model, CS-1, which is a very lean looking head. The one thing that stands out is the hosel on it is really long. Mine have Rifle 5.0, that won't do, so I'm keen to re-shaft them. Vintage Maru's are Da Bomb and a bargain when you consider who made them.

I recently opened a Buyee account, JDM is probably best place for these and the Founder's too. Our friend, BM acquired the OnOff MB247 some time ago. That club, the 31's and even a Founder's would be a great acquisition. I'm moving at a snail's pace on shaft projects, don't want to eff any of it up. My standards are ridiculous, lol. Really intrigued with S.P.B., Project X and C-Taper tryouts and dowels inserted in all sets. The 962B's weigh up a perfect 5 grams apart and have pristine bores. I was going TI S400 in those, may still do that, but may do shaft test on those 1st. Baseline off S400, go from there.

Enjoy the buys! Good finds.

[NRJyzr]

I now have three rounds in this year, playing twice over the weekend. Kept the TW282 set in play my Friday round, then switched to the MP-37s for the Saturday round. I added my two Best Grips MIcroperfs to the 9i and PW of the MP-37s set, to continue my leather grip testing.

The two Microperfs feel less tacky than the Roo grip on my SW. I've seen it mentioned that they improve in that regard with use, I'll stick with them, but early returns are a preference for the Roo grip. The Microperfs did definitely show their tack when a little moisture was introduced. For a guy like me who's always run a little warm, it's something that will help quite a bit during those warmer days. Now just need to find a little more time to play.

Even in using them a second consecutive round, the TW282s are still a little visually intimidating. I'd set them up next to my TG-898 set, they're not all that shorter in blade length, but the way the toe is squared off makes them appear to have a shorter blade length than they actually have. I find it a little funny, as I've always preferred smaller clubheads; we humans are funny beasts. Performance-wise, the Rams were lovely. I'd gotten quite accustomed to the bounce and slightly wider sole in my MP-37s, having something this sharp again took some adjustment, but I managed to get through it, LOL. For the most part, my distances were about a club short, something that seemed to be across the board for the foursome. On the back nine, I was getting normal distance for about 3 holes, before going back to the early season, one-club-shorter, iron game.

Though I had fun playing with the TW282s, I really liked having the MP-37s back in my bag. I guess I acclimated to them pretty well over the last three months of the 2019 season. Feel like the bounce meshes well with my swing. Hit them fairly well throughout the round, though I found it ironic that I scored worse. I had a number of penalty strokes on the front nine, and my short game was not as good as the first couple rounds. Which is also ironic, isn't short game supposed to improve as you play more at the beginning of the season? LOL One thing I found interesting is trajectory; the MP37s are the lower trajectory MIzuno model of the mid-aughts decade, that's always suited me. Saturday, I was surprised to see how low I was hitting them. Not just in comparison to the Rams of the two previous rounds, but also what I remember seeing last season. Who knows, maybe my bad trajectory habits haven't yet returned from their offseason vacation.

Two gratifying shots from the weekend, in part because they came on the longest par 3 at our course. It plays 196 from white tees, 213 from blues. With tees and pin forward Friday, I hit a 4 iron to the left pin, wound up pin high about 15 feet left. Didn't make the putt, but I was still happy with the overall result. On Saturday, was playing the blue tees, and the pin was a bit back, it was 217. Hit a 3 iron on line, it released directly at the flag, left me an 8 foot putt for birdie. Me being me, I missed it low, didn't quite hit it and it took the break burning the edge on the low side. Disappointing, but again, was happy overall.

This hole was where I got my ace last year, as we're watching the ball, he wondered if I was going to "do it again." It didn't look like it had the juice, even from 210+ away, but for a brief moment.... LOL

Again, stupid humans.

Somewhat related to blades.... on a lark, for rounds two and three of the year, I put my 8813 in the bag. I felt odd having persimmons and blades, without having a blade putter. I've been putting as well with the 8813 on the family room carpet as with my Cleveland, so why not? Amusingly, I actually putted better with the 8813 over these two days, compared with how I'd been doing with the Cleveland. It's not a good comparison, really, as I'd expect to putt better in my second and third rounds than in the first round back from five months off. LOL

Snake Eyes Viper Tour (the 8802 analogue) is on deck. Have a round, no taper, grip on it, could be interesting.

