Before & After Grind work on my wedge

Hey,

I just wanna share something new to my current golf toys.

First of all, I never owned or have bought a Vokey wedge.
Becoz way way back, I have always loved how Cleveland ( Roger Cleveland days ) was creating those Great Wedges.

Then when he went to Callaway, I became a Callaway wedge fan.

In my own personal golf ware house, I was maintaining five ( 5 ) 52 deg Cally wedge, two ( 2 ) 58 degree and two ( 2 ) 60deg.

So I thought of why not try trading my seldom used 52 to an old Vokey 56 deg. Luckily, I was able to find a Golfer who was willing to trade.

Hence here are the photos and later you will see how the Grind work did to my New ( Old ) Vokey 56

First the Callaway X series Jaws 52deg i had and wanted to trade





If you noticed on the Upper most part, the sole area look "Rusty"
I had it Grinded and there was a discoloration that took placed

To make it look beautiful, I have to re-chrome it. But I didn't

And this is the Old Vokey 56 wedge i got from a friend, who wanted to sell it but gladly gave it to me by trading it




the old rusty look on the clubface

The two ( 2 ) other photos....





I showed this to a friend and he told me, I got short changed on the deal. I just told my friend to just wait and see

This is my old Gamer Wedge ( Scoring club )...
Cleveland 588 RTG ( Raw tour Grind ) DSG ( Dynamic Sole Grind ) 56 deg


I showed this old wedge to my factory worker, a trusted machinist, and upon seeing this.
he calmly told me, its chicken.

So i waited for 3 hours and....

bro what did you do to the Vokey? I have one that I would love to refurnish but never got the motivation, maybe after seeing your results i will finally willed myself to getting it done....

waiting...waiting....waiting

The New looked....



somehow my machinist was able to copy and make it DSG Look

And the New Groove looked....



rust looked Gone, Re-sharpen groove and clean Looking New

I had a lot of confidence in my machinist becoz of the past grind work he did in my 59deg wedge...Bend to 60deg

The Old Look...



The New Grind work

wow. very very nicely done. only problem with grinding is that the bounce will be affected. was ur machinist able to adjust it to the desired bounce?

anyway, u or ur machinist should seriously consider putter / wedge refurbishment. lots of ppl here would b very interested

Lastly, not many people know how to Grind.

I have attempted once and it was a disappointing.

The club maker who said he can do it...failed.

When you have your wedge ....Grinded.... your wedge will become lighter

So you must check the swing weight.

My preferred swing weight for my 52 to 54 deg wedge is D4

and 56 is D 7

and 58 to 60 deg wedge is D8

those grooves look really wide.. wider than before the new groove rules were made.

scottycollector wrote:

wow. very very nicely done. only problem with grinding is that the bounce will be affected. was ur machinist able to adjust it to the desired bounce?

anyway, u or ur machinist should seriously consider putter / wedge refurbishment. lots of ppl here would b very interested

No I didnt told him and don't want to pressure him.

The DSG or C Grind is my prefer choice becoz i can easily open the club face to make a flop shot or
closed it...making it 53 to 54 if I just want to chip or pitch my ball to the green

mizzy wrote:

those grooves look really wide.. wider than before the new groove rules were made.

Honestly, I hope so...

But I have my doubts. Any modification done can be illegal if I will used this during tournament

Actually it is not difficult at all to grind wedges. I've done a few together with my friend at his place.

We started out drilling holes in the back to reduce weight and move the CG a tad higher.

Then, with some unwanted old wedges sponsored by golf buddies, we got more adventurous and started off "grinding" the sole, leading edge, toe and heel with just a simple hand file!

The easiest to grind were forged carbon steel. It is SO soft and easy to work with. The most difficult is cast iron steel wedges.

From the pics, the grind that you prefer is very straightforward. Just take out the back of the bounce. That would reduce the weight by about 10g or so.

The most important thing I learnt about grinding is clubhead CG. Weight affects CG location. Most wedges have their default CG about 2-4mm horizontally nearer the heel. To remove weight from the sole, and yet maintain SW by adding about 20g in the shaft tip moves the CG at least 2-3mm upwards and even nearer the heel.

You'll need to hit almost a shank and punch really hard downwards just to get good feel and contact.

That is why at the later parts of my grinds, I usually take off more from the heel area to keep the CG as near center as possible. Weight is also added via lead tape on the back of the club. I've also cut off and shortened the hosel and reamed the bore just to tune the CG. And it really makes a lot of difference.

You should try to do it yourself again. It's definitely much more rewarding and accurate since you will know exactly what you want.

bro r510tp, you learned DIY clubmaking from Maltby?

wo, he even rechromed it for you. Can recomend this excellent craftsman to us please? Where can we find him?

haragolfer wrote:

wo, he even rechromed it for you. Can recomend this excellent craftsman to us please? Where can we find him?

Haragolfer, you have to take aeroplane there.

wah lau, thailand ah....... xian half. Really no one in sg to do this kind of work hor?

mloy wrote:

haragolfer wrote:

wo, he even rechromed it for you. Can recomend this excellent craftsman to us please? Where can we find him?

Haragolfer, you have to take aeroplane there.

maybe take bus also can?

Nice grind!
Are you shooting better scores with the wedges? Do they allow you to open up and flop more shots around the greens?

pushslice wrote:

bro r510tp, you learned DIY clubmaking from Maltby?

Not really.... more from school of hard knocks....

Desperately need to find a cemetery to bury all my ruined shafts and clubheads....

Lest I be charged with NPNT........


It took me only about 15min with a hand file to do this.....


Almost completed sole grind. Chrome stripped for better feel. It's not too clear in the pic but the heel grind is much much higher than the toe area. Note about 80% of the word "Cleveland" on the sole was grinded away...


Acid parkerize treatment to prevent rust. See the aggressive bubbling.

bro r510tp,

you hardcore.. i file also not as fast and effective as you on my wedges..

i have a few grinds.. would you please teach me your technique?

Thanks for the compliments Mizzy!

Actually I don't have any specials skills or techniques. Just brute force!

The most important thing to determine before the grind is to know what are we trying to achieve with the grind. Flop shots from green side? Dig into rough? Chip from hardpan? What can we not do with the wedge now that we want it to do? Or what shots do we usually struggle to execute when using the wedge?

Then we must find out our swing styles. Take a look at the below url for reference:
http://www.mygolfspy.com/scratch-wedge-grinds/

As I've mentioned earlier, some wedges are soft and very easy to grind. I used a bastard file and then a second cut to smooth things out. It's important to clamp the head tightly when filing.

During grinding, keep checking the weight and CG of the clubhead. Don't let it shift too much away from the standard specs unless you are trying to modify some aspects.

That's about it! In fact, if you were to ask me the types of grinds, I cannot even name you one now!

Happy grinding and share some pics!

bro r510tp,

how do u figure the wedge CG when its still attached to the shaft?

You can only estimate the CG when the shaft is installed.

Before grinding, you must remove the shaft.

Bro,

How do you estimate the CG on the head? do you balