Hand Forged Putters

[Coralray]

[quote name='PeanutsDaddy' timestamp='1422922702' post='10871593']
Coralray,

as a history teacher I find your knowledge of the subject enlightening and refreshing. A craftsman who seems to understand the significance of his craft. Thank you for the historical perspective. I'm always looking to learn.

Mike.
[/quote]

I would guess the course of study along with the lab work would be worthy of a masters. Now all I have to do is write it up and present to the full faculty. In fact it is the field work that makes it all worth while; but testing some 200 individual works per year is work in itself. It is the history, the fact that the first club makers were bowers, bow and arrow makers, armorers and ordinary blacksmiths, that makes my endeavor so cool, linking the modern golfer to the rich, long history of golf, most of it lost not in irrelevance but in an avalanche of marketing. It is refreshing to learn that a golfer can make putts with a blade putter, that the oldest style of golf club, just leather, wood and iron can put the ball in the hole. In a rare book I beheld a photo of a wry neck putter Willie Park made for his daughter which she used to great success her entire life. Recently I made a putter for an older gentleman and I stamped his initials on it, below which I stamped his son's initials and his grandson's initials. These putters I am making are a link to the past with a reach to the future. Their style may be currently out of fashion, but I find it comforting that there is a putter whose only technological advance is that it is offset. May that still be true in one hundred years, that the golfer will be responsible for his or her failure, and success. Ask not what your putter can do for you. Ask what.... no.

[Coralray]

[quote name='Mob' timestamp='1422929001' post='10872393']
Very cool hobby. Nice work. Did you get any pictures of you doing the forging work? If you did, please post those as well. Would love to see your set up.
[/quote]

Hobby or work? Good question. Here I am making a putter hosel...

http://youtu.be/R5d5mG_pRR4

[VTDanielHa]

Seeing someone hand forge anything is always an impressive sight. I also love to make/fix/modify/restore things like clubs, watches, and cars myself but have never thought to take it back to the roots as you are doing. In my other hobby interests (mechanical watches and cars) there is a huge faction of classic and historical enthusiasts keeping the old techniques alive and its good to see someone doing the same for the golf community. From what I can tell, you seem extremely passionate about your hobby/work and I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors!

[Colin20]

Great thread so far. It is very interesting to see your finished putters - excellent work! What is the feel like putting with a hickory shaft compared to a modern steel shaft?

[Coralray]

[quote name='Colin20' timestamp='1423123680' post='10888589']
Great thread so far. It is very interesting to see your finished putters - excellent work! What is the feel like putting with a hickory shaft compared to a modern steel shaft?
[/quote]
I think the feel and click are the most impressive aspects of my putters, they provide instant and thorough feedback. Just like any blade, whether it is a Titleist 681 "T" Stamp 2 iron, '69 Wilson Staff 5 iron or MacGregor 3852ms 8 iron, you know from the sound and the feel at impact whether you have hit the sweet spot. You know if you hit it thin or off the toe, and hopefully you aren't hitting putts fat. There is a slightly different sound and feel between 1018 and wrought iron. And Damascus is prone to be hard and a bit harsh. It is the shaft material, construction and mating of shaft to head to golfer that is so interesting and can give such a clear indication to a golfer whether his stroke is off.

Hickory was first introduced to Scotland and the world of golf around the middle 1800s and soon superseded all other wood varieties for golf club shafts. It is hickory's resilience, it's ability to take a beating without shattering, coupled with hickory's other attributes of firm flex and strength to weight etc that make it always the right choice for a wood shaft golf club. But for a putter, where impact is not critical, it seemed there was an opportunity to experiment. So I have.

