What can you tell me about forged irons? - Page 4

A set of forged rods in a racing engine are the only type used. Cast are considered junk and for street use only. Cast crankshafts also junk compared to a forged crank. There is a big difference in price between the two also with forged being about 4 times higher. There is a big difference but I don't think so much when it comes to golf clubs. I think in years past it made a big difference because most all forged clubs were blades and hard as hell to hit but felt great when hit on the screws. I have found forged golf clubs have a smaller sweet spot and are much less forgiving on missed swings. They do get beat up easy in the bag and the loft and lie does change through use at times. The newer cast clubs feel as pure on well struck shots as any forged club too me.

IMHO most of it is twaddle, you get the most popular wedges are Vokeys and Cleveland- cast. Have seen many net warriors surprised that their prized short sticks were in fact cast. Everyone else (other OEMs) are playing with forged to try and grab some market share by offering something different. 

 

I also never understood the feel argument, it happens after impact so its not like it can help your game. Unless people are claiming they are some form of golfing Jedi that can feel what the ball is doing on the club face and can adjust the club accordingly in the fraction of a nano-second that is impact. Even with with a cast club you can tell when you have missed the sweetspot and if you are in doubt you can have a look at the face and see all the dimple marks out past the grooves on the toe, simple. If you miss the other way and hit the hosel you don't need a forged club to tell you there is something slightly amiss with your swing!

I think there are many differences between cast and forged. 1. Forged rusts pretty badly. I just bought a forged Callaway wedge, the Jaws, and on a recent trip I left it in the car at the motel. Even with a neoprene cover on it, it was covered in rust in the morning. Somehow, moisture had gotten to them. That would never happen with a cast club like a Ping. Forged blades have to be babied if you want to keep them looking mint. I wash them after every round, towel dry them and spray WD-40 on them and then slip a neoprene iron cover on each iron---to avoid bag chatter.  I have a backup set of Titliest 710-MB blades (and a primary set of MP-69's) that are two years old and the sweet spots are showing a bit of wear and there are a few nicks from those horrible range balls (RockFlights, Molitor etc). There is just a faint bit of rust----you can barely see it on my 8 iron, 7 iron and wedge. On the other hand, the two sets of Ping Cast irons that I have (I-3 blades and I-10) need no maintenance. I have never sprayed WD-40 on them. I guess they don't rust----unless you leave them in your garage or something. But I believe a set of Pings could probably last forever without rusting if kept indoors.   2. I don't think you can really equate the forged "feel" of a center clubface shot with a center face shot with a cast cavity back club. The cast shot (even one hit in the center of the clubface) feels somewhat muffled and dead in comparison to forged.  When I use my Vokey cast iron wedge, it just doesn't "feel" anything like forged and certainly doesn't sound similar. It's too quiet. I really just hear the grass being swiped and it's like I didn't even just hit a golfball. It just feels and sounds kind of muted. I really don't even use my Vokey gap wedge anymore because I just don't like that muffled feel and sound. I like to hear a solid shot as well as feel it vibrate into my wrists.  3. As previous golfers mentioned in this thread, you can bend a forged club much easier. Being able to adjust your lie angle is another benefit.   I recently had mine bent 2 degrees flat which helped me consistently strike the ball a little closer to the center of the clubface.    I hit cavity backed cast irons (Pings) for a few years but there's just something about the beauty of a chrome finished forged blade, shining in the sun, and the feedback that you get from them. True game improvement clubs IMO. I guess it's kind of an aesthetic thing. If you can consistently find the center of the clubface, I really don't think a muscleback forged knife can be beat. And you'll have the most beautiful clubs on the course. 

     I had forged irons (Hogan Apex) for years and my best friend growing up played MP-29s and they never rusted, not even a little. Maybe it has something to do with newer forged clubs but they should not rust as long as they are dry. As for the wedge, the neoprene cover is likely what caused the rust. Covers like that stop airflow and do not allow the club to dry and will hold moisture in. 

Aaron,

 

I had Hogan Apex irons (2-PW) for over 13 years. I absolutely loved them!!! If it wasn't for the clubs getting "lost" in a cross country move I would still play them. Now I am an Adam Pro A12 guy.

I would love to hit some Hogan Apex's. Maybe when I go to golf heaven. Can anyone recommend a good protective cover for a forged blade? Neoprene may not be the best way to go. Hard plastic cover? Seems it would be hard to find the right size. Neoprene stretches. 

