The Saturday Night Haul

[Stephen8802]

The last thing I see before I turn out the lights at night are my woods and putters, so I usually think about clubs and Seven Oaks Golf Course as I drift off to sleep. One of my recurring thoughts is that someday I’ll come across an entire collection at a thrift shop and take them all home. In my head, it’s a few bags of Macgregor woods and a bag full of Geo Lows and Wilson putters; I call it the Haul.  

 

Yesterday, I found my first Haul, but hopefully not my last, on the way to get food for my son’s bearded dragon. Not woods, not putters, but all kinds of classic metal that still has me giddy. Some old friends, some I’ve seen in pictures, and a couple I didn’t know existed. I’m in a one-in-one-out mode right now to stay budget and space neutral, so they can’t all stay; but then again, I did build out some new shelves last weekend, so no hurry for any to leave.

 

I’m guessing its all one collection that has been sitting in a basement for a long time. A lot of the clubs had that white mildewy stuff on the hosels, so these were probably grandpa’s clubs that have been sitting for 20 years and it was time to donate them.

 

There’s enough I’m going to break into separate posts, I hope you enjoy. And keep hunting; most of my stops are quick in and outs with nothing in my hands, but if you do that enough, one day you will need a shopping cart and a credit card to get out of the store.

Edited April 12, 2021 by Stephen8802

[Stephen8802]

The old friends

 

So, starting off with the funny one. I picked up a set of Bullet Backs a few months ago, which are the best-looking irons ever made. (Stop it, you are wrong, whatever you just said isn’t better looking, just fighting for #2). Great heads, crappy aluminum shafts that someone had bent upright. (Not the heads, they bent the shafts). So I’ve been shaft hunting lately and found set of Cleveland TA3 with Dynamic stiffs that were destined for my Bullets. Yesterday, I spent all morning reaming out the heads and fitting the shafts. I didn’t get to glue them up yet, but they are all ready to go. Towards the end, which took longer than I planned, I thought “this is a lot of work, but when am I going to find another set of Bullet Backs in a thrift store with plenty of grooves left, so I’ll put in the work.” As it turns out, the answer was in about 3 hours.

 

First up is an almost full set of Bullet Backs, with steel shafts, in really nice, clean shape. (Clean is the word of the day). The bad news, the original 8 iron is gone and a there is a Button Back in its place; the good news, next to my desk is a pile of singles on its way to eBay today, and in that pile is a Bullet Back 8 iron. I’ll pull that Aluminum shaft, ream the head, and replace it with the Button Back shaft. I’ll save the Button head for another day, I’m sure I’ll need it eventually. These babies are in the keep and keep your hands off my Bullets pile.

 

Second up on the full set list are some circa 1950 Silver Scot irons, 2-9. They look a little chattered on in the pic, but the are real clean in person. Look at grooves on the money clubs, they look like they have been barely hit. They are all original shafts and grips and about a nice a set as you will find. I’ll hit these a bit first, but they are on the probably sell list. I’m a Wilson iron guy and am not likely to put these in my bag, plus eBay sold prices indicated I can break even on what I spent for the day just selling these. I’ll let in marinate a bit and see how I feel later in the summer.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Stephen8802

[Stephen8802]

The Macs

 

Three Macgregor Wedges…oh my. The Tourney and M75 Double Service wedges are clean, clean, clean. Look at the original paint fill on the M75, even on the groove side. And the grips are the freshest cords I’ve ever held. How did these things make it this long in this kind of shape? My guess is that these two stay because they are so clean and I love the D.S. wedges.

 

And then there’s the Byron Nelson Sand Iron. I’ve never seen one of these, not in real life, not in pictures, not in Kaplan. I need to go through my Kaplan page by page to see if I missed it, but I can’t find this one on a first pass. It is beautiful, wonderful, sexy, and Byron and I go way back to the first club I ever collected. And, and I can’t say how much I love this, it has a brown shaft…an original brown shaft…I love me some original brown shaft. This is my first original, not reproduction, brown shaft; well, my first, but I’ll add to the group in a few posts. Byron stays, no question.

