bobsled Posted January 8, 2016 Share Posted January 8, 2016 Good morning. Has anyone ever tried to make a golf club head. I have an old picture of a blacksmith making an irons. I play with the old hickory shaft clubs and was wondering if it's possible and if so, what metal would be used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted January 11, 2016 Share Posted January 11, 2016 Hmmm, sounds like a good project but be prepared to make a bunch before you get one close enough to right to use. I don't know enough to even guess but with some details on the desired club why the heck not. I think pick a steel with a little chrome in it so it doesn't tarnish like mild steel would. Weight the club head you want to replicate to determine your starting stock. Figure you'll loose a few % every heat but don't go overboard or you'll have to heat it more times. Unless there's something special about them like being hollow I don't see a problem that failure analysis and persistence won't take care of. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bayshore Forge Posted January 12, 2016 Share Posted January 12, 2016 Interesting! Golf has been a large part of my life..from working at a golf course to playing at a high level of competitive golf in high school to being washed up and playing club golf in college. My question to you is what type of iron do you have in mind/ Are you thinking a blade style iron or a cavity back style iron? I doubt a blade style would be hard to make crudely to try out, but a cavity back is way beyond me. I happen to know that a pitching wedge is somewhere in the neighborhood of 48 degrees angled, so if that is what you are looking for then you'd need some sort of device to measure the angle while you tweaked it hot. You'll also want to pay attention to the grind of the sole of the club head, as this can be make or break in terms of hit-ability off of different lengths of grass. Brent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strike Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 I am poor and have 5 sets of golf clubs that looked pretty good to me. used my side blast jabod box and a bunch of wood (burned to nice coals) and couldn't heat the club without my blower. (I have since bought a bag of charcoal and gave up on the wood). Mouth blowing like crazy I achieved a medium red incandescence. Any tips for golf club heads would be appreciated because at the moment they are my primary source of metal. Got a big stump to beat them on, so any input on this thread would be helpful otherwise I will get my first real forge experience, weather permitting, tomorrow. LLAP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billyO Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 7 hours ago, Strike said: Mouth blowing like crazy I achieved a medium red incandescence. Holy cow! You must be a runner to have enough lung capacity for this. I'd like to see someone do this some day? What was the diameter of your pipe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Strike, there is no telling what your golf clubs are made of. This thread was about Making a golf club head, not forging down premade ones. They could be made of all kinds of things and from what I have seen (not a ton of experience with them) usually not rusting, probably zinc coated under the paint. Neither of which you want in the forge. The shafts are chrome plated (if not wood) and you do Not want that in the forge either. You would have to really educate yourself on figuring out mystery metals And safety precautions to even see if they are worth the effort. Probably not. There is certainly way better material to forge If you look for it. Also, there are ways to make very inexpensive blowers or bellows. Charles suggests a air matress hand pump . I bought one and it works fine for charcoal. Time to do a little more research. You don't have to spend much to forge but sometimes just because you have a material doesn't mean its a good material to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy k Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Of course - here's some I've made... starting stock 1/2" X 1/2" square stock, roughly 7" long total. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strike Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Daswulf - I'm with you on all of that. Just lemme say I couldn't find any research on golf club heads or other search engines using the "golf irons" and "iforgeiron"; otherwise I would have posted there. I would love to whip out some other steel but at the moment i'm playing for free, and am actively searching for materials. Honestly I was surprised that no one? has even played with the idea; but I am super new so thanks for all your input. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Even if a golf iron were forgable, its just not a convenient shape for much to start with and adds more work and possible added failure factors like with cold shuts. Ask around, visit some body mechanical shops and ask nicely, see if anyone you know has anything more convenient and less mystery metal laying around. Keep your eyes open for scrap, dumpster dive, lol. There are many ways to find stuff for free. Asking around and explaining what you are doing and looking for has yielded me Much free usable scrap and a little unusable, but hey, scrap the unusable to get more usable stuff. It lets them down when you don't take stuff offered. Just take the junk to the scrap yard. Just be safe about it. Free isn't worth an expensive trip to the ER. