Ben Hogan 'Redlines' - what do I have on my hands?

PeanutsDaddy · July 16, 2016

Here you go Hawkeye. This is the Re-groove I referenced. Justin indicated there were no grooves left of the bottom three.

This is the bead blast I'm going to have applied to the Hogan Apex heads above to deal with the browning. The rest of the heads show minor wear so a blast and new paint-fill should do the trick.

Hawkeye77 · July 16, 2016

Thanks!!

I probably don't need to worry about the bottom three grooves, but I will have them all done. ;-)

PeanutsDaddy · July 18, 2016

To those who have contributed to the thread thus far . . .

I'm going to pull a set of Nippon 950s from my chrome Mac VIPs and install them into the Redlines once the custom ferrules arrive. I just don't see the point of purchasing another set of shafts when I have two sets of Nippons installed in two identical VIP head sets (albeit one chrome and one raw).

If one of the aforementioned contributors would like to try their hand at straightening the slightly bent shaft tips please let me know and I'll ship the shafts to you.

It seems a shame for the shafts to sit unused, but I don't trust my abilities to fix the issue and Fella was correct in stating that I'll be driven bonkers by them.

HoganApexBlades · July 19, 2016

Hey PD,

Do you have the Redline 8 iron head?

PeanutsDaddy · July 19, 2016

Hey PD,

Do you have the Redline 8 iron head?

I believe it's a 'Redline' but it actually has a 'Goldline' on the flange and the hosel isn't knurled. The E wedge is the same.

HoganApexBlades · July 19, 2016

I found a '88/'89 BH Apex Redline 8 iron over the weekend with an Apex Extra #4 shaft. If you're interested in the head, we can talk.

PeanutsDaddy · July 21, 2016

I found a '88/'89 BH Apex Redline 8 iron over the weekend with an Apex Extra #4 shaft. If you're interested in the head, we can talk.

I do appreciate the offer, but am going to stick with the "Redline/Goldline" combination as they share a story. The ferrules from House of Forged arrived yesterday and they are a near match to the originals. My plan is to install the Nippons that I have into the short irons this weekend and take them for a test run.

Everything has ground to a standstill as I'm waiting on an Apex E wedge that hasn't been shipped in 7 days by an eBay seller. I'd like to send what I have to Continental but will wait to save on shipping costs.

I have had no takers on the Apex 4 shafts. If you want to try your hand at the set I have just drop me a line and they are all yours. You have the missing 8 iron shaft to complete the set.

Mike.

HoldenCornfield · July 21, 2016

Maybe a stupid question but is there a reason why I can't/shouldn't re-install the shafts and have them bent in the hosels with a loft/lie machine?

That's exactly what I'd do. It looks to me like all of the shaft bending is located below where the top of the hosel would be. Approx 1 1/4" of the shaft seats into the hosel on most irons. So when you grab a club by the hosel and bend it, you're also bending that part of the shaft that resides inside the hosel.

I think what you have is a set of golf clubs that were bent fairly drastically. It reminds me of one of my sets that I disassembled after bending them about 6* flat. I just about freaked out when I saw all of the shaft tips were deformed until I remembered, "Duh, I'm the one that bent them."

I just added my tip weights (the reason I disassembled was to MOI match the clubs) and glued the heads back on. Then adjusted the loft and lies back to my specs (not quite as flat, though). They played just fine. Wish I still had them :(

PeanutsDaddy · August 5, 2016

I was excited to receive this picture from J. at Continental Golf this afternoon.

I chose to have the 'Redline' faces blasted to achieve a uniform finish. The entire faces were blasted with aluminum oxide as I wanted to remove the blemishes near the toes and the wear spots.

I also had the Apex faces blasted to remove the 'dime sized' wear spots and browning. I asked to have the worst face tested first and here is the result. I included the original condition to compare the results.

I've got a choice between Nippon 1050 and 950 shafts and also acquired a set of Aldila Prototype graphite shafts (100 grams) that I could drop in. Gong to be a fun project either way.

PeanutsDaddy · August 27, 2016

The Apex and Redlines are both built after the heads arrived mid-week from Continental Golf. They did a fabulous job with the aluminum oxide blast. I carried the Apex this morning and it turns out that the faces are going to patina like my raw VIP heads. I'm really excited about that. Should be an interesting contrast next to the chrome. I chose to skip the 'vintage' Hogan ferrules as they required too much turning. I chose a ferrule that I've used in the past (from a fabulous eBay seller) that requires very little prep work for both .355 and .370 hosels. Both sets of heads got a splash of new paint. I'm not fond of red numbers and chose to stick with bland black (sorry to the traditionalists). Painted the epoxy in the pin holes with a silver paint and it appears that I reinstalled the pins. A really fun project from start to finish.

Hogan Apex pics (darker face is the blast and lighter is my chrome Apex Plus) . . .

Hogan 'Redlines' . . .

Thank you to all of those who provided assistance and encouragement.

PeanutsDaddy · September 25, 2016

I added a patina to the Redlines this week. I applied a wash of salt water, let the solution sit for 20 minutes, wiped the heads down and then they sat in the garage for a few days. I was stunned when I pulled one out of the bag and noticed the entire face had a uniform finish.

Here is a picture after the wash . . .

and a picture after a week in the garage.

Exactly the look I was going for. It will be interesting to see how the rust interacts with the chrome that I've left on the other parts of the heads.