How can I determine if a set of irons have soft-stepped shafts?

[Mainegrw]

Those of you who have read my other posts probably have come to find that I’m a bit of a tinkerer, and I’ll own that as a fact. Recently, I scored a second set of irons fitted with Dynamic Gold Tour Issue shafts, this time in X100, rather than S400. They are Callaway X Forged ‘18 irons, the base set is 5-PW, and then I ordered a second hand 4 iron to add to the set with a standard DG X100 shaft to go with the set. 
 

The surprising thing is, I feel little difference in the extra stiff shafts on the 5-PW irons and still seem to get similar distances and trajectory as I’ve seen with the S400 and other stiff flex shafts, and they feel pretty soft to boot. The 4 iron is a different story, I feel like I struggle to swing it and I’m definitely not getting the kind of distance and trajectory on average that I should be seeing.

 

I am wondering now if the cause is because the shafts are soft stepped on the 5-PW and the 4 iron is setup standard? Where should I measure to verify, and also, where might I find data to compare to? 
 

Also, on another note, I did a direct comparison last night to a set of older Mizuno T Zoid Comp EZ irons I have, fitted with Dynalite Gold S300 shafts, a far more forgiving iron with a softer shaft, but the same lofts through the set, and I found myself preferring the the stiffer irons, hitting them straighter, further and more accurate, which surprised me. Again, it calls into question how the Callaways are setup. 
 

thoughts?

[third-times-a-charm]

If you have a 4 you feel isnt, and the rest are, there should be a difference between the ferrule to the first step that doesnt follow the same progression. if it does follow the same progression it's not stepped in anyway.

[Socrates]

The best way is to get a shaft (or set of shafts) that are uncut and compare them to your shafts.  That should tell you.  Or get very accurate measurements of tip to first step on raw shafts and compare them.  For the Callaway X Forged, you can likely expect about 1 1/4" of shaft insertion into the hosel.

 

You should measure (on your clubs) from top of hosel (not top of ferrule) to the first step and then add the insertion depth to get tip to first step measurement.  Comparing club to club if they are different OEM's usually won't tell you much because they all do stuff to shafts that may or may not follow the shaft manufacturer's specs.

[Mainegrw]

19 hours ago, Socrates said:

The best way is to get a shaft (or set of shafts) that are uncut and compare them to your shafts.  That should tell you.  Or get very accurate measurements of tip to first step on raw shafts and compare them.  For the Callaway X Forged, you can likely expect about 1 1/4" of shaft insertion into the hosel.

 

You should measure (on your clubs) from top of hosel (not top of ferrule) to the first step and then add the insertion depth to get tip to first step measurement.  Comparing club to club if they are different OEM's usually won't tell you much because they all do stuff to shafts that may or may not follow the shaft manufacturer's specs.

Excellent, thank you, this is what I’ll do. This should at least tell me if the 4 iron is consistent to the rest, as the standard DG X100 and the Tour Issue X100 should be close to identical aside from precise weighting. Then I’ll consider what to do from there. I would consider grabbing a new matching shaft and swapping them I suppose, just need to decide if that’s a 4 iron shaft or a 3 iron shaft…

Edited June 19 by Mainegrw

[Stuart_G]

The best way is really to remove the grip and check the etching marks on the shaft.    Or pull the head and compare step patterns to an uninstalled known shaft - or just measure the distance between the last step and the tip and look up that distance on the various TT step pattern drafts.

 

But of course, those might not be the most practical options.

 

So just be aware that the potential problem with comparing to a known shaft step pattern between two shafts that are installed into a heads is that the bore depths are usually an unknown.  It's not uncommon to see variations of 1/4" between different head makes/models - and can even vary by up to 1/2" in some cases.   But even that 1/4" can cause confusion since you don't know which direction the 1/4" is "off" so you can find yourself in the middle of two possibilities without being able to resolve which one.

Edited June 20 by Stuart_G

[Mainegrw]

4 hours ago, Stuart_G said:

The best way is really to remove the grip and check the etching marks on the shaft.    Or pull the head and compare step patterns to an uninstalled known shaft - or just measure the distance between the last step and the tip and look up that distance on the various TT step pattern drafts.

 

But of course, those might not be the most practical options.

 

So just be aware that the potential problem with comparing to a known shaft step pattern between two shafts that are installed into a heads is that the bore depths are usually an unknown.  It's not uncommon to see variations of 1/4" and can even vary by up to 1/2" in some cases.   But even that 1/4" can cause confusion since you don't know which direction the 1/4" is "off" so you can find yourself in the middle of two possibilities without being able to resolve which one.

Good to know… is the difference between a say a 3 iron shaft and a 4 iron shaft really that small though? Or might it be more obvious? 

Edited June 19 by Mainegrw

[Stuart_G]

48 minutes ago, Mainegrw said:

Good to know… is the difference between a say a 3 iron shaft and a 4 iron shaft really that small though? Or might it be more obvious? 

 

The difference in the distance from the tip to the first step is 1/2" between adjacent irons in a set.

 

 

 

[Mainegrw]

1 hour ago, Stuart_G said:

 

The difference in the distance from the tip to the first step is 1/2" between adjacent irons in a set.

 

 

 

Hmmm… another thought after looking at the chart: wonder if the difference I feel is Tapered Tip Shafts vs one Parallel Tip shaft. I measured from the top of hosel (below the ferrule) to the first step on every iron and they are all different on the Tour Issue X100s, suggesting Taper Shaft irons. I wonder if the the 4 iron with the standard DG X100 is a parallel shaft instead, which would feel a little different perhaps? This was a cursory measurement while on lunch at work, more to explore later…

Edited June 19 by Mainegrw

[Stuart_G]

38 minutes ago, Mainegrw said:

Hmmm… another thought after looking at the chart: wonder if the difference I feel is Tapered Tip Shafts vs one Parallel Tip shaft.

 

Very possible.  For most there is a difference in feel between the two.

 

41 minutes ago, Mainegrw said:

I measured from the top of hosel (below the ferrule) to the first step on every iron and they are all different on the Tour Issue X100s, suggesting Taper Shaft irons.

 

They would be different for parallel as well due to different tipping amounts for each irons.

 

The total number of steps would be the first thing to look at to distinguish one from the other.  Although keep in mind steps can sometimes be hidden under the grip.  

 

Also looking up the tip size the hosel was designed to take based on the model of the head might help.   Only a custom club builder would try to get a parallel tip steel shaft into a head designed for a taper tip shaft (hopefully by boring out the head to convert it take parallel).   Graphite would be different but that's not the case here.

 

Not always 100% reliable - but you can check that here:

https://www.golfworks.com/oem-golf-shaft-replacement-guides/

[Milfordlefty]

Not an expert here. Is the step progression from the 5 to PW a 1/2"? Is the length progression 1/2"? Compare the 4i and 5i. Is the step progression 1/2". Is the length difference 1/2"? If there is difference step difference more than a 1/2' between 4i and 5i, then your hunch on soft stepping seems right. Pulling a grip might be the only way to confirm club via etching.