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy k Posted September 25, 2018 Share Posted September 25, 2018 Bobsled - One may be able to forge one of the Titanium heads into something useful, but I would get myself some steel more suited for forging if your just starting out. Here are the steps I used to forge the golf club bottle opener heads, which could be used for large heads for a regular club with large stock size : (click on the picture below) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strike Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Daswulf - Thanks man, I am only weeks into this and quite bashful. Like you said, just ask; what's the worst that can happen they say no? LOL. I got my stump/anvil just by asking. It's my error that there are literally over 20 bodyshops in maybe my 10 mile x 10 mile town. Sometimes I feel like I would hate to impose on their good stuff like leaf springs, suspension, rotors, yada...love the tip to turn NOTHING down because it's not polite for one and may ruin a future source. About beating down a golf club, you are so dead on correct about the shape being weird to work with especially with extremely limited tools, I was using vicegrips after the shaft melted off, and was dreaming of tongs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockstar.esq Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Just tossing an idea out there, but if you're trying to make "woods" why not make the head out of wood with a metal face? It'd be a whole lot easier than trying to forge a hollow metal form. That being said, there's an artist blacksmith whose name I can't recall who welds sheet metal on all the edges with an inflater nozzle in between. She heats the whole thing up, then attaches an air compressor to inflate the work into a "pillow"! Really, really, really cool stuff. I bet a sufficiently thought-out welded sheet steel preform could be "blown-out" to make a hollow club head. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted September 26, 2018 Share Posted September 26, 2018 Strike; welcome to the craziness! I googled "what are golf clubs made from?" and got enough links to reputable sites to answer that question in detail. Just getting started you would profit greatly from working mild steel or A-36 in a fairly small size. Check for a steel supply place local to you and remember they generally come in 20' sticks if hot rolled (and cheaper!) and 12' sticks of cold rolled. At Quad-State I bought 2 sticks of 1/4" square stock and used a chisel, hammer and a side of a sledge hammer to nick them and them break them in 6' lengths that would fit in my vehicle. 1/4" square stick can be forged into a lot of items and being small works up fairly fast---it's what I use when I teach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy k Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Ahhhhhhhh - got sucked into a thread title that was from way back in 2016 ARGHHHH!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 embarrassed because the OP has not even been online for over 2 1/2 years? it still a good topic Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Ahhhh, a zombie thread, play on! Strike: Welcome to the addiction, it's a grand malady. Baking air for a fire is really pretty easy in several basic ways. Check out the Youtube channel, Primitive Technology. There's a fellow in England who makes all sorts of really sophisticated things using zippo for tools. His blowers are super basic and you don't really need to do the clay work if you use modern tools and materials. Ahhhh, I found a link to the channel. This video doesn't show him making the blower but it shows enough. I found the video I wanted but the yahoo search made a link that was about 5 lines long. Happily the one I'm including was sent me be a friend and I found it in his email folder. Don't think you need to go the primitive tech route, the videos don't tell you most took weeks to film but his blog does. He's doing this stuff as a hobby. He does smelt ore into iron and makes a . . . I don't recall what. It's a fun channel to watch and I suppose if a person were stranded long enough it'd be good to remember some of it. I have a couple old golf clubs around here somewhere and I've never thought of sticking one in the forge. I even stopped swatting tennis balls around the yard when I lost #4 in the rough. I live in a forest. When I think of who did a bunch of welded inflated hollow forming I'll see if they're still doing it and have anything online. Lots of the gang on the old Artmetal.list played with inflated steel forms. The recent safe trick was to use a pressure washer plumbed to do the inflating in a tub of water. That way is a seam parted the "pillow" didn't rocket engine itself around the shop. MAN I love a good zombie thread! Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy k Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Frosty - Did you say Pillow?.... Frosty - are you thinking of Dorothy Stieliger? (spelling?) I made this pillow as a blow up form back in 2013, never did get around to putting the fringe on it yet. Yes, a golf club head could be done with the inflation method easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 I think Frosty is thinking of Elizabeth Brim, who is well known for her inflated work. Here's a video of her demonstrating: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy k Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Yes John You are right - Elizabeth Brim did those - I knew it was a woman but couldn't put the right name with it right away. Elizabeth and Dorothy are great contributors in the blacksmithing arena. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daswulf Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Looks like "get burned" city with those party blower inflators. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Get burned -- and have fun doing it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy k Posted September 27, 2018 Share Posted September 27, 2018 Blown sheet metal forms are fun to do, but the key is to have good welds around the edges. The sheet I've used has been 16Ga. - play and have fun!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ted Ewert Posted October 4, 2018 Share Posted October 4, 2018 I've built a few putter heads which worked moderately well. You can make them too heavy if you're not careful. Nevertheless, you can also get very creative. .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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