 

[boggyman]

Regripped this today to put into play with rest of my 17s.

[Christen_The_Sloop]

So the mailman shows up two hours late today. Of course my wife is home from work. She can't find the next box. Or I must make a big show of selling a couple sets. Desperate times.

Inside the box. Them Maruman Conductor SX blades. Damn. They. Are. Small. They don't have the Maruman sole, but there looks to be some fair amount of relief. Good for my steep swing. Beautiful craftsmanship. Sharp toe and the way it's ground and blends with the top line. I am shocked.

So I just added to my problems because the shafts do not match. SR flex? On top of that, they've got skinny shitty no-name grips. So, I've got another project.

The MR23 US Spec CBs are going nowhere. They are the primary set. They've got everything you could want except they are a CB. (Sharp top line, leading edge relief, amazing feel, close to the right shaft in x100) Thinking to try a soft step x100 next time I get some new shafts - but those might go in the SX.

The Mac Pro82s - took out the other day and they are interesting. Paired with the Precision 6.5 shafts I've finally got a set of irons I hit high. I've never hit the ball high and the 3-iron off the tee lands softly. This set-up has me thinking. I'd like to know how much loft the PW has. It looks like there's a ton and I hit it about the same as my 52 on the monitor. It's the only club in the set I don't love the look of.

The mismatched sets: TN87s (shafts too weak, leading edge too sharp), Mizuno MS203 (I don't know, may get another look, someone probably wants them more than me), Taylormade X300s (blade length too long), Founders 200 series (just the shaft) (the other set should be here with s300, so they'll get another go), Yamaha SX25 (I don't have the swing, but they got it right with the offset (none), the square toes and they are mint), Mizuno MS5 (shaft, have two sets, pretty, but demanding), Hogan Redlines (lies? Hit the short irons left of left). I've got three sets of Dunlops that are doing me know good being the wrong shaft and pinned hosels. The DP30 might be the only one that stays. The TM92 Aussie Blades are mint too, but (I don't have the game for them either I think)

Probably hang onto the Bridgestone Proismes 2-SW - too rare and beautiful. Looking to shaft up The Daiwa SS-1. I think I can handle 3 projects, but I am too young to be forgetting how many sets of golf clubs I have.

Also thinking to Tip the Shaft in my driver a good inch. When I catch it it's a thing of beauty, but the ball can't go left. Need more control over the occasional 10-15 more yards.

One part of me thinks I should give up on this season. I've played terrible the four times I've gone out after having a relatively decent season last year, albeit too short. I guess this is what having young kids does. I should accept what I cannot change and make the best of it. Yeah... I'm gonna go fly a kite with my daughter.

 

 

[craz-e]

Back in love with my W/S FG59’s after today’s round (not like I did fall out of love with them), sorry to those unable to get out on the course!

[Nard_S]

Haha, great post. Know the feeling, but best project going is that kite flying.

So I'm whole hog documenting all the specs of all the clubs and putting it to spreadsheet. Mass, balance points, shaft weights. Entire breakdown. Been plotting schema of builds and reading lots of Howard Jones in Clubmaking forum. Basically seeing SW numbers in inches and grams. Trying to understand MOI matching and if I even want to go there. I don't think I do.

Have Precision FM's (6.5) pulled and cleaned up. Real keen on your view of them good, bad, indifferent. One of several prep jobs. Still not settled on marriages of shafts to heads yet.

This is all going like my home improvement projects. Have a plan, but run to the store 4X to get it done

Interested in pix of SX, surprised by your impression, mine are not long but they are somewhat tall faced & boxy.

Golf in my neck of woods is on pace to open in a week, the range beckons, VR Pro's and how they work is on docket. So is a new shaft for Driver.

[Christen_The_Sloop]

OMFG the kite flying was a mistake. I guess it's the first week of Golden week here and no one is obeying the order to stay home. The usual quiet park near my house had 50 people and my daughter was so keen on seeing the kite fly. And my wife must have bought the most cumbersome (and I hate that gd word, but it fits) GD kite. I probably taught my 3 year old a few more uses of the f-word. I need to hit bong over here or something.