Check eBay you'll find plenty of Apex's listed at pretty reasonable prices ($100 - $300) for 3i-E (Hogan's equivalent to a PW). 

hey, im with you on forged irons/wedge issue, im only a few years into the game. but back when i was still searching for the right "fit" (brand, iron type, wedge lofts, bag setup etc) i had ping g15 irons 5-pw, a taylormade r9 hybrid, driver, and ping g15 3&7 woods... god i wish i still had those woods for certain local courses now that i know a little more..but i had some ok vokeys, soon i noticed i could only leave divots correctly with my wedges, not irons.. then the ping i20 series came out, and everyone was ranting and raving about the g20 series. How the improvement to that series was amazing and if you like the g15s youll absolutely love the g20s.  but the thing is...I didn't. Don't get me wrong they were good clubs, but i couldn't hit the ball correctly for a million dollars, and i only verified the fact a few days later when i made a trade for my vokeys for come forged wedges by cleveland...and they rocked me to my golf centered core. Immediately I got fit for some Ping I20 irons, I wasn't getting the pansy set like before off of eBay (5-pw, graphite, and on top of that, SENIOR GRAPHITE. Talk about equipment hatred, but i thought i hated my first guitar...this was like my 4th set of irons).

 

So fitted and ordered, all i had to do was wait, for Ping green dot (2* upright & +.5") with the steel CFS shafts and best of all, 4iron through pitching wedge (i wanted all i20 wedges but glad i held back.) Once they came in and 20 mins on the range loosening up and getting used to a set of irons i didn't have to slump over being that im 6'2 and stand more upright during my stance (even on my 64* lob wedge). At first the callaway wedges were ok, but i was in love w ping... hybrid and iron wise at the time. So, i got the Tour-S wedges, and the wedge setup was centered around an old wedge i had gotten offline. It was a Phil Mickelson inspired Callaway X series 64* loft LW with MacDaddy grooves, (the club would peel the cover off a ball if given the chance). That led to making sure i had 4 evenly spaced wedges, and being that the i20 irons PW had a loft of 64, I had no choice. My wedges are PW-46,  GW-52, SW-58, LW-64...at first I was wondering what the he** I was doing. But, using the Callaway around the green made it very clear, it is excellent around the green, will do anything you want it to, including fetching the morning paper from the porch. My 52 & 58 with the Tour-s series putter didnt last 2 months, I saw, and therefore wanted the Ping Anser Irons, already having the Ping Milled Anser #5 putter, Ping g20 3Hybrid, G20 3Wood, but a TM r11 driver(soon sold the driver and 3 wood for titleist, then again. Now own Callaway Razr Fit 9.5 Driver, and Adamsgolf Speedline Fast12 3Wood, and now even an Adamsgolf V4 series 3Hybrid). But back to the wedges, I won an eBay auction for 2 Anser wedges in 52 & 58 degrees and was stoked. Yet when they arrived the previous owner was such a consistent ball striker the sweet spot on both irons was completely worn flat, even with my groove sharpening tool I could not create grooves deep enough to have ANY impact. The ball would hit the ground and keep bouncing forward as if there was reverse spin on the ball. Even chipping the ball would not check even if I used the 52. The 52 and 58 were busts. But before randomly purchasing new wedges I played a 9 hole round with a friend who at the time had some Mizuno MP R-12 wedges, and i picked one up and my Ping wedge at the same time and it felt like a brick v a feather.

 

Within two weeks I had been fit for new wedges, while unable to get the Mizuno MP R-12 series wedges, I did however buy a 52&58 degree Mizuno MP T-4 series set of wedges to go with the Callaway 64* and my Ping I20 series PW. Now I am actually looking for a MP t-4 48* to be able to bend to 46* to replace the ping PW. I have looked to replace the 64* and ONE time found a MP R-12 64* on eBay, but the Bid ended before I could even enter the auction. Since then I have been looking, with the help of a friend who works in a golf store chain, for the two wedges, trying to find the soon to be PW club in the store new, while hunting the internet for the mizuno 64* r-12 OR t-4, just to upgrade the grooves, and the PW needs to be a t-4 IMO to fit in with the same way the ball reacts to the face of the 52 & 58 degree wedges, where if the 64* is a R-12 it will be ok because it is only used around the fringe-15 yards out, and usually hits the ball very shallow with a sweeping motion instead of the PW striking the ball with a steeper, stronger, quicker stroke. 

