Thrift Store Shaft Swap

kaboboom · September 19, 2017

Seen a few threads of late about encroaching senior-itus and queries about re-shafting blades, and I have a few questions I hope to get help with from the club tweakers here who double as thrift sweepers. Not hard to find CB sets with graphite shafts and maybe decent grips. One local example...cheap set of Kunnan EXTs. Now, in the early days of Ebaying, I got a set of 1950 Spalding Topflites, stainless with stiff shafts, and man, those are the stiffest things I've ever swung, and now for me, unplayable. I've put graphite in old blades before, and it was a bit costly to get graphite back then (1990s), but now I'm tripping over them at thrifts. For some like me, the main thing is playing with my older stuff, both literally and in the garage (cheaply). I know I'll need to ream out for parallel tips and the graphites will likely be longer, but beyond that, it's a drill, a torch and some epoxy. However, I'm sure the opportunity is there to create something equally unplayable. So a few questions with thanks in advance.

1. Will the SS heads simply overpower graphite? If so, can anything be done by choosing graphite shaft length and stiffness. Obviously, butt cutting won't allow grip retention.

2. True or False: modern graphite is decent enough today across almost any manufacturer, or, do I need hunt for a specific brand?

3. I have a very good bench scale, but no way to measure swing weights. Can I use it in some effective way?

Thanks again.

birly-shirly · September 19, 2017

I think I'd probably use a heat gun rather than a torch to extract graphite shafts, and a puller too.

I wouldn't worry about the ss heads "overpowering " graphite shafts. Graphite shafts are often built up with heavier heads to get swingweight into the right ballpark.

On 2, I don't think it's so much a quality issue, but I do think that graphite shafts vary more than steel in terms of their playing characteristics, so you may need a bit of trial and error to find what you need?

If you have a gram accurate scale, and a tape measure, you can find swingweight, albeit with a bit more work than using a purpose built sw scale. See the swingweight calculator at leaderboard.com

golfmj228 · September 20, 2017

Kaboboom, there will probably be several folks that disagree with me but one other thing to consider is to taper the shaft rather than ream the head. I have done this a few times without any issues but I was always extra careful (and very slow) as to not remove too much of the graphite tip.

raggal62 · September 20, 2017

Kaboboom, there will probably be several folks that disagree with me but one other thing to consider is to taper the shaft rather than ream the head. I have done this a few times without any issues but I was always extra careful (and very slow) as to not remove too much of the graphite tip.

Yes this can be done successfully. Actually most of today's graphite iron shaft blanks start out as .370" and are sanded to .355". Only 1/2"-3/8" of the .370" tip require turning down to fit .355" hosels.

Davewn · September 20, 2017

You will also need a 20* countersink bit for the top of the hosel. If you don't "cone" the hosel, the sharp edge at the hosel's top will start fraying the graphite fibers and lead to shaft failure. In the unlikely event you are able to save and reuse the ferrules, those should be countersunk as well.