I took another look at the SX next to my MR23s and they are about the same length. I could have sworn the SX were shorter. You are right about the tall faced and boxy. I'll get a pic or two when I get my emotions (from the kite flying frustrations) under control.

As for the FMs. I want to like them. I have hit some really sweet shots with them, of the controlled 90% variety. For example, the second hole was 126. I hit a knock down 9 (as I don't like the PW and I don't think I can hit one more than 115 with that set) and it had the hint of a draw and just covered the flag. I hit irons off the tee on 3 holes, just trying to keep it in the fairway (again 90% or so) and they were high floating draws (just kind of shortish compared with what I am used to with TTDG and I might have to put it down to height. I know I can go at the DGs - either s300 or x100 and I don't seem to have a left to left. At worst I hit the DG slightly left. With the FMs I have hit some of the worst smother hooks with long and short irons when I try step on the gas a little.

 

 

[3_Jack_Par]

Golf courses in my state just got the green light to reopen late last week, and I played my first round in about 6 weeks on Monday. I've been getting my golf fix by chipping in my back yard, and more recently, I got a net to hit into, so I've been able to take full swings a few times when the weather has cooperated in the last couple of weeks. Getting back on the course reminded me why I love my SB1s so much. More often than not, they're the most reliable part of my game. I went through the full spectrum of places that I can hit my driver throughout the round -- hooks for the first 6 holes, my normal 5 yard cut that found the fairway or somewhere just off for the next 6 holes, and finally big misses to the right for the rest of the round until the last hole, when I mixed in a straight pull to the left, just to keep things interesting. However, I was mostly able to recover from the poor tee shots, and I did not miss a single green when I had an iron in hand and a path to reach the green, except for on three long par 3s, when I could put a tee under it -- go figure. They're such fun clubs to play when swinging well, and when you've played the same irons for going on 6 years now, it just seems like there's a comfort level that develops and it gets easier to feel how to control distance and to hit the kind of shot that you need in a given scenario. At least, until the next round, when the swing goes to pot, and you wonder how you'll ever hit it where you want to again. It's obviously unimportant given the other things that are going on in the world right now, but it sure is nice to see the ball flying through the air again.

[Nard_S]

Okay, kind of confirms my suspicion that they may have higher, more draw bias than DG. Rifle's, even up flexed share this too. So my thoughts on head match is find low slinger, something with long hosel. On paper a CS-1 but not a Wilson FG59.

[Nard_S]

I switched gears and am going to build a Maruman CX 41 & Nippon S.P.B. set. Heads are prepped, turns out I need very little tip weight to get 7g in increments. Have to use shims since heads have .370" straight ream in them. Golfworks variety in .015" wall work perfect. Find the process of ferrule finishing the biggest pain thus far. Shaft trim & FLO is next, dowel production after that. Back of envelope estimate says SW should come in around D3-D4. Repair of Titleist #6i is further along. Btw, 681 dowels are 3" long which is omg long. MSI 130 white for driver is FLO'd , epoxy is drying.

Got to hit the range for 2nd time in month, boy do I not need the layoff. Huge issue is keeping my caboose back. The longer the club, the more consequential. Could not hit driver, looked pathetic, took till near last 1/4 of bucket to figure out. Took VR Pro II #6i along, my gosh that is a sweet stick, could bag them all day.

 

[Nard_S]

So I took a chance on a Rogue MSI 130 White shaft. 70X. Mounted it on my MP head. Gave it a tryout yesterday and came up blackjack. This is a really good shaft. Very stable feeling with a ideal launch & spin. Very easy to work with. Even not so great passes come out okay. Instills confidence to let it fly and go "fast". Highly recommend giving it a spin if given the opportunity.

Dickering on final length cuts for S.P.B. My baggers all share small or no increment in #8i thru PW. The 1/2", then 3/8"in long irons. May go that route. Prevailing preference lies in final weight configuration. I like 60g in grips, like a sledgehammer feel to irons. Being less than standard on cut progression offsets downside to all that.

Local course opened this week, looking forward to getting out. Cheers.

