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

[NRJyzr]

1 hour ago, No_Catchy_Nickname said:

 

Yeah, I'm pretty similar, especially regarding Mizuno irons from the mid Eighties to Nineties. Nostalgia and making up for lost time.

 

Also, buying only sets that have shaft with length and flex that fit my game has helped me back off a few purchases this year. Admittedly, if a set with the wrong shafts is rare enough, I will put new shafts in, but that doesn't happen often.

 

The reason I'm probably going to let those beautiful Mac MT R58s is because of the shafts. The FM6.5s are a little too much for me, but more than that, the shafts are too short. I *could* soft-step them, and I do have a spare FM6.5 2i shaft to go in the 3i, but I think it's more bother than it's worth.

 

After switching to Frequency Matched Golden Rams for the 2001 season, I began embarking on a similar nostalgia blade tour.  The difference for me is that I'd only begun playing a couple years prior; 1999 was my first full season of golf.

 

As I began to realize the clubs I'd avoided through my lack of interest in golf through my 20s and early 30s, I started sampling everything.  Not just blades, as I also played PHD Tours, Precept Tour Premiums, etc.  Which is part of why I picked up my set of Eye2+ in 2011; I felt I needed to see what they were about.

 

After reading all these comments, I spent a dangerous amount of time on ebay last night, looking at various Wilson Staff Fluid Feel and Dynapower sets, with regular shafts (because I'm now a DGR guy, it seems).  I really shouldn't, but I admit I'm half tempted.  LOL

 

You gents are very likely on the naughty list.  😉

 

Edited December 21, 2022 by NRJyzr

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

6 minutes ago, NRJyzr said:

 

After switching to Frequency Matched Golden Rams for the 2001 season, I began embarking on a similar nostalgia blade tour.  The difference for me is that I'd only begun playing a couple years prior; 1999 was my first full season of golf.

 

As I began to realize the clubs I'd not avoided through my lack of interest in golf through my 20s and early 30s, I started sampling everything.  Not just blades, as I also played PHD Tours, Precept Tour Premiums, etc.  Which is part of why I picked up my set of Eye2+ in 2011; I felt I needed to see what they were about.

 

After reading all these comments, I spent a dangerous amount of time on ebay last night, looking at various Wilson Staff Fluid Feel and Dynapower sets, with regular shafts (because I'm now a DGR guy, it seems).  I really shouldn't, but I admit I'm half tempted.  LOL

 

You gents are very likely on the naughty list.  😉

 

 

I have to say, I really like Wilson's short irons. They get the shape and leading edge just right for me.

 

Good luck in your quest😎

[NRJyzr]

Just now, No_Catchy_Nickname said:

 

I have to say, I really like Wilson's short irons. They get the shape and leading edge just right for me.

 

Good luck in your quest😎

 

maybe I should just finish fixing up my set of 78 Staffs, instead  🙂

 

[RolandofGilead]

1 hour ago, Christen_The_Sloop said:

There have been some really great cast blades.

I picked up this set at my local Play It Again as an experiment. I did some digging and reached out to Hireko Golf, and Jeff Summitt responded to my inquiry. Turns out they are cast from 431 stainless steel and have nice traditional lofts. They are very reminiscent of Mizuno MP-14 and 29 with some offset. Very solid irons and quite easy to hit.

 

 

[Nard_S]

If we are throwing cast or cavities of sort, I would add Titleist 962 B's and TaylorMade's TP MB's. Played the latter for many years, super nice GI blades, lol. Have 962B heads, perfect and I mean perfect weight differential and the .355" bore taper is aerospace nailed.

 

Also, a shout out to Titleist 680, 681 and T stamps. Tiger made them famous, but an awful lot of guys carried those. The design is very much old school. If I can fix a few swing quirks, The T-stamps are getting bagged. Hit them once, they are righteous clubs that deserve only my "A" game. 681's have solid performance parameters, best thin hit results of anything I own.

