To Restore or Not

[tc3putter]

I’ve been restoring Hickories for a while now but still wrestling with the how much or how little to actually do to them if anything at all. Anyway I’ve decided that if the steel is of good enough quality the irons will be restored to as new condition as possible whereas the woods need to be sympathetically restored leaving some semblance of their past history.

I think for selling purposes people like to own shiny new clubs as opposed to rusty ones.

Just wondered what the general consensus was.

[Wriggles]

Your work is fantastic. The clubs look great.

 

For player clubs, I'd rather play your restored, than beat up rusted stuff.

 

Don't know about rare antiques, though. The experts say, leave them unrestored.

[scomac2002]

I'm with Wriggles on this. I like the quality of the refinish work that you've done and would be proud to play those clubs. I'm particularly impressed with what you were able to do with the brassie!

[TimV]

+1

 

:good:

[Jiggered]

Really good work on those irons, but don't you have to remove quite a bit of metal to get rid of the dents and dings etc?

 

I prefer the rusty and battle scarred look myself, like they've just been found under a pile of junk in your great grandad's shed (although I do refinish the shaft and regrip).

[Bella Woods]

Some like the new polished look and some don't, I guess a personal choice. It also depends to some

extent whether the irons are stainless steel (late in the hickory era) or not. The stainless steel models

are usually still relatively shiny. I like the nice patina achieved with oil and emory "cloth", not shiny.

One of the reasons why is if they a real shiny you can get a distracting glare off them in the sun......

 

 

Ralph Livingston was of the opinion there was nothing wrong with polishing them up if you wanted to

because they did come polished to some extent when they were new.

[sdandrea]

Those look great. You just reminded me how much improvement my whipping skills need. ?

[tc3putter]

Thanks for the nice words, that’s correct about the later Stainless Irons they do come up well but you don’t have to remove much metal to make them look good it’s just the hitting area where you have to be careful, as for the whipping just practice on an old piece of hickory in front of the telly while watching the golf it soon comes, the key with the Grip is make a nice chamfer with a sharp blade for a smooth finish.

[stixman]

They look great!

 

I like my clubs to look good/ great. The emphasis is on improving their playing characteristics. The shaft is the engine and the connection to the head. In my opinion, for a club to be sold as playable, the shaft has to come out for inspection and then after any necessary repairs, refitted using epoxy. (Caveat: I'm experimenting with modern high quality wood glues which are thermo-labile and will thus allow easier separation of head and shaft if required at a later date) Ralph Livingston was also adamant on that issue. Inserts have to come off and reseated using new pegs, epoxy here is not so important, wood glue is fine.

Many sellers on Ebay in the UK offer clubs as playable when they are clearly not. The seller has never played hickory golf at a competitive level and so doesn't have the knowledge/experience behind him to assess what is pretty and what is the real McCoy.

[Uncle T]

I have a set of 1937 Denny Shute World Trophy medlaists. The woods are kinda beat up but playable. And the irons look ok. I would like to get woods restored. And just keep em in my Living room. You got skills man. Keep up the good work.

[tc3putter]

They look great!

 

I like my clubs to look good/ great. The emphasis is on improving their playing characteristics. The shaft is the engine and the connection to the head. In my opinion, for a club to be sold as playable, the shaft has to come out for inspection and then after any necessary repairs, refitted using epoxy. (Caveat: I'm experimenting with modern high quality wood glues which are thermo-labile and will thus allow easier separation of head and shaft if required at a later date) Ralph Livingston was also adamant on that issue. Inserts have to come off and reseated using new pegs, epoxy here is not so important, wood glue is fine.

Many sellers on Ebay in the UK offer clubs as playable when they are clearly not. The seller has never played hickory golf at a competitive level and so doesn't have the knowledge/experience behind him to assess what is pretty and what is the real McCoy.

 

Yes you’re probably right about the head removal although I do actually hit balls with the irons before restoring them and haven’t as yet had a loose head which is quite surprising really as the glue is around 100 years old so you’d expect some shrinkage and brittleness, it’s also good to get a feel for each club as there are very few really that are any where the swingweight of modern day clubs, specially the long irons they just as a rule don’t have enough weight in the head, on the other hand some Niblicks are top heavy, the Niblick pictured has a swingweight of D8 which is a serious weapon.

[stixman]

They look great!

 

I like my clubs to look good/ great. The emphasis is on improving their playing characteristics. The shaft is the engine and the connection to the head. In my opinion, for a club to be sold as playable, the shaft has to come out for inspection and then after any necessary repairs, refitted using epoxy. (Caveat: I'm experimenting with modern high quality wood glues which are thermo-labile and will thus allow easier separation of head and shaft if required at a later date) Ralph Livingston was also adamant on that issue. Inserts have to come off and reseated using new pegs, epoxy here is not so important, wood glue is fine.

Many sellers on Ebay in the UK offer clubs as playable when they are clearly not. The seller has never played hickory golf at a competitive level and so doesn't have the knowledge/experience behind him to assess what is pretty and what is the real McCoy.

 

Yes you're probably right about the head removal although I do actually hit balls with the irons before restoring them and haven't as yet had a loose head which is quite surprising really as the glue is around 100 years old so you'd expect some shrinkage and brittleness, it's also good to get a feel for each club as there are very few really that are any where the swingweight of modern day clubs, specially the long irons they just as a rule don't have enough weight in the head, on the other hand some Niblicks are top heavy, the Niblick pictured has a swingweight of D8 which is a serious weapon.

 

I don't know how clubs were assembled in the USA, but in the UK it was common not use glue on iron heads. What was done was to bind some whipping down the spigot and jam the spigot into the hosel. This worked well in the expected life of the club. However successive cycles of wet and drying out, hot and cod denatures the whipping. A couple of shots and you won't notice a problem. Then sudddenly the whipping disintegrates to powder and you have the loosest hosel in Christendom.

The other thing is that all splits start at the pointy bit of the spigot and around the hosel pin, all of which is hidden from view. The natural torque of the shaft opens it up and causes the incipient split to spread up north of the hosel, and bngo, a broken shaft. If you catch the split early enough and secure the hosel joint with epoxy, the shaft can be saved.

[tc3putter]

Ah yes I do have some Maxwells where you can actually see the whipping passing by the drilled holes although I remember poking at it and thinking it was very thin wire which it could be I suppose.

[stixman]

Ah yes I do have some Maxwells where you can actually see the whipping passing by the drilled holes although I remember poking at it and thinking it was very thin wire which it could be I suppose.

 

Yes, Maxwells were notorious for loose / rotten hosels due exactly to this issue. While it was a brilliant idea to drill holes in the hosel so weight could be distributed to the blade, the holes provided an immediate access point for unwanted water. Pitch and wax were tried to make a seal but ultimately failed.

It is twine, by the way, I've fixed scores of Maxwells and hundreds of other hosels, never seen wire, always flax twine.

Maxwells respond very well to a hosel reseat with epoxy, it provides great grip and is a permanent water seal.

[jonnygrouville]

I've got a set of shiny stainless and a set of the trusty rusty as I do like the weathered look. My favourite mid iron was in such a torrid state when I started working on it. You know when it looks like something has grown with rust? Great club now. And found out it was from Jersey too!

 

Playing for fun, rusty; stainless on the rare occasions I have to keep count for anything other than my own amusement.

 

Saying that, best round ever was with rusty mongrel set.