 

[Kingcat990]

Those Maruman CX41 heads are awesome. I've been trying to find a decent set for quite awhile, even more so the 31EX. Tough buggers to find in semi decent condition. People who bought those inherently swung the grooves out of them.

 

Hope you guys have been well. I check in from time to time. Kayyyelll sent me a 2-P set of Mac Tourney PMB's forged from the Cornell Chicago foundry to do something with. Once I got the chrome and nickel off and cleaned them up, it would almost be a disservice to do anything but leave them raw. Which I may do. I have a few more areas to attend to, but they're looking great. I'll post some photos when the ferrules and final supplies come in.

 

Have golfed a few times since April 23rd when our courses started to open. I have a set of Rose Protos sitting in my garage with their wrappers on burning a hole in my golf bag, figured I'd get a chance to put them in play but my Masda irons have been treating me really really well and have given me 2 scores under 80. Feels foolish to take them out. Take care folks. I'll check in again when I finish this set.

[Christen_The_Sloop]

I had a set of the 41CX. I don't have many regrets selling clubs, but that was. Hoping this blade'll feel as nice.

[Nard_S]

So Maruman's get assembled tomorrow. Dowels,(and a few) added weights are epoxied in and drying. Doing it in 2 step, to control my idiocy. Target weights between clubs is 6-8 grams. SW's are heavy side and have a progression of 2.5 points. Butt trimming can be utilized to lower or tweak. I targeted a .400" progression on shaft lengths with short irons slightly long and long slightly short. These will be very heavy clubs, perhaps too heavy. The heads were from a PGA player who was sponsered by Maruman. They are on average 5 grams heavier than normal blades. The dowels add 3 grams. The S.P.B. come in cut around 120-123 grams All in all they are in weight class of my 1992 Maxfli Australians but they will have a SW that is more graduated, lengths more linear and better shafts w/ dowels.

 

 

[Mitchell]

“You sir, are a gentleman with good taste”

Wonder where I read that quote recently??

definitely applies here??

now about the 962b...?

[NRJyzr]

Got the wild idea last week to take my TG-898 set with Super Peening Blue X out for a spin. The worry I've had is due to my thinking age has put those outside the range of flexes I should be playing in my irons. What the heck, though, let's go for a spin.

Also took metal woods along, my first time this season not playing persimmons. R9 SuperDeep, R11s 3w, and an extra stick for fun, my Precept 260LS driver with ProForce 85 shaft. What makes these more interesting is that I've cut down the drivers to 43", and the 3w to 42".

Turns out, I can indeed still play the SPB. They were actually pretty good, especially once I got past the first three holes, where I fought bad swing juju. They may not be ideal, but were definitely not a problem. As the round went on, I got back into the whole Ram vibe, after playing Mizunos lately. Was hitting some good iron shots, stuffed a couple shots close, all sorts of fun.

The drivers were a mixed bag. I had the blocks early, was hitting the ball 15* right, but straight. Got it figured out, but it was frustrating early. Switched to the Precept, hit it great for three holes, with the distance being similar to the SuperDeep, which was a bit of a surprise. Tuned the SD down to 8* from 9.5* and started hitting it better. Had been hitting it high, was apparently too high based on the results with it at the lower loft.

All in all a good day, though score wasn't ideal, thanks to a couple pretty bad holes.

[Nard_S]

Haha! The 962B's are next, pretty stoked on those. May do a Project X or C-taper tryout with them. The weights would work well but the S400's are the standard to beat.

[DeNinny]

Hello my blade using brethren! I've been taking a break from golf but am slowly getting back into the game and WRX again and wanted to say hello. I'm still playing my baby blades and have added a 1i (pic below) to my collection and I'm currently working on getting a custom 53* Miuraism (small blade version) direct from the factory. Anyway just stopping in to say hello. And post some pr0n.

Edit: Sorry if I've posted about the 1i already. I forgot. Also want to mention that I hit some vintage MS-9 Mizunos at the range a while back. They are sweet old school blades for sure.

[NRJyzr]

Welcome back DeNinny

[DeNinny]

Thanks NRJ and it's good to be back and see this thread alive and healthy. And that you are still married to your Tour Grinds.

[DeNinny]

I creamed my jeans today because I saw Ricky's Rev33s for the first time. Brass Babes. Wow. Total knockouts. Beautiful zero offset topline.