 

Last, think the 92 Fort Worth's and 88'Redlines from Hogan deserve mention. The Ft Worth is one of my favorites. Gorgeous in the hands. Like Ben doing Fluid Feels. I own Hogan's from 70's 80's and 90's. Really remarkable is how consistent & particular the build is on all. Near identical in weight and lengths given same Apex4 shafts.

[NRJyzr]

3 minutes ago, Nard_S said:

Also, a shout out to Titleist 680, 681 and T stamps. Tiger made them famous, but an awful lot of guys carried those. The design is very much old school. If I can fix a few swing quirks, The T-stamps are getting bagged. Hit them once, they are righteous clubs that deserve only my "A" game. 681's have solid performance parameters, best thin hit results of anything I own.

 

 

I've mentioned it before, but the 681 blades were a dead ringer for Palmer Standards.  The head pro of a course I used to play broke up laughing as we compared them side by side (I was playing them at the time).

 

[BIG STU]

1 hour ago, Christen_The_Sloop said:

I look out for rareish sets and I try to keep it to sets with shafts that fit my game. I guess there is a little bit of nostalgia built in too. I grew up in a small town and we had a relatively small club and you could list the really quality clubs people bagged on one hand, it seems. Everyone had Ping Eye2 and then Zing. And besides Wilson, there were the odd set of Rams or Maxfli, some Hogans and Taylormade... So, when you'd follow a player on TV you'd wonder what the hell is a Founders Club? And a Maruman? And then I got my hands on  Daiwa Wedge and it was really nice... And you couldn't find another Daiwa other than a fishing reel. Yeah, there's a little bit of making up for lost time.

 

I hit about the same amount as I miss - finding sets that fit my eye. And, there are few sets I'd still like to see about. But, the list gets smaller and smaller all the time. I still don't change my gamers out all that often. Might take one or two different along to the range to warm up with and see how they fly, invariably they all go decent.

A lot of it depended on what was "hot" growing up in your region and what brands the club pros were selling. In my area growing up 53 54 Spalding Top Flites were the "Holy Grail" even though it was the late 60s early 70s. All the hustlers were a mixed bag of Wilson Macgregor and Spalding. Because my old man had switched to being a Wilson dealer Wilson was the major brand among the weekend warriors. The Eastern part of NC was basically Hogan country. Now the Triad area of NC gave birth to Mac Hogans and Spalding Hogans in other words clubs with Apex shafts. 

[MrFlipper]

9 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

A lot of it depended on what was "hot" growing up in your region and what brands the club pros were selling. In my area growing up 53 54 Spalding Top Flites were the "Holy Grail" even though it was the late 60s early 70s. All the hustlers were a mixed bag of Wilson Macgregor and Spalding. Because my old man had switched to being a Wilson dealer Wilson was the major brand among the weekend warriors. The Eastern part of NC was basically Hogan country. Now the Triad area of NC gave birth to Mac Hogans and Spalding Hogans in other words clubs with Apex shafts. 

I grew up in colorado, 53 top flites were the rarest of the cool. Hadn't heard of apex shafts in non-hogans.

 

So a few years ago a set of 2-10 53 topflites, with old apex4s in them, hit ebay cheap. Old grips but who cares? I was all over that. They come in, the shafts are apex3 and DGs, steps don't match, the swingweights are all over the place. Damn! But they came with the 10 iron, and the heads are in great shape! Another one of the gazillion projects we all have waiting for us in the garage lol

[BIG STU]

15 minutes ago, MrFlipper said:

I grew up in colorado, 53 top flites were the rarest of the cool. Hadn't heard of apex shafts in non-hogans.

 

So a few years ago a set of 2-10 53 topflites, with old apex4s in them, hit ebay cheap. Old grips but who cares? I was all over that. They come in, the shafts are apex3 and DGs, steps don't match, the swingweights are all over the place. Damn! But they came with the 10 iron, and the heads are in great shape! Another one of the gazillion projects we all have waiting for us in the garage lol

Those may have been a set of "Carolina Conversions" from back in the day. But then again I have been told on here that the conversion was common in the Midwest too

[Nard_S]

1 hour ago, NRJyzr said:

 

I've mentioned it before, but the 681 blades were a dead ringer for Palmer Standards.  The head pro of a course I used to play broke up laughing as we compared them side by side (I was playing them at the time).