 

Edit: My wife sent me out for errands and I had to drive by the store again so I stopped, because maybe they put more out. I picked an '03 Apex 4 iron because I need the shaft and another Mac Wedge; so they did put a few more out. Looks like I'm going back mid week to check again. This one is a D.S. Niblick, which will join my Wilson Niblick. It's not as fresh as the others, but its a Niblick and its fresh enough for me to use.

Edited April 12, 2021 by Stephen8802

[Stephen8802]

The Dynapowers

 

Before yesterday, I had zero original Dynapower Sand Wedges. Two from the 80’s, but none of the originals. Now I have two that are very clean. Check out the grooves; so many Dynapower sand wedges are worn down, but these two are groovier than the Summer of Love. Dig it man. These stay.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Stephen8802

[Stephen8802]

The Brownies

 

Three more, count them, three more brown shafts. First the Hagen, and I have no idea about this club. Never seen one, don’t know anything about it, looking for help. If you know what it is, please educate me.

 

Second, The Wilson Sand Iron. I love this club, I’ve always wanted this club, I’m so happy to have found this club. This is a real-deal Sand Iron and I can’t wait to hit it out of a bunker. The Hagen may move on some day, but the Sand Iron now lives with me and my other 25 Wilson Wedges.

 

And, to finish, the Sandy. What the heck is this? A rake back, a brown shaft that isn’t round, but multi-sided? It has no brand and I have no clue. But I was in a frenzy grabbing the whole lot and I took this also. Who knows how this plays, but it is a high cool factor. I am definitely going to hit this thing out of a bunker.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Stephen8802

[Stephen8802]

 

That’s it. What, not enough for you? Its enough for me, at least for now.

 

When I walked in the door, my wife looked up and said “what did you buy?” You know it’s a good Haul when the credit card company sends your wife a notice to make sure it isn’t fraud. I’m going out the garage now, I have some new friends I need to get to know.

Edited April 11, 2021 by Stephen8802

[stevehj]

😄

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

Nice haul. For me, I think the wedges are the best find. One can never have enough wedges, especially with the classic wedges.

 

Did I read it right when you said you were going to pull the aluminium shaft and ream the head? I have a set of irons with aluminium shafts, and the shafts are wider than steel shafts (from memory, they were about 0.39" just above the ferrule when I measured with callipers), so why ream the head? Won't you need to shim it instead?

[Stephen8802]

I agree, the wedges are awesome. I have at least 30 classic wedges now but was flabbergasted when I found these because they are in such great shape. I'll play with all of them eventually.

 

As for the shaft diameter, I also thought they would be wide when I pulled my first Staff aluminum shaft, but they are actually narrower.  I was expecting to put in some unitized DGs, but the taper tips were the answer.

 

They are very odd shafts with thick walls and are about .320 wide. I say about because none of them are round, they are as narrow as .318 in spots. There isn't much to ream, but it still takes a while to do a whole set. But it won't take too long to swap just two heads.

 

I've done a bunch of Staffs now and this is consistent. I started with a '68 wedge I picked up a few months ago, then did the whole first set of Bullet Backs yesterday. Dynamic .335 taper tips fit perfectly after the reaming. By the way, if anyone is hesitant to convert a staff aluminum shaft head to a steel shaft, it isn't that hard at all. It's much easier than I thought and doesn't take much metal out.

Edited April 12, 2021 by Stephen8802

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

Interesting. The aluminium shafts I have definitely have a larger diameter than steel, and I thought this was the case with all aluminium shafts to make them strong enough to withstand the golf swing.

 

As one of of the shafts is bent, I might pull them, chuck the shafts and re-shaft the heads with steel shafts (using a shim). I'm not particularly fond of the aluminium shafts anyway.

[Jiggered]

Great haul!

 

And the telling of it was equally good.  

 

Brightened up my morning and I can't even see the actual clubs. 🙂

[raggal62]

7 hours ago, No_Catchy_Nickname said:

Interesting. The aluminium shafts I have definitely have a larger diameter than steel, and I thought this was the case with all aluminium shafts to make them strong enough to withstand the golf swing.

 

As one of of the shafts is bent, I might pull them, chuck the shafts and re-shaft the heads with steel shafts (using a shim). I'm not particularly fond of the aluminium shafts anyway.

True Temper and The LeFiell Co. manufactured aluminum golf shafts in the 60's/70's. 