[NRJyzr]

 

Also picked up a set of MP37s last year, one of the sets I'd formerly owned, but had traded/sold.

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

I hadn't noticed this thread was ticking over. Welcome back, DeNinny. Those Miuras don't look too shabby...

I've played a little over the past few months as courses were open, but I have avoided the range, so my game has certainly become rusty. I've mostly played persimmon and blades rounds when I have been able to get out, and also using wound balls as I picked some up off Yahoo! Auction. In April, I took out the Maxfli TM-92 Aussie Blades, which I was considering selling because I developed the shanks with them a couple of years ago (my fault, not the clubs, but that mental worry lingers). Anyway, I've decided to hang on to them

For a fun 9 holes with my daughter, I also took out my Mac Muirfields, which were brand new when I bought them a couple of years ago, and which I finally regripped earlier this year. I had tried to salvage the original grips, but even after repeated washes, they were just too hard. I took the the whole set, 1i to SW with a Mizuno persimmon driver and 4w, and a Mac Muirfield putter. I hit the 1i three times and the 2i twice. The 2i had a 50-50 success rate, and the 1i a two-out-of-three success rate. In fact, I was surprised how easy the 1i was to elevate off the tee. On one hole, I tried it off the tee after hitting an OK-ish drive with the Mizuno driver. I smoked the one iron past the driver with a lovely high draw. That felt good. The Macs felt good with the wound surlyn, but horrible with a Chrome soft.

Lastly, I took out my Mizuno MS-1s recently. These were really quite pleasant, although the SW is awful in bunkers as it just digs. I need a SW with heel-toe relief and bounce. This has none.

Shot of the day: On the hardest hole on the course, a 468-yard par 4 that is flat off the tee at first before dropping downhill to a green that cannot be seen off the tee. Out-of-bounds all the way along the right, where there's a beach, and wind coming off the sea on the right as well. Hit a nice drawing tee shot with my favourite Mizuno blondie persimmon driver to leave a a little just under 190 to the hole. Greens were rock-hard so I was usually aiming to land short of the green and running the ball on, like links golf. I hit a lovely 6i that did exactly that, leaving an 8ft birdie putt. I missed it. First time I had played the MS-1s. I may hang on to them, because they don't have much secondhand value.

 

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

A lot of this post resonates with me

By the way, do the MS-5s have a reverse muscle in the short irons and a normal muscle in the longer irons? I was looking at a set recently on Yahoo Auction, and they looked that way on one of the photos, but I couldn't be sure. The MS-3s had a reverse muscle all the way, I think.

[Christen_The_Sloop]

 

I scrolled up after checking that you liked one of my posts - the long one, mid quarantine. When I see those Muirfields I just have to say, 'I'm not worthy.'

I've had some rotten times in my life and golf has always been there. This feels like one of those times, as I've been caring for daughters, for what feels like a long time now. Not the easiest with them one and three. So, I've buried my head in luscious steel and I've got a few curvy persimmon on the way as of 30 minutes ago.

The damage? The conductors and founders 200 I mentioned. And I found a set of Crenshaw Grind Hagen's last week too - 2-Sw with s400s. It's not my ideal shaft, as I find them to be a little heavy, especially in the low numbers. I doubt any of them are going to improve on the MR23. That conductor putter is something I can't wait to see. I have a strong suspicion it's a Miura, judging my the nomenclature on the sole. The words 'craftsmenship' can be found on a lot of Miura work. Or if you see a strange 'isme' on the end of something.

I've been taking my Dunlop seve uno with X100 out for my range sessions and I can't put it down. It's the least forgiving club I have besides the Yamaha SX25 Sutton Grind 3 iron. The feeling of a pure shot with it takes some of the sting of the last few months away. It also makes every other club in my bag feel like I'm going in with lube. How can you not hit 24 degrees of solid steel when you can do it with a 18 or so degrees of floss. It does get your confidence up to know that you can get it done with something so unforgiving.

Oh, and the new woods - Maruman 1W, Dunlop Dp10 1W and a Cleveland 1w and 4w with X100 and X400 respectively. I'm gonna need to get a limber before my first sesh with them badboys.