 

I've never seen Palmer's in the flesh. Probably would like them. Bobka has talked at length about how they did that design. What I notice, side by side with MP-14's, they look strongly similar. They are just taller and beefier but have same lines as Mizuno's. Tiger was using MP-29's & MP-14 combo before using them. They also copied sole grind from a Hogan iron that he liked.

 

For no particular reason, put my set back in play 3 months ago, still awesome. Those and Maruman Conductor SX are my bag for last 4 years. Before that 99 Hogan for 3 years. My modest dream is to carry T's for a few years before I get too old to do so.. True old school setup. 

[tazsgtr]

10 hours ago, Christen_The_Sloop said:

 

There have been some really great cast blades. I have a set of Daiwa Advisor DG-273 (designed by David Graham). Ian Baker Finch used the same model to win the Open. Not my favorite set of Daiwa irons, but really nice. I think they were also played by Tiger Woods just before going to the Mizunos. There was also a cast Maxfli set, Revolutions or something else. Nothing to sneeze about.

I was in no way attempting to make any disparaging implications regarding the quality or feel of the irons, but when I went to the listing on the 2nd Swing website, there is no indication whether the irons were cast or forged and did not want people to assume that since the irons were blades, they must be forged.  I know that there are quite a few irons that are cast that are great feeling.  Some people may have assumed these were Kyoei forged blanks which were ground and finished by Larry Bobka.

[f123acez]

For those of you that have played Miura Baby Blades - what other blade have you pivoted to/enjoyed as much/more?

 

I love these BB2.0 but there’s some days where I just wish I had a slightly larger footprint head or something just barely more “forgiving” 😅

[mbwannab]

4 hours ago, f123acez said:

For those of you that have played Miura Baby Blades - what other blade have you pivoted to/enjoyed as much/more?

 

I love these BB2.0 but there’s some days where I just wish I had a slightly larger footprint head or something just barely more “forgiving” 😅

I’ll trade you my Ben Hogan Apex Plus 😉 they’re more forgiving 😆 

[Kingcat990]

9 hours ago, f123acez said:

For those of you that have played Miura Baby Blades - what other blade have you pivoted to/enjoyed as much/more?

 

I love these BB2.0 but there’s some days where I just wish I had a slightly larger footprint head or something just barely more “forgiving” 😅

 

Maruman Conductor 302e, Masda Fast Blades. I would imagine the KM model of Miura would have been the forgiving answer to the BB's?

[Christen_The_Sloop]

On 12/22/2022 at 9:17 AM, tazsgtr said:

I was in no way attempting to make any disparaging implications regarding the quality or feel of the irons, but when I went to the listing on the 2nd Swing website, there is no indication whether the irons were cast or forged and did not want people to assume that since the irons were blades, they must be forged.  I know that there are quite a few irons that are cast that are great feeling.  Some people may have assumed these were Kyoei forged blanks which were ground and finished by Larry Bobka.

Cast usually equals s***. When they do it right, it's not bad. Certainly doesn't rise to some sort of mythical level like grain forged or whatever the hell they do in HImeji.

 

Anywhere I hope it's a merry christmas for my blade slashing brethren. I'm thankful for pretty much everything this year. Especially the bottle of Yamazaki single malt whiskey in front of me and Stiga table hockey. 

[f123acez]

6 hours ago, Kingcat990 said:

 

Maruman Conductor 302e, Masda Fast Blades. I would imagine the KM model of Miura would have been the forgiving answer to the BB's?

