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butt trimming vs. tip trimming


wiedmayer

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What is the effect on flex?
I am a bit confused in this area. I had always thought that by tip trimming it will make the shaft play stiffer than the stated flex. However, if you cut from the butt (without tipping the recommended amount) it will make the shaft play weaker than the stated flex.

In a recent discussion with some PGA professionals they mentioned that I was wrong. They said that regardless of where I cut the shaft it will be stiffer. I agree that it will be stiffer, but not stiffer to the stated flex. They think of it this way I have 12 foot piece of wood and it bends alot when I wiggle it, but when I cut to 3 feet it bends significantly less. I agree with them here, but I didnt think this was true with shafts. What about soft stepping putting the 4 iron shaft in a 5 iron and cutting it to length supposedly makes the shaft weaker correct? So how could they be right and this method still work?

So my question is does butt trimming make a shaft make weaker to flex?

Thanks for you time and if there is any links to make this clearer please attach. Thanks again.
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Its important to note that you can only soft step with a tapered tip iron. The reason is because they come in predefined lengths and the shaft is tapered relative to those lengths. Hence, the 4 iron will have a lower frequency than the 5 iron and when you stick a 4 iron shaft in a 5 iron and cut it to the 5 iron length, you reduce the frequency of the 5 iron when compared to the normal 5 iron shaft. It will be slightly stiffer than it would have been had you left it uncut but less stiff than if you stuck the normal 5 iron shaft in. This is why you can achieve the "in between" flex. With parallel tip irons, you have 8 shafts (for 3-PW) that are all the same length and are cut down to the desired lengths. When the shafts are cut down to these lengths, they become the correct stiffness for that particular iron which is relative to the length but sticking any one shaft in another club would not affect the stiffness. I know this sounds confusing but basically, the guy was right and softstepping works but its based on the fact that you take a tapered tip shaft with a predefined length.

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If you think of the shaft as a tapered tube - small and flexible in the tip, large and rigid at the butt - then trip trimming makes more sense.

 

With standard steel shafts, this is indeed the case.

 

If you have a shaft that is 41" long and you want that shaft to be 36" long in the finished club, you can trim from the tip, the butt, or both.

 

If you removed all of the extra length from the tip, the shaft would be stiffer. Why? You removed the small tip section and replaced it with the larger butt section in that 36" of shaft that you kept.

 

If you removed all of the extra length from the butt, the shaft would be softer. Why? You cut off that stiff butt section and left in the weaker tip section in that remaining 36" of shaft.

 

How would either play relative to the 41" shaft? It's not really relevant - since the new shaft is NOT 41" long any more, it's only 36" long and that shorter length will be more rigid (like comparing a yard stick with a ruler) regardless of whether you trimmed from the tip or the butt.

 

If you are asking about PLAYING FLEX in a finished club, that will also depend on head weight. A shorter shaft plays to the same frequency slope or playing flex as a longer shaft when the head weight goes up and the tip is trimmed on the shorter shaft.

 

Does any of this help?

 

-t

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