 

TT designed theirs with steps. LeFiell with straight taper.

 

Catchy yours are TT with .395" tips.

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

55 minutes ago, raggal62 said:

True Temper and The LeFiell Co. manufactured aluminum golf shafts in the 60's/70's. 

 

TT designed theirs with steps. LeFiell with straight taper.

 

Catchy yours are TT with .395" tips.

 

I had to go and look. Mine still have the labels on. True Temper Aluminum Rocket shafts. I thought they were straight taper, but you're quite right, they are stepped. The steps are less pronounced than on steel stepped shafts.

[Stephen8802]

9 hours ago, No_Catchy_Nickname said:

Interesting. The aluminium shafts I have definitely have a larger diameter than steel, and I thought this was the case with all aluminium shafts to make them strong enough to withstand the golf swing...

When I pulled the Bullet Back shafts, every single one was bent. I'm assuming someone bend them on purpose because they were all bent, but maybe they were been bent because they where not strong enough to withstand the golf swing.

 

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

11 minutes ago, Stephen8802 said:

When I pulled the Bullet Back shafts, every single one was bent. I'm assuming someone bend them on purpose because they were all bent, but maybe they were been bent because they where not strong enough to withstand the golf swing.

 

Well, your callipers put mine to shame😄

 

As I have only the one bent shaft, I just assumed it was through play. It also bends back from the handle to the head, as if the head bit into the turf and the hands kept going forward. However, it could have even been done in anger.

 

It's also not a huge bend, as I didn't notice it right away, but enough to see when you look right down the shaft. That also makes me think it came from normal play. Maybe hitting into a tree trunk or something?

 

[cold_war_era_golfer]

GREAT FINDS!!  Jealous of the Tommy Armours.  Those have just enough wear that I wouldn't mind throwing them around in my Jones bag but still have plenty of life left!

[Stephen8802]

Pair those up with one of the D.S. wedges, throw in an Iron Master, and you would be good to go. If I lived in Chicagoland, I'd be happy to loan them out.

 

I'll hit these and I'm curious how they will feel. I may wait a bit though until things warm up.

[Brewski_golfs]

14 hours ago, Stephen8802 said:

I agree, the wedges are awesome. I have at least 30 classic wedges now but was flabbergasted when I found these because they are in such great shape. I'll play with all of them eventually.

 

As for the shaft diameter, I also thought they would be wide when I pulled my first Staff aluminum shaft, but they are actually narrower.  I was expecting to put in some unitized DGs, but the taper tips were the answer.

 

They are very odd shafts with thick walls and are about .320 wide. I say about because none of them are round, they are as narrow as .318 in spots. There isn't much to ream, but it still takes a while to do a whole set. But it won't take too long to swap just two heads.

 

I've done a bunch of Staffs now and this is consistent. I started with a '68 wedge I picked up a few months ago, then did the whole first set of Bullet Backs yesterday. Dynamic .335 taper tips fit perfectly after the reaming. By the way, if anyone is hesitant to convert a staff aluminum shaft head to a steel shaft, it isn't that hard at all. It's much easier than I thought and doesn't take much metal out.

Awesome haul, finding that in a thrift store is amazing!  Curious about the Aluminum shaft pulls.  I have a set of 67 Dynapowers with aluminum that I have considered re-shafting, but was worried it maybe more difficult than normal shafts. Are you using the typical approach of a torch with a shaft puller?  

[Stephen8802]

I don't have a shaft puller, I use a propane torch and a tool I made after seeing a Mike Rees Video on removing pins. (I can't say enough about how much I learned from Mike Rees videos, what a gentleman for sharing his knowledge with the world).

 

First I run the ferrule and surrounding shaft and head under hot water in the sink until I can slide it up the shaft a 1/4 inch or so. Then I have a bit of sock I've cut off, the top inch or so, connected to some velcro on one end. I soak the sock in cold water and wrap it around the shaft, with the hard seam of the sock up against the hosel and the rest over the gap and ferrule. The last inch of the sock strip attaches to the velcro, then when you close it, the velcro wraps around itself and keeps the wet sock tight against the ferrule. That will give you some protection and a better chance of saving the ferrules.

