No Carbon Steel FW's?

[golfdu]

How come fairway woods are stainless steel and sometimes titanium, but not forged carbon steel? Wouldn't a forged carbon steel head be more bendable for lie angle and loft?

[iacas]

13 hours ago, golfdu said:

How come fairway woods are stainless steel and sometimes titanium, but not forged carbon steel? Wouldn't a forged carbon steel head be more bendable for lie angle and loft?

Most have adjustable hosels these days for that. Plus I don't think you want the hollow face of a fairway metal to be all that soft.

[1badbadger]

Like @iacas mentioned, carbon steel is softer than stainless steel and titanium.  This makes adjusting hosels for loft and lie easier, but with some fairway wood models having a face thinner than 2mm they are designed to flex, and a softer material that is that thin would probably become dented.

[golfdu]

But what if a harder carbon steel was used in production? It doesn't have to be in the 1020 range or even the 1030 range like almost every forged carbon steel iron.

[mvmac]

36 minutes ago, golfdu said:

But what if a harder carbon steel was used in production? It doesn't have to be in the 1020 range or even the 1030 range like almost every forged carbon steel iron.

The short answer is that it's probably not cost effective. It would cost more to produce and it might not be as durable that what is currently used.

For most golfers there really isn't much of a need to have a bendable a fairway wood, it's a big head/big sole so it doesn't make a huge difference. PING had fairway woods for several years that you could order with different color codes but eventually ditched the idea.

And like @iacas said, there are plenty that are adjustable. 

[jamo]

There's also not really much reason now to be able to adjust loft and lie since they have adjustable hotels.