How did they do it

golfnut1964 · March 25, 2015

Wondering how guys in the 40s 50s 60s bent their irons ? You see ocs of arnie tinkering and read stories about ol pros making adjustments...had to have used some pretty basic tools to get results ? Be nice to bend my own stuff without spending alot to do so.

Socrates · March 25, 2015

I'm sure that they did it the same way as it is done now. The equipment might have been more rudimentary, but it's the same process. Bend. Measure and repeat. I wonder how far back Mitchell goes?

pdgolferman · March 25, 2015

....Can't speak for the rest of the players / pro's and how they did it before the fifties, but this is Hogans machine. Photo's are from the bookface pages of the Ben Hogan Museum.

[attachment=2678797:machine.jpg]

[attachment=2678799:machine2.jpg]

golfnut1964 · March 25, 2015

thnx for sharing those pics...necessity is the mother of invention. Amazing how the hawk came up with that. Would love to see it in action !

xgolfx · March 25, 2015

A vise , blow torch, lead hammer, and oak block were in most pro shops. There was a tool made by Ellingham, which went into a vise. Arnie was constantly using my dad's Ellingham and lead hammer when he was in The Western Opens sat Beverly CC in the sixties. Toney and my Dad could put an iron in a vise ad hit it on the toe or heel and change lies and lofts. I marveled at the accuracy when I put a protracter on the club

CHARLEY PENNA

golfnut1964 · March 25, 2015

Thnx so much mr. Penna . So in theory could a guy do it himself with map gas torch, bench vise and good pipe wrench ? Measure after with magnetic protractor

xgolfx · March 25, 2015

Education is just a shortcut to experience. Trial and error would take a lot of time and ruined clubs. The WWII pros started as caddies or were apprentices to club makers. Toney Penna started by sanding saplings into shafts after caddying. He looped for Tommy Armour and became his assistant at Congressional.

I don't do any club making any longer. My tinkering is reserved to changing grips, or lead tape

CHARLEY PENNA

stevemcgee99 · March 25, 2015

The guy who bent my clubs used a very simple tool - one that could easily have been built in the 20's if not the 50's.

A vice to clamp the club head.
A 'wrench' to grip the hosel and bend.
A protractor to show the new lie / loft measured against the shaft.

golfnut1964 · March 25, 2015

stevemcgee

did you happen to watch ? any heating up of hosel at all ? Simple pipe wrench or ?

thnx in advance

stevemcgee99 · March 25, 2015

I was standing right there. No heat.

The 'wrench' was painted the same mid-century grey as the vice, and appeared to me to be part of a club-bending set. It was cast iron, with a c-shaped hook to grip the hosel, a bend in the handle away from the grip area, and about 2 feet long.

BIG STU · March 26, 2015

[quote name='stevemcgee99' timestamp='1427316171' post='11215185']
The guy who bent my clubs used a very simple tool - one that could easily have been built in the 20's if not the 50's.

A vice to clamp the club head.
A 'wrench' to grip the hosel and bend.
A protractor to show the new lie / loft measured against the shaft.
[/quote]That is exactly the way I did it in the 70s. I used a long pipe wrench with flattened copper pipe inserts to prevent scarring and also used copper pipe on the vise jaws. I used an ordinary protractor to check the results. A real old timer taught me this method when I was a kid and first started tinkering with clubs. Did it that way until the turn of the century when I bought my current loft and lie machine

birly-shirly · March 31, 2015

[quote name='golfnut1964' timestamp='1427317755' post='11215375']
stevemcgee

did you happen to watch ? any heating up of hosel at all ? Simple pipe wrench or ?

thnx in advance
[/quote]

You've surely got to be careful using heat. A lot of old school irons were pinned, or had some other form of mechanical fixing to reinforce the weak glue joint. I've seen one set of irons from the late 50s which appear to have been pinned, but not glued at all. But if you're relying on glue to hold the head on the shaft, then the same heat that softens your hosel for bending is also softening the glue.

Or, as I discovered pulling my last set of iron shafts, blowing the head clean off and scattering various kitchen implements...

On the other hand, old school forged heads will bend readily in the absence of heat - provided you have the head secured and a couple of feet of leverage