anyone make their own iron set? driver?

summerman · May 9, 2010

I'm wondering about making a set of irons. How many of you have done so and was it ever a mistake? What do you do about adjusting lie, loft, swing weight, and what about frequency of shafts, splinining or spining whatever it's called? I'm thinking for 200-300 I can get a full set. I just picture me in the basement with the dremel cutting shafts then putting them in a vise and banging them with a hammer and going out to the course with the ugliest things ever. So has this happened to any of you? If I do try is there any advice? Thanks,

**WUTiger** · May 9, 2010

On occasion, a golf shop clubsmith will "help you" if you come in for tips during slack time. Might talk to other golfers and see if any shops in your area do this. Also, if you can find a part-time club maker who knows his (or her) stuff, they might coach you also.

**delav** · May 9, 2010

I think you'd need to know ahead of time what you are after. Building clubs isn't simply pairing up shafts, heads and grips by luck. There is another guy here who was very excited about building new clubs, but found he couldn't hit his set very well.

I'd find out what shafts and what clubhead you need to achieve your desired swing weight, trajectory and stiffness. You'll also need to know how to cut the shafts down, and if you'd like to soft-step or firm-step the set. Adjusting lofts and lies is something that takes special equipment.

Building clubs seems like the cheap way to get "custom" clubs. However, part of what we pay for when we pay the manufacturer or a club fitter is the know-how to assemble a combination of options, as there are a ton of variables out there. It could be $300 spent well, or a $300 lesson learned.

**MGP** · May 11, 2010

I've been building clubs seriously for about 6 years now. I started with putters and wedges (they're the easiest and least expensive to mess with).

I've built about 10 sets of irons, lots of wedges and putters and maybe a half dozen drivers, fairway woods and hybrids. All told I have about 6 or 8 complete sets of clubs, some I've given to or built for friends. I can't even count the number of clubs I've re-shafted and re-gripped, literally hundreds. I get nice comments about the clubs I've built all the time.

No real duds in any of them. Golfsmith and The Golfworks are good component suppliers and have some good tutorial videos and information on their sites. Ralph Maltby (The Golfworks) has written several good books about golf club building repair and design. Hireko Golf is also good for components and building tips.

If you are serious about it you'll want to get some basic equipment -- it makes a huge difference between something that looks "slapped together" and a professional looking set of clubs. If you start with a few simple clubs you'll know fairly quickly whether it's for you or not and whether you want to make a commitment to going further with club building.

Study up a bit and see if it's for you.

**trumps4** · May 11, 2010

I have built about 5-10 clubs. I have done a couple "wedge sets" along with a driver/fairway wood or two. Could not even guess the number of regrip jobs. I don't have a swingweight scale and I don't mess with frequency matching. Sure, if I were building for Anthony Kim, I'd worry about that stuff. However, I have observed that me and my buddies can only pick up on pretty drastic swingweight changes and have never even been asked about shaft frequency matching. I'd say go for it and see how it turns out. Just take your time and do your homework.
MGP gives good advise in his post above.

em etib · May 11, 2010

If you take your time and know the basics you can build a quality set. I've built multiple sets of irons and haven't had any misses yet. Iron technology has remained relatively unchanged for the last several years and the upper end components you can buy are every bit as good as any OEM club heads you can buy off the shelf.

Drivers are another story. I'd stick with a new OEM driver. The advances that have been made over the last few years are real and not just marketing hype.

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