Depending on whether you have red, or heart wood, or white sap wood can make a difference in weight and firmness in a hickory shaft. There is a wide variety available and the golf professionals of the era knew their stuff and knew their customers and the best way to pare a shaft and to pair a shaft to a specific head. There is no uniformity in wood shaft hosels, so each shaft must be custom fit to each head. It starts by fitting the shaft into the hosel. Once that is done the shaft is taken down by various means of plane or rasp or scraper or sand paper in a very dynamic process that flows with the fitters understanding of flexibility and head weight and strength of the golfer; and as he works the shaft down pauses to feel where he is and where he must go to get the pair right. Do not suppose bespoke, custom fit, golf clubs are a new thing, it started 200 years ago with conscientious and capable pros fitting their members' clubs by hand. So a putter shaft has a wider variety of woods you could consider with the same principles in play. I have tried half dozen exotic woods including Purpleheart (heavy and harsh feeling), leopard wood (heavy and super soft feeling), blood wood (heavy and crisp feeling), Sapele (light, lively and musical feeling and sounding), Jatoba (light and flexible and muted). Maple and cherry are light and musical especially cherry where the click seems amplified. I have learned that the heavy leopard wood when taken down to 0,45" with little taper, makes a great pairing with Damascus steel offering a similar bold grain to the metal's while toning the harsh Damascus feel down a bit. Yesterday I made a Sapele shaft which requires no grip, instead I squared and notched the right hand and left the left hand 1" diameter round, but flattening the surface to fit the pad in the left palm. No leather required. Also very much against the rules of golf. But the shaft had a bow already, making it illegal, so I made it doubly so and now have a super cool and really beautiful piece of wood making about the coolest putter ever. And the Sapele feels so nice and there is no leather or rubber muting the feel. I have never encountered a steel shaft that gives even half the feedback of hickory.

The MOI of a blade is off the charts bad compared to a TM Jailbird and the feel is wildly different too. The Jailbird has a soft insert which apparently makes for a softer feel when using a harder ball but surely mutes sound. Click is critical, especially during practice sessions. Try wearing headphones with music on while practicing your putting so you can't hear the click at contact and note the difference in experience. When the click doesn't couple with the feel of impact the experience is lessened. On a Jailbird that might not be a big deal because the MOI is covering your rear end on off center contact. But in a blade where you need to hit the sweet spot to get the expected transfer of energy to the ball feel and sound are vital to your understanding. It is hard to argue with a putter that helps make miss-hits less bad. But a putter that tells you, firmly, what you have done wrong is likely to be of way more value to someone who can usually hit the sweet spot. And to help a poor putter improve rather than just get along a little better without additional effort: Give a man a face balanced putter and he putts better for the day. Teach a man to putt with a blade and he putts well forever.

[jamesdb]

Very cool thread and nice work. Is that a Peddinghaus hammer you are swinging?

[Coralray]

[quote name='jamesdb' timestamp='1423501964' post='10917721']
Very cool thread and nice work. Is that a Peddinghaus hammer you are swinging?
[/quote]
Yes. A 600 gram French Pattern. It is pretty light. I also use a Ped 800 gram German Pattern or Engineers hammer and a 1000 gram Ped Swedish pattern. Among others. I have often noted the fact I am using a hickory handle swinging a hunk of metal, not too far off from a hickory game of golf.

[RookieBlue7]

Is there a reason behind leaving them rough and unpolished

[Coralray]

Yes. Primarily because they are going to rust. Or oxidize. Or grow patina. Or, they are going to be routinely burnished with emery cloth or Scotch-Brite or steel wool to knock off the rust. Wrought iron contains silicon in the metal which protects the iron slightly from oxidation: Meaning in 100 years a steel gate will be mostly gone from rust where an iron gate will be mostly surface rust with very little pitting. I have plated a few putters made of steel just to see how they look and I think they lose much of their character. I have played many years with vintage hickory irons and rust is only a modest problem when played in rain. Wipe them down before you put them away. Otherwise you don't typically see red/orange rust on iron irons. Instead left unburnished you start to build patina which is really just evidence of use and age. Oxidation, soil and regular caressing from a loving hand (or a sand wedge that rubs with every step you take carrying the bag down the fairway) make for a rich brown patina with smoothed and shiny edges and corners. And the silicon in the iron causes fluctuations in the oxidation so a discernible grain developes with age. Additionally, these are about the most highly finished items you are likely to see come out of a blacksmith's shop where the rough hewn nature of the work is typically celebrated and marketed. Iron is little
known in the world today and less so in the US as it became phased out with modern steel production around 1900. But if you consider that some of the irons made in Scotland four hundred years ago still exist today, rusty to be sure, but still their identifiable selves you might ask how important is it that they be shiny and new looking forever. Their current state is very temporary.

[stixman]

Just a lovely project, great to see.

I would have thought that these represented the 'winningest style of putter head' since these were around from 1880 until Karsten Solheim announced to the world 'I have designed a putter for players who can't putt!'

[Coralray]

[quote name='stixman' timestamp='1423824976' post='10944397']
Just a lovely project, great to see.

