Yesterday's thrift shopping

[Pinsplitter59]

Apex driver, Nicklaus wood set

dropped into one of my regular thrift shops yesterday.
thought, at first glavce i had really found something with the Nicklaus woods,
a set of Driver, 3 wood, 4 wood, 5 wood.
wasn't until i got home and had a closer look that i notived they are laminated,
they have been shaped in an unusual way so that the laminate lines are curved,
had to look really close to see it, then the plastic hosel cover instead of whipping gave it away as being a budget production.
anyhow still a nice matched set of woods.

Then i saw a Hogan Apex Driver, definitely perimmon!!, but badly dented in the heel unfortunately.
$1 each so i bought the lot.
thought i would clean up the Apex a bit,
2 hours later i had a virtual refinishing workshop!!
running to and from the shed getting tools, off to the hardware store for a polishing kit and paint stripper, etc. etc.
i will try to finish the Apex as nicely as i can, the progress so far is in the pics.
one thing i am not sure about is the stain and laquer.
when sanding it off it seems to be like one layer (stain and laquer mixed together),
because the wood underneath is very clean with no stain colour in it.

question: do they use a stain-laquer mix to coat the wood?
only other way i know is to stain the wood first then apply laquer after.

the Apex has an Apex 3 shaft and original Hogan grip in pretty good condition.
i have only ever done pretty rough jobs on a few woods, so i'll see if i can make this look better.



and the Nicklaus woods

and the workshop.... hehehee

[Bella Woods]

Pinsplitter59:

Did you use a "remover" or just sand it off?

If you took off the seal coat with say,
Zip Strip, and all of it came off (down
to the wood), someone may have used wood filler
(or most likely something else) on the raw
head prior to actually staining/"coloring" it.
I would highly doubt it came "from the factory that way".

You know its funny because I think you can actually do
it either way (wood fill first & stain or stain & wood
fill after) and it works looking at it (not taking into
account the longevity of the finish), but anyone who
has refinished clubs for a period of time would stain
the club first and wood fill it next, prior to the
final coats (poly, varnish, shellac etc.)

I don't think anyone has mixed the final color with
the seal coat since the MacGregor 693/M85 days in
the early to mid 1950s, maybe someone on the board knows more.

As you suspect, most clubs are stained, wood filled and
final coated in that order.

[xgolfx]

[quote name='Bella Woods' timestamp='1317596266' post='3616387']
Pinsplitter59:

Did you use a "remover" or just sand it off?

If you took off the seal coat with say,
Zip Strip, and all of it came off (down
to the wood), someone may have used wood filler
(or most likely something else) on the raw
head prior to actually staining/"coloring" it.
I would highly doubt it came "from the factory that way".

You know its funny because I think you can actually do
it either way (wood fill first & stain or stain & wood
fill after) and it works looking at it (not taking into
account the longevity of the finish), but anyone who
has refinished clubs for a period of time would stain
the club first and wood fill it next, prior to the
final coats (poly, varnish, shellac etc.)

I don't think anyone has mixed the final color with
the seal coat since the MacGregor 693/M85 days in
the early to mid 1950s, maybe someone on the board knows more.

As you suspect, most clubs are stained, wood filled and
final coated in that order.
[/quote]

[xgolfx]

[u][/u


Caution, u can melt the insert if plastic ferrule or trim it can easily be melted. If u must remove 4 o steel wool, the hard way, do not over do the crown.

Charley penna

[Pinsplitter59]

thanks for that.
yes i did discover that paint stripper "melts" the insert....
won't do that again.
the sole plate was where I was going very carefully,
i didn't want to affect the paint fill.
so I used paint stripper on the larger open areas,
then a combination of very careful scraping with a stainless steel scraper and steel wool to remove the varnish near the paint fill.
this worked pretty good, no bad scratches and it polished up very nice.

the other tool i found useful is a very thin Japanese pull saw,
this slides into the face grooves nicely for cleaning and defining them.
how do they cut the grooves originally?

rather than strip it to bare wood,
i think i will try to find a matching stain colour.
then use steel wool to dull off the existing gloss finish,
then spray a urethane gloss over it all.

its a bit like spray painting a car (which i was never any good at...)

[weeicemon]

the other tool i found useful is a very thin Japanese pull saw,
this slides into the face grooves nicely for cleaning and defining them.
how do they cut the grooves originally?


[i]Just remember to not cut through the face screws. That will ruin all of your hard work.
[/i]

[teevons]

how do they cut the grooves originally?

There is a great video on YouTube that show Louisville Golf cutting the face lines with a machine, before the screws are in !!

[Pinsplitter59]

"[i]Just remember to not cut through the face screws. That will ruin all of your hard work."
YEP, i removed the screws and actually had deepen the holes and the countersink a bit as well because of the sanding i did on the face,
they went back in nice and flush.

[/i]