Inbound from Australia: TourStage potential refinish?

[sticksgolf]

This old TourStage Anser-variant caught my eye on Ebay for very little cash.

 

I have humble visions of a home-brew refinish job. Owing to age I'm fairly sure it's some kind of carbon steel so Coca-Cola will be my first effort at stripping, just to see what happens. The existing finish looks like a worn & thinnish OC but since I've yet to see it in person I'm not sure. Who knows about the insert...

 

One thought is to have the head bead blasted and then either do it in some kind of black(ish) or perhaps leave it raw with fresh paint fill. 

 

Any thoughts, ideas or advice would be much appreciated.

 

There was a really clean one posted here many years ago (and it was old then!) so it's one old putter.

 

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday.

 

Cheers.

 

PC

 

 

 

 

[Nessism]

If the head was carbon steel, I think there would be evidence of red rust somewhere.  My guess is stainless with an aluminum insert.  

[Milfordlefty]

No guess on insert material, it appears if you remove the screws, the insert will come out.

[sticksgolf]

4 hours ago, Nessism said:

If the head was carbon steel, I think there would be evidence of red rust somewhere.  My guess is stainless with an aluminum insert.  

 

Perhaps, but my old stripped oil can Cameron stayed rust-free as long as kept a little coat of baby oil on it. 

 

Here's pics of a healthier sample from 2007, but it was already an old putter at the time.

 

 

 

[MachineHack]

easy way to tell if it’s carbon or stainless, just see if it’s magnetic (unless it’s cast 17-4 or some other 400 series, than it’ll be magnetic)

 

theres a mob down in Victoria that can do black oxide on both carbon and stainless steel, used them in the past for some parts and they were good (black oxide finishers or something was the name would have to look again) 

 

i would 100% media blast it tho, it’ll save you some headaches, pull the insert first 
 

And I would stay a black oxide or similar, that fine face milling can disappear real quick otherwise 

[sticksgolf]

20 minutes ago, MachineHack said:

easy way to tell if it’s carbon or stainless, just see if it’s magnetic (unless it’s cast 17-4 or some other 400 series, than it’ll be magnetic)

 

theres a mob down in Victoria that can do black oxide on both carbon and stainless steel, used them in the past for some parts and they were good (black oxide finishers or something was the name would have to look again) 

 

i would 100% media blast it tho, it’ll save you some headaches, pull the insert first 
 

And I would stay a black oxide or similar, that fine face milling can disappear real quick otherwise 

i know about the magnet test but it’s tough to do until it’s in my hands…maybe later this week.        😉

 

if the head weight is really what it’s said to be (350G) I’d be happy to lose most of the face milling since I’m not a fan (feel/sound wise).

 

Anyway, it should be interesting!

 

Cheers.

 

PC

[autronicdsm]

On 10/2/2022 at 3:17 PM, sticksgolf said:

This old TourStage Anser-variant caught my eye on Ebay for very little cash.

 

I have humble visions of a home-brew refinish job. Owing to age I'm fairly sure it's some kind of carbon steel so Coca-Cola will be my first effort at stripping, just to see what happens. The existing finish looks like a worn & thinnish OC but since I've yet to see it in person I'm not sure. Who knows about the insert...

 

One thought is to have the head bead blasted and then either do it in some kind of black(ish) or perhaps leave it raw with fresh paint fill. 

 

Any thoughts, ideas or advice would be much appreciated.

 

There was a really clean one posted here many years ago (and it was old then!) so it's one old putter.

 

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday.

 

Cheers.

 

PC

 

 

 

 

 

Careful with blasting. If it is soft steel you might remove too much. Start off with low pressure and go from there.

I've blasted few heads and they were fine until I did some old MacGregors and it removed way too much material!

[sticksgolf]

Thanks. Hoping to have it in my hands this week. I'm guessing carbon could it could be stainless.

 

If it's stainless it's a real early one.

 

 

[MachineHack]

If you send to a shop and tell them you just want the finish removed they’ll spec the appropriate media 

 

plastic pellets or walnut shells most common these days, you don’t need an aggressive media to remove the finish.

 

People blast softer metals than carbon steel 

[autronicdsm]

3 hours ago, MachineHack said:

If you send to a shop and tell them you just want the finish removed they’ll spec the appropriate media 

 

plastic pellets or walnut shells most common these days, you don’t need an aggressive media to remove the finish.

 

People blast softer metals than carbon steel 

 

Yes that's true. I went to a stripping place where you can rent a cabinet and do it yourself. They just set it up and show you how to use it. Just giving him heads up on what to look out for.

When their employee was showing me what to do, sparks were flying because pressure/media was so aggressive.

[sticksgolf]

On 10/3/2022 at 7:43 PM, MachineHack said:

easy way to tell if it’s carbon or stainless, just see if it’s magnetic (unless it’s cast 17-4 or some other 400 series, than it’ll be magnetic)

 

theres a mob down in Victoria that can do black oxide on both carbon and stainless steel, used them in the past for some parts and they were good (black oxide finishers or something was the name would have to look again) 

 

i would 100% media blast it tho, it’ll save you some headaches, pull the insert first 
 

And I would stay a black oxide or similar, that fine face milling can disappear real quick otherwise 

it’s now in hand and definitely some kind of carbon steel as it is (weakly) magnetic, but surely far more magnetic than the 303 and 304 heads I have on hand.

 

the finish looks less like oil can up close but my first effort will still be with a Coca-Cola soak. Can’t hurt & should be interesting.

 

 

 

 

[Nessism]

If it's carbon steel it won't be weakly magnetic, it will be strongly magnetic.  There will be rust on it too.   Maybe 17-4, which is magnetic, but not strongly.

[MachineHack]

7 minutes ago, Nessism said:

If it's carbon steel it won't be weakly magnetic, it will be strongly magnetic.  There will be rust on it too.   Maybe 17-4, which is magnetic, but not strongly.

17-4 is a casting grade stainless, you wouldn’t machine it as a base (not saying you can’t machine it) but you wouldn’t never select it as the base metal to than machine which the px2 clearly looks machined. 17-4 is hard a heck for stainless and will kill your tooling and I don’t find it that weak a magnetism either. My A4 is always getting stuck to the putter cover magnetic lol

 

the coating my be weakening the magnetism 

 

 

[Nessism]

That putter could have been cast, then machined afterwards.  And yes, 17-4 is hard...which is maybe why Bridgestone put the insert in it. 

[WanLefty]

On 10/6/2022 at 1:02 AM, autronicdsm said:

 

Yes that's true. I went to a stripping place where you can rent a cabinet and do it yourself. They just set it up and show you how to use it. Just giving him heads up on what to look out for.

When their employee was showing me what to do, sparks were flying because pressure/media was so aggressive.

 

Those sparks you saw were most likely chrome plating and not pressure related.

 

The other potential here is some type of black chrome or black nickel in which case blasting won't get all of it out and neither will vinegar or coke etc. That'll have to be chemically stripped properly.

 

Wan

[sticksgolf]

15 hours ago, Nessism said:

If it's carbon steel it won't be weakly magnetic, it will be strongly magnetic.  There will be rust on it too.   Maybe 17-4, which is magnetic, but not strongly.

Milled 17.4 seems unlikely.