Mar
3
2010
Gear, Golf Clubs, Reference, Review, Tech By Golfernewb | No comments yet

The Basics of Forged Golf Clubs

Since beginning my basic research in golf clubs I have always thought of the construction of golf irons to be relatively the same. Basically a piece of iron milled from a single piece of raw stock. Milled, bent here, grinded on there, laser milling, etc.Somewhat simple, no complex tolerances, or dimensioning a golf iron seems pretty easy to make. What I found from this last weekend is how to make them well, basically to use advanced processes to assure strength, consistency and most of all, feel.

The Steps In Making A Mizuno Iron

I spent some time with the folks from Mizuno at the LA golf on Saturday. I have long known the saying, “Nothing feels like a Mizuno” and I was eager to find out why. Using some of my previous machining and metallurgy knowledge I will attempt to discuss just how Mizuno has perfected the art of a forged golf iron.

The process starts out with a piece of iron extruded to a single dowel. This raw stock in the terms of the metallurgy world is called a billet or ingot. It is bent to suit a mold, inserted into this mold, superheated and then under enormous pressure a large press forms it into a blank. The extra material along the sides is called flashing and it is generally ground off. What Mizuno does then is inserts this piece into ANOTHER press, heats it, and presses it again. The secondary blank is then put into a CNC machine for additional detail work around the edges, back, sole, etc.

Let me point out something here that really surprised me. If you look at the picture about and see the fourth

Milled - Grain Could Be In Any Direction

item from the left, this is the secondary blank that I speak of above. The grooves on a Mizuno are actually forged! This makes them much stronger than if they were just cut. Why? I was just getting to that.

By now some of you may be asking what makes a forged club better than a milled club? Just what makes it stronger? It’s actually two things that does the heating of the iron which helps to harden the metal and the grain. You see there is a primary difference when talking about forging over any other machining process. You are dealing with the basics of the metal, the actual grain. This is why the ingot at the beginning step is extruded (think spaghetti noodle maker, material squeezed through a small hole) you are working the grain of the metal. The bending step keeps the grain consistently formed in

Forged - Grain Is In Direction Of Profile

the same arc as the club. If the material was just poured into a mold like a casting or milled from raw stock without this step the grain could be going in any direction. This makes the metal inconsistent in its integrity its not a bad thing, just not as good. Having the grain flow in the direction of the profile of the club head makes it more consistent in integrity which in turn makes the metal stronger and much more resilient.

I have a few more points from the Mizuno interviews coming up in future posts, I will be addressing the Mizuno proofing of consistency in construction, the new MP-630, Mizuno fitting techniques and why they will be my next set of irons.

Mar
2
2010
Gear, Golf Clubs, Review, Tech By Golfernewb | No comments yet

The Newb Reviews – Taylor Made Burner Superfast

As you all know I was at the LA golf show this last weekend and spent nearly all my time with the manufacturers rather than the booths. I was on a mission to find the newest products and get an idea of how the golf industry was progressing in the realm of technology. I was intrigued to find that most of the latest drivers being introduced focused on one of two aspects in design, aerodynamics or weighting.

At the forefront of the focus for aerodynamics were the Taylormade Burner “Superfast” and the Nike SQ “Machspeed”. In an upcoming post I will talk about the Nike but for now, the TM Superfast.

My motto has been, “To know the burner is to love the burner”. For the money, it was very hard to go wrong in the TM

TM Burner Superfast with Aero-Channels

line of drivers but particularly the Burner series. Designed for the game improvement category, the burners has been widely successful for Taylor Made, I don’t need to see any reports or metrics, I see them all over the course including in my own bag. When I heard of the new driver being introduced I was eager to see the latest developments from the TM engineering staff. I thought maybe composite head construction or face inserts like the Cobra’s, maybe a modified “pear” head like the Cleveland’s something to really make a difference in the driver design. I was actually a bit disappointed in the results. The head has been designed with some aerodynamic “channels” in the sole, the face made larger by about 14% and overall the golf club is lighter. Boasting a full 19 grams of difference in comparison from this year to last.

The design of the sole of the driver was meant to increase the airflow on the downswing and channel the air to assist the alignment of the face at impact. In other words, to help bring the toe around quicker. I assume that TM has done much research on this and it does help, I would be interested to get some data on this. This is not where I was disappointed in the driver though.

What I was most shocked to find out was about the lightening of the driver overall. 19 grams is indeed pretty stout number but how much of this is effective? Let me slip into engineering mode for a brief second, something to consider a gram is NOT a measurement of weight. It gets confused a lot but a true physics definition is that a gram is an SI measurement of mass in description of volume. A “weight” measurement is that of a force that is derived as a result of a mass and an acceleration, normally in terms of gravity. Since gravity is mostly consistent some consider mass and weight identical, a very picky determination but alas one that is present. Apologies, back to the post. So, 19 grams lighter overall how did they do it?

I asked about the breakdown of this reduction of mass in the club and this was the shocking part:

  • 4 grams in the head
  • 1 gram in the shaft
  • 14 grams in the grip

Wait a second, 14 grams in the grip?! That is nearly 74% of the mass reduction in the grip, if you were to change the grip you would lose this advantage. To give you all an idea of the reduction of mass in the head, a single US dollar is also one gram. So, four dollars has the same mass as the reduction of the head.

Overall on the side of technology, I was not so impressed with the latest from Taylormade. I hit the driver and it felt great, just like my ‘07 but with a little more solid feel to it. For my money, I would invest about $40 more and go for the TM R9 460 which to me is quite the world of difference.

Do you have one yet? What are your thoughts on them?

Feb
27
2010
Media, Personal, Review By Golfernewb | No comments yet

LA Golf Show Update

Initial view at the LA golf show

Hey all,

Just got back from the LA golf show in Long Beach. It was very similar to last year with the huge Roger Dunn golf section, manufacturer demos and a bunch of random dealers. The dealers are always an interesting mix of golf related items, time shares, golf vacation dealers and other random health focused vendors. During the next couple of posts I’m going to discuss and transcribe my interviews and notes from the manufacturers that I spoke with including Mizuno, Nike, Ping, Srixon and Taylor Made. I have reviews of the new Callaway Diablo Edge and the Taylor Made Burner Super Fast line to write about. I also had a chance to speak to the Srixon rep in detail about my review I posted and what I thought of the balls from Team Red.

Needless to say, I need to get to work trying to read my lousy handwriting, my typing into the phone for notes and to remember the reasons for the pictures I took. Stay tuned, I learned a bunch and hopefully you will find it interesting.

Let me know if you had a chance to visit the show and your thoughts. Golf On!

← Older Posts
Newer Posts →