 

But Having just have 2 clubs that were forged led me on a mission to hunt down as many important clubs as I can that are forged. I purchased the I20s and took a vow, that they would be the last set of cavity back irons that I would own. During the hunt for the perfect wedge setup, while hunting for new irons also (before finding I20s) I tried a Mizuno 6 iron at a Dick's sporting goods store, 15 min till the store closes I randomly grabbed the club to try a forged, blade iron...which I wasn't supposed to be able to hit for another 5 years because i hadnt been playing golf long enough to use forged irons, let alone forged irons that were blades..i mean they're what gods (A.K.A. Pro's) use. Yet the Digital shot reader is saying that the 6 iron blade that could've been forged from Valhalla itself was allowing me to hit the Straightest, Longest, most Perfect Trajectory an iron needs shot. OVER, and OVER, and OVER. i hit 15 to make sure..It was just when the Rocketballz irons came out. So i returned a week later with my old irons in hand, ready to trade in and purchase the Mizuno Blades that were forged.. Yet when i entered the hitting room to show them which Mizuno i was using, there was 4 different sets, all blades, forged, and only identifiable by numbers and letters, not a name... I grabbed what i believed to be the club after trying them all 4. Only to hear the worst words I've heard told to me while in a store named after male genitals "Sorry Sir, It seems this iron belongs to an older set of irons which are no longer carried by this store, or the other store in town. I called to double check" It sucked, But what can you do? you snooze you loose...and I'm Loving the Ping I20's anyway, who knows if i could've hit any club besides the 6iron in that set? But the setup now, Callaway RAZR Fit 9.5 (square, and neutral ball trajectory, natural fade), Adams Speedline Fast12 3w/15*, Adams V4 3H 18*, I20 green dot irons, starting with the 4iron @ 20* loft, and so on till the wedges,46,52,58,64. All clubs with the Winn Dri-tec Blue Mid-Sized Grip, and the Ping Milled Anser #5 green dot, 35" with awinn Jumbo lite black grip, and Scotty Cameron Studio Select Newport 2.6  with 30gr weights, Center Shafted with a Winn Jumbo Lite Tri-Color grip with the gold weight wrench to alter the weights in the sole for faster greens when needed.

You might be better served by the new rocketbladz tours as it sounds like you like a traditional look. They have the forged look and workability with cast forgiveness. Out in February.

What does "cast forgiveness" mean?

 

How is a cast iron head more forgiving than a forged iron head?

 

Are cast muscle back blades more forgiving than forged cavity backs?

 

 

And what exactly is a "forged look"?

Yes, I'm interested in hearing this one too. ;)

Well kids, forged irons are made of this thing called carbon steel. It's softer than the average cast iron. Because of its softness, the face is in contact with the ball for milliseconds longer...that's why they're typically more workable than a cast head. Being more workable means you can put more spin on the ball. If you have a slice swing, a forged iron will only exacerbate that. That's what I mean by cast forgiveness. Sorry if that doesn't mean your definition. I'm sure it exists but I've never even heard of a cast muscleback. Why would anyone do that.

Does anyone read these long posts?

 

Forged v. cast ... Miura says a forging is like grains of sand, a cast like pebbles - to me, that means a forging is more dense.

 

Typically, one can do a lot more with forgiveness in a cast club as to design. That why you see a lot of multi-material designs - cast with forged face inserts, etc.

 

I've never had issues with cast clubheads - they are consistent. It's the OEM build of the club and shafts that are inconsistent.

Well then youre different from most of the tour pros (you know, the guys who play golf for a living) in that they prefer forged clubs because the distances are more consistent.  Also, Id agree with your quote from Miura-san in that forging is more dense because you are packing the molecules together instead of simply pouring them into a mold.

Good grief. Where did you come up with THAT nonsense?!

Vokey wedges are cast muscleback. 

What can you tell me about forged irons?

 

I can tell you that you will need to get your lie angles checked on a fairly regular basis, possibly your lofts as well. Also, they will reduce your handicap by 10 strokes. And hot looking women will follow you around.

Seriously???

 

Seriously.