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Cast vs. Forged Golf Clubs - By Jason Rowe |
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If I had $1.00 for every time someone has asked me what the difference between a cast club and a forged club is, I would be writing this article from my Penthouse in Beverly Hills! As this is not the case and I have not been remunerated for my explanations previously, I thought that it would be very sporting of me to write this article for this new and exciting web site to further enhance the reader’s technical knowledge of Golf equipment. So, without any further a due, let’s kick in to the nuts and bolts of forged vs. cast.
The game of Golf has become quite technical and I have always preferred, when selling golf equipment, to err on the side of simple as apposed to scaring our customers off with unnecessary technical hype that would leave a NASA employee puzzled. Over the next few paragraphs I am going to give you a very understandable breakdown of how clubs are produced.
There are two methods that are used in producing irons. The first is called forging, it is a fairly time consuming process that requires skilled club makers and very precise tooling in order to create a quality finished product. A solid block of mild steel is placed in between a mechanism that works like a coin press. The one side of the press has a mould that looks like the face of the iron, the other press looks like the back of the club head. With great force these two presses are banged together as if they where clapping hands and “voila” you are left with a compressed, fault free solid iron head that just needs to be polished smoothed and dipped into chrome to steal it from rusting. The major benefit of forged club heads over cast is the unmistakable soft feel on impact and due to the compressing of the steel during the press process, the club head is left void and fault free. Hogan and Mizuno are the best forgers of the modern era.
Cast club heads are the norm in today’s times due to the speed and economical cast that it takes to produce a club head. Please note however that certain major brands have taken casting to a new level and in no way are these club heads inferior to forged heads, If you could, imagine the days when your Gran used to pour the batter into a baking tray that was shaped like stars, triangles and sea shells and 30 minutes later out came these delicious golden brown biscuits. Casting is very similar in that hot steel is poured into moulds that resemble club heads. The hot mould is then dipped into cold water to solidify the club head and all the remaining scruffy bits are polished away. The club head is either satin, or mirror polished to enhance the aesthetics. Certain club heads are sand blasted which gives a very industrial yet durable finish. The Ping Company has made this look famous as they where the first company to produce heel-toe balanced irons with cavity backs and have always made use of the casting process as apposed to forging.
Generally, forged irons are made for the more discerning golfer who maintains a nine handicap or less however, quite a few of the brands that are renowned for forging their clubs are now producing models that are much more user-friendly to the higher handicapper.
I hope this little article has cleared some of the confusion as far as forged vs. cast irons are concerned. If you would like to demo and feel for yourself what the difference really is, pop into your nearest Golfers Club store.
Author: Jason Rowe
SA Golf Trader 0 APRIL/MAY 2006
SA Golf Trader profile.
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