I would have thought that these represented the 'winningest style of putter head' since these were around from 1880 until Karsten Solheim announced to the world 'I have designed a putter for players who can't putt!'
[/quote]
Good anser Stixman. I bet the offset blade, first patented in 1895 by Willie Park of Musselburgh, is the winningest putter style ever, especially if you throw in Armie's modified blade and all of its progeny. They look a bit of a joke at first sight, like no way could you ever putt well with such a club, but set one down next to an 8802 and note the similarity. Find the sweet spot and see it's not so small. Swing one and learn you have a cooperative partner on the greens. And marvel at the putts you make when you learn to swing the putter blade, like a golf club, releasing the head, square at impact, through the ball. Your friends will want one too!

[turtlehead]

probably the odd man out - but one of those done center shafted - I know it's not right, but I'd be all over it

[Coralray]

[quote name='Coralray' timestamp='1422626120' post='10847769']
A liver transplant surgeon from Johannesburg, South Africa bought two of the four flanged putters I pulled off. Since then I have had a dozen crumble to their death on the anvil: low grade vintage wrought iron can be very fickle to forge. I won't divulge the price the two sold for, but the two remaining are priceless and will remain in my collection until I can master forging a flange using steel and then with a higher grade of wrought iron. Probably a year off.
[/quote]

Twins!! With a triplet in the ICU. These two have the same DNA, third will not. I tried a new size of wrought iron bar and a different forging technique to make these flanged putters, weighing in at a long lean 295 grams and 35.75 and 36 inches. Total weights are 465 and 475 grams. Blue sheep skin grip is a pistol, orange grip is round. Hickory shafts have beautiful grain and were taken down from 1" x 1" x 36" by hand using a thumb plane, a double cut bastxxx file and 180 grit sand paper to a lithe 0.5". Finished with hand rubbed tung oil finish. 2 degrees of loft with 65 degrees lie angle. Grind of the 4" blades show reference to 8802, Wizard 600 and IMG5. Offset is at the center of the shaft, right down the beam. The long shafts swing the flat lie nicely. These are superb putters.[attachment=2632995:IMG_2914.JPG]

[VTDanielHa]

beautiful! how long does it take you to do one of those from raw materials to finished product?

[Coralray]

[quote name='VTDanielHa' timestamp='1424800760' post='11018971']
beautiful! how long does it take you to do one of those from raw materials to finished product?
[/quote]

I am able to make 4-6 per week with work divided equally between the shaft and the head.

[Coralray]

[quote name='RookieBlue7' timestamp='1423613731' post='10927861']
Is there a reason behind leaving them rough and unpolished
[/quote]
I have been working with emery cloth lately to give the heads a smoother finish and report that it makes a silky smooth and beautiful finish. 220, 400 then 1,000 grit emery cloth will really give a smooth and shiny finish. Because these heads don't have paint or plating the exposed wrought iron will rust, but once buffed will likely rust slowly and be easily buffed with more 1000 grit. Emery cloth is just cloth backed sand paper, instead of paper it is thin cloth, enabling a ribbon cut from a sheet to be pulled back and forth until smooth. I will explore buffing with a bench buffer too.

[Coralray]

This week's production yielded half dozen flanged offset blades. I ground these two to resemble an 8802 and fit one with a transparent blue flair tip from the Putter Lounge in Denver. Both heads weighed in at 335 grams with Total weights at 510g and E0 swing weights. The shapes are pretty nice as is, so any weight reduction should be taken from the sole. These heads were hand forged with hammer and anvil of wrought iron. Learn more about this now exotic metal on Wikipedia here: Wrought iron
https://en.wikipedia...ki/Wrought_iron

There you will learn that iron resist rust far better than steel and is far softer than any carbon or stainless steel. It is the first metal used in production of irons and iron putters from 1630-1930. I have two 1964 8802 fat grip putters, long noted for their exceptional soft feel attributed to their steel alloy, and these wrought iron putters surpass them in feel and click. Because they are not plated or painted they will oxidize, like a SC Oil Can, and will require some love and attention to maintain the shiny iron appearance. Or allow them to rust and highlight the grain inherent in real iron. If you don't like the weight or shape, go ahead, DIY, get out a 6" bastxxx mill and file the weight and shape you'd prefer. I took these to a 400 grit finish, to finish them any further would rob them of their hand wrought appeal. Also available in hickory or exotic wood.

Attached Image
Edited by Coralray, 17 minutes ago.

[Coralray]

Here is the photo...

[attachment=2672583:image.jpg]