Question about forged irons

[Cussin hacker]

Alf is correct on this and I'll ad a little.

Tempering is what makes a steel harder or softer. Cast or forged it's the tempering. Now there are diffrent types of steel. Way to numerus to mention here. Casting with steel, aluminum or iron is weaker than being forged. Thats not to say that cast clubs are not up to the task at hand or that you can feel the differents when hitting a ball. Forging is just a better quality steel that's more expensive. It's a process I'm sure you can find on the net somewhere if you want more detail.

Oh and to answer the first question. Moltin metel is poured into what is called an ingot or billit. It can then be shipped to a company who can cast or forge the product their making. Tempering it as needed for hardness.

Edit....Wilderness is also on the right track. As I said. If anyone is really that interested in all this look it up. It's not an easy thing to discuss in detail here.

[alf174]

...but forging is generally done with softer metals.

This is totally incorrect.

Leave it to say forging is a more expensive process than casting, creates a stronger more uniform steel, and it all shows up in the final cost of the product. Casting is no cake walk either.

[bIGwIRE]

The only reason Vokeys are the most popular is because of Achushnet's marketing hype and that they will sponsor anyone and everyone to use their stuff.

Your Mizzys aren't listening.... you don't have to lie.

Like others have posted... the main benifit to forging is in the grain structure. When the metal is pounded or pressed the grain aligns to follow the shape of the part. Unbroken grains= higher strength to weight ratio, but this is not really too important in a golf club. A premium cast head will preform as good as a forged one, however, the quality drops off sharply when proper procedures aren't used. Gas porosity was mentioned as a potential problem, among other things, but these can all be solved pretty effortlessly. (like the metal can be melted in a vacumn or under flux)... all cast heads will still have pockets in them, microscopic ones, as Erik mention, but these will interupt the grain structure... again, not to important when talking golf clubs, as they don't really take too much stress. If you were going to get in a sword fight, however... forged all the way. Just pick a quality wedge that feels good to you, and don't worry if it is cast or forged.

[The Wilderness]

Tempering is what makes a steel harder or softer. Cast or forged it's the tempering.

This is not quite right. Tempering low carbon and some stainless steel is a process to increase the fracture toughness by heating the material and transforming some of the very hard but brittle martensite to banite or pearlite. This increases the ductility of the steel at the expense of a little strength. Other materials like aluminum, some steels (17-4 PH), and many titanium alloys become harder during a tempering or aging process but precipitation hardening is off topic. If anyone is interested in these topics I would recommend William Callister's Materials Science and Engineering: An Introduction. It was my bible as an undergrad.