Restoring Irons – 3: Shaft Preparation

Shaft Trimming

There are several ways to cut shafts but the cheap and easy way is this: Go to your local hardware store and get yourself a pipe cutter. It won’t cost more than 10 bucks and will last a lifetime. This device has a sharp wheel and adjustable jaw grips for use on pipes varying in thickness. You rotate it around the shaft and repeatedly tighten it until it cuts all of the way through. Faster and easier than a hacksaw and it also produces a cleaner cut.
WARNING: Overdoing the tightening will damage both the wheel and your shaft (longitudinal cracking may occur!) so take your time, be patient and make plenty of rotations around the shaft.

Once the shaft is cut, file away any rough or sharp edges. Especially at the butt end because if you don’t you may end up with damage to your grips (and hands) later on.
Now that you know how to cut the shaft, you need to decide what side(s) you need to cut from, and how much to take off. Butt trimming on taper tip shafts is done to achieve the proper playing length and tip trimming is done to increase stiffness. (The shorter the tip, the stiffer). (note: Parallel tip shafts all have one raw length and are tip trimmed (for playing length), so more trimming is needed as playing lengths become shorter.)
Should you decide to tip trim your shafts, take note that the hosel will need to be rebored. Usually hosels that are meant to receive taper tip shafts are tailor-made to fit uncut shafts as they are thinner due to the tapering… Another way to achieve stiffer flex is hard stepping. Hard stepping is putting a 3 iron shaft in a 2 iron head. (note: Soft stepping is the opposite).

Taper tip shafts with a 1” tip trimmed 7 iron shaft. Note the tip length increasing as the clubs get longer.

 

Abrading

The shiny layer on the chrome finish on the shafts needs to be removed a bit to allow for the epoxy to ‘take’. The fastest way of doing this is by using a belt sander. The alternative is sanding by hand but that takes a lot more time and effort. Measure the depth of the hosel for the shaft you are sanding and mark the the shaft with tape so you know how far up the tip you need to sand. The trick is to slowly and evenly rotate the shaft with your hand as you are sanding. If you don’t do this you might shave off too much on one side which could weaken the shaft. Sand until the shiny layer is gone and you’re left with a rough surface.
 
Next up: Preparing the Heads