 

Then I heat the head with the torch, stopping every now and then to use the wood tool to twist the head in the opposite direction of a ball strike. The first one is a bit of a guessing game, but they should all take about the same amount of heat, so once you get the timing down, the rest are easier. I wear my winter work gloves, leather with a fleece lining inside, so once I get movement, I can just grab the head and twist it off. Put the hot head the ground, wipe the shaft tip with a wet rag to cool it, then slide off the ferrule if it made it through. I lost two out of seven ferrules, but saved the rest for another set. I put on some nice ferrules I bought from ebay on this set, black with red and silver rings, and I like the way they look. Not factory, but then again, the shafts that say Cleveland on them give that away.

 

Then I reamed each one with a .335 reamer I bought from Goflworks, using the reamer, a handle I had from my Dad's tools, and some 3 in 1 oil to lube it. The .335 pulls slide right in.

 

Getting them off wasn't too hard. One of the Ferrules I lost was for the stubborn head that required a lot more torch to come off. The other was just a little deformed, but also a tougher head to remove. The tool helps a ton. If my dad were here, he would remind us that if you gave Archimedes a lever and a fulcrum to place it on, he could move the world. I sure wish the old man were here to work on clubs with me, he would have enjoyed it.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by Stephen8802

[Brewski_golfs]

The Mike Rees videos are very informative and I have watched all of them.  I picked up a bottle jack shaft puller from ebay and it has served me well, and it basically uses the same method as shown above (Heat + leverage).   I had been nervous the heat would melt the aluminum shaft before I could get the head removed, but based on your experience I decided to give it a try tonight.  A few needed a little extra coaxing but all in all it went way easier than I expected.  Results are below, cooling on the garage floor, 2-PW.  The original aluminum set I picked up was missing the 5, but I found a bullet back 5 with a bent aluminum shaft in a bin and figured it needed a new home.  Now I just need to ream them and find a set of donor .335 shafts.  Any advice on good donor sets to get a set of the shafts?

 

 

[Stephen8802]

I'm psyched you gave it a shot and pulled it off. I don't think there is anything I've tried yet that I haven't been nervous about, and most of it has been easier than I thought it would be.

 

I've had my best luck with the big brand names from about the year 2000, give or take a few. I bought a set of DCI irons at a Goodwill for $35, pulled the S300 shafts, then sold the heads for $35 on eBay. The last set was some Cleveland TA3s for $25, about the same time period, with Dynamic stiffs. Get to the Golfworks archives on the web and look for all the major brands from about that time period that have .355 shafts, then hit up thrifts on a regular basis. You can also just search on your phone for that site from the store and figure it out. (Here is the DCI page: https://www.golfworks.com/images/art/titleist.pdf).

 

If you are willing to ream them out to parallel, then pretty much any full set with the right flavor of dynamic or rifle shafts would work. Golfworks sells both reamers, so the work would be about the same. I would have gone there if I didn't find the .355s, but I held out a bit and a set fell in my lap.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Stephen8802

[thepunch_out]

19 hours ago, Stephen8802 said:

Pair those up with one of the D.S. wedges, throw in an Iron Master, and you would be good to go. If I lived in Chicagoland, I'd be happy to loan them out.

 

I'll hit these and I'm curious how they will feel. I may wait a bit though until things warm up.

I'll second @coldwareragolfer on this one, those Armours are gorgeous!! Like you said, toss in one of those wedges and maybe a brassie, you've got yourself a really fun vintage short set. I actually came across an old copper faced M75 2-iron over the winter here in Chicago that was just in too good of shape to pass up. I took it to the course for the first time yesterday not expecting much, but boy oh boy was I wrong. This club is just tailor made to blast stingers off the tee. I'm not sure if it was cut down at some point or just naturally the length of a modern day 5-iron, but this club holds the ball nice and low on a windy day and carries roughly 200-210 plus rollout. Doesn't require you to do anything cute to hold it low, just swing away and enjoy. Pleasant surprises like this, with 65-70 year old equipment is what golf is all about for me at the moment. There's just something so cool to picking up a club that old, one that probably hasn't been touched in decades and throwing it right in the bag for a round of play. Great finds @Stephen8802! Like you said, this is the haul you quiet yourself at night dreaming about.