I played the KM for maybe 3 rounds before I sold the set. Really didn’t like them. Almost felt like a hollow head at impact.. idk how else to describe it

[MrFlipper]

12 hours ago, Christen_The_Sloop said:

Cast usually equals s***. When they do it right, it's not bad. Certainly doesn't rise to some sort of mythical level like grain forged or whatever the hell they do in HImeji.

 

Anywhere I hope it's a merry christmas for my blade slashing brethren. I'm thankful for pretty much everything this year. Especially the bottle of Yamazaki single malt whiskey in front of me and Stiga table hockey. 

Have another shot just for the pull rod hockey reference. A cherished memory from my youth. And the best conversation topic in "Big". If you don't remember it you have to watch!

[Kingcat990]

On 12/23/2022 at 5:21 AM, f123acez said:

I played the KM for maybe 3 rounds before I sold the set. Really didn’t like them. Almost felt like a hollow head at impact.. idk how else to describe it

 

Well that had to be extremely disappointing. 

[f123acez]

36 minutes ago, Kingcat990 said:

 

Well that had to be extremely disappointing. 

It really was. Aesthetically they were awesome. They just didn’t feel like any other miura I’ve played and were really underwhelming 

[Kingcat990]

Phew. Have to say, I'm in love here. Added points to anyone who can figure out the model. May have to pull the trigger on this set. 

 

[Kingcat990]

On 12/24/2022 at 11:30 AM, f123acez said:

It really was. Aesthetically they were awesome. They just didn’t feel like any other miura I’ve played and were really underwhelming 

That's heartbreaking. They're a great looking set. 

[Nard_S]

15 hours ago, Kingcat990 said:

Added points to anyone who can figure out the model.

 

Have no idea but seems likely that toe grind is custom.

[Mitchell]

15 hours ago, Kingcat990 said:

Phew. Have to say, I'm in love here. Added points to anyone who can figure out the model. May have to pull the trigger on this set. 

 

/cdn-cgi/mirage/610045b6f775786869a4f03bbc6ea866d3e558421809bdcec86344355da3a40c/1280/cdn-cgi/mirage/610045b6f775786869a4f03bbc6ea866d3e558421809bdcec86344355da3a40c/1280/https://wrxcdn.golfwrx.com/uploads/monthly_2022_12/Screenshot_20221226_153845.jpg.1325bf1ee84d271853674ff18e7c54d7.jpg

/cdn-cgi/mirage/610045b6f775786869a4f03bbc6ea866d3e558421809bdcec86344355da3a40c/1280/cdn-cgi/mirage/610045b6f775786869a4f03bbc6ea866d3e558421809bdcec86344355da3a40c/1280/https://wrxcdn.golfwrx.com/uploads/monthly_2022_12/Screenshot_20221226_153905.jpg.b58e23125cafc08976e26bf109e8a672.jpg

/cdn-cgi/mirage/610045b6f775786869a4f03bbc6ea866d3e558421809bdcec86344355da3a40c/1280/cdn-cgi/mirage/610045b6f775786869a4f03bbc6ea866d3e558421809bdcec86344355da3a40c/1280/https://wrxcdn.golfwrx.com/uploads/monthly_2022_12/Screenshot_20221226_153928.jpg.cfc1beb572155e41e1489ac2444ff845.jpg

Maybe Founders Club 200 series “Janzen” grind? I have a set, phenomenal irons 👍🏻 Don’t see the two knurled rings around hosel like mine have, so not quite sure 🤷‍♂️

Edited December 27, 2022 by nochrome

[Kingcat990]

5 hours ago, Nard_S said:

 

Have no idea but seems likely that toe grind is custom.

You're 100% correct. They're MP4's from the Yoro department with a copper underlay. They're on the bay right now. Had I known the Yoro department could do that, I would have done something similar. When did the Yoro department shutdown anyhow? 

[Nard_S]

8 minutes ago, Kingcat990 said:

You're 100% correct. They're MP4's from the Yoro department with a copper underlay. They're on the bay right now. Had I known the Yoro department could do that, I would have done something similar. When did the Yoro department shutdown anyhow? 

