Doweling your irons...who's done it? (home build project)

[OsnolaKinnard]

So I am jacking around with a set of older but VGC GS Pro Forged blades in 6-PW and a SCOR 55 and 60* head.

I have some Nippon NS Pro 1150GH stiff flex shafts.  I plan on building them as follows:

6-7 iron@ 37.5" long

8-PW Iron@37" long

55 and 60 @36.5"long\

 

I am thinking 2* upright for lie angle should be good, but maybe 3, will see how they work when assembled. OH, and I got some snappy ferrules from Boyd Blade and Ferrule.  If you've not looked at their site...oh man, you're missing some cool stuff.

 

So as I was reading up trying to find some information on my other project...I read about inserting a wooden dowel in the tip of the shaft to make it 'sound' more solid, as well as dampen vibration.  I was intrigued, and went to my ACE Hardware and bought some 3/8" (these are .370 tip shafts) fluted hardwood dowels.  I drilled holes down the middle to allow air to pass through on installation.  I plan on assembling the clubs then coating the dowels with epoxy and tamping them down into the tip prior to installing grips.

 

I don't have a swing weight scale, but I can pretty much weigh everything and figure it out with charts and what not.  As every club is going to be long, I am a bit concerned that I am building a sledge hammer, but if worse come to worse, I will use some sort of counterweight in the butt end or something...I don't mind heavy, I just want balanced.

 

Have any of y'all used dowels or had them installed in your irons, or hit irons with dowels? Curious to see what y'all think.  I know Joe Kwok used to do this to irons in his 'blueprint' process.

 

 

 

[taki27]

Some things you will want to consider.  The swing weight of the 8 iron is going to be approximately 7 swing weight points lighter than the PW if you make them the same length.  You could add a 10 gram tip weight to bring the 8 closer, but then the dowel becomes more difficult.  Personally, I never thought the doweling did much.  I think that putting, the name escapes me, it is something like backer rod, up in the shaft makes more sense.  Lastly, I am not an expert on Nippon at all, but the few sets I assembled were for specific irons and not tip trimmed, even if they are .370 tips.
 

Good luck with the experiment.

[Ger21]

I used dowels in my VR Pro build early this year.

I'm not sure if they make much difference? I also use Prosoft inserts, which I also used before the rebuild.

 

Flush shots felt solid before, and they feel solid with dowels. Mishits still feel like mishits.

 

I actually played those irons for 10 years before switching to VR Pros, and found the VR Pro's to be much more forgiving. Still have a Pro Forged 2 iron head laying around. I gave the full set to my nephew, in near mint condition.

[Nard_S]

I machined my dowels from hickory stock and installed them on a recent build. They added about 2 grams and bumped SW a point.

 

My 681's have them from the factory. So do my Titleist T's.

 

I like the dampening and denser feel, it's not earth shattering but what the heck.

[RogerinNewZealand]

Cost was like $3... so give it a go next time.I cut 1 and a quarter inch pieces,3 years ago on some Mizunos.1 to 2 grams each.

[BCULAW]

It’s a fun project. I installed some years ago in a set of Titleist 690s that I had rechromed. I wanted to replicate the original feel. It was an easy enough process. That said, I ended up reshafting them and didn’t use the dowels. Not sure I could tell any difference between “dowelled” and “un-dowelled.”  Don’t expect anything earth shattering. 

[Valtiel]

It's a fairly subtle difference for sure, one of those incremental adjustments that you add to an equation to change feel as opposed to a single really noticeable change. 

[NRJyzr]

12 hours ago, Nard_S said:

I machined my dowels from hickory stock and installed them on a recent build. They added about 2 grams and bumped SW a point.

 

My 681's have them from the factory. So do my Titleist T's.

 

I like the dampening and denser feel, it's not earth shattering but what the heck.

 

When I saw this subject, I was going to tag you in the thread, but I see you beat me to it.   🙂 

 

[rexroh]

I tried it years ago.  I don't think it made that much difference to the clubs I used.  I don't bother with it now.