Funny I was tempted to say Mizuno because the graphic looked like theirs but it was bit obscure. Did not know Yoro was not open for business. Thought there as temporary close because of Covid. The new MP 221 is gorgeous, think it has the copper too.

 

 

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

2 hours ago, Kingcat990 said:

You're 100% correct. They're MP4's from the Yoro department with a copper underlay. They're on the bay right now. Had I known the Yoro department could do that, I would have done something similar. When did the Yoro department shutdown anyhow? 

 

I'm not sure it has. Up to about the MP-5s, there were custom options available via the Mizuno website, but that changed when they brought out the MP118s. With those, everything was supposed to be custom ordered (in Japan at least), although I did see a few OTR sets.

 

As for the grind options, I remember a Mizuno rep telling me around the same time that people could send their clubs to Yoro/Mizuno for custom grinds, but I seem to recall the cost was pretty hefty. Again, this was probably Japan only.

 

The website offering custom options seems to be back: link in Japanese. I don't think this does grind options, though.

 

I used to use the customise website to make loads of different custom choices for MP4s. I never pulled the trigger on them, but had fun seeing what sort of club I could come up with. My favourite was an almost completely logo-free raw MP4 at half an inch over standard with X100 shafts.

 

That was back when I could hit X100s😢

[Christen_The_Sloop]

13 hours ago, No_Catchy_Nickname said:

 

I'm not sure it has. Up to about the MP-5s, there were custom options available via the Mizuno website, but that changed when they brought out the MP118s. With those, everything was supposed to be custom ordered (in Japan at least), although I did see a few OTR sets.

 

As for the grind options, I remember a Mizuno rep telling me around the same time that people could send their clubs to Yoro/Mizuno for custom grinds, but I seem to recall the cost was pretty hefty. Again, this was probably Japan only.

 

The website offering custom options seems to be back: link in Japanese. I don't think this does grind options, though.

 

I used to use the customise website to make loads of different custom choices for MP4s. I never pulled the trigger on them, but had fun seeing what sort of club I could come up with. My favourite was an almost completely logo-free raw MP4 at half an inch over standard with X100 shafts.

 

That was back when I could hit X100s😢

Funny you should mention that... This year I started noticing pain in my right elbow and I put it down to the broken arm I had a couple years ago and using x100s. I'm thinking of soft stepping a set of x100 and seeing about that, but in the meantime the Daiwas I posted earlier have s400, which is nice. I built up the grips on them (4+2). Didn't notice any pain after hitting them yesterday.

 

The Daiwas hit as nice as they look. No problem hitting anything, but distance was a little lacking due to the temperature. They have a very similar toe to those YORO MP-4s. One other thing I liked about the MP-4 was the size of the short iron. I don't mind if a short iron is a little beefier. I don't need scalpels down there. The Daiwa PW doesn't look oblong or anything, but when I grab my SW, the SW looks a smaller in comparison. The 9-iron in the Daiwa set is noticeably smaller in comparison to the PW. The rest of the set blends really nicely. One of the nicest set of sticks I've seen. And, it looks as if they've seen one or two rounds of golf in their 30 odd year life. It's ridiculous really.

[QuigleyDU]

very soon I will have 3 sets of blades. lol. I am not really sure that is what I should be playing but it is what it is.. 

 

MP5s, Mizuno pro 221, and a set of Apex MBs. 

[NRJyzr]

22 minutes ago, QuigleyDU said:

very soon I will have 3 sets of blades. lol. I am not really sure that is what I should be playing but it is what it is.. 

 

MP5s, Mizuno pro 221, and a set of Apex MBs. 

 

My way of looking at it is, if you want to play blades, that's what you *should* be playing.  🙂

 

[QuigleyDU]

13 minutes ago, NRJyzr said:

 

My way of looking at it is, if you want to play blades, that's what you *should* be playing.  🙂

 

Sure, I like playing blades. For the most part my miss is usually high and low on the face not toe or heel. But, tech in irons is not a bad thing either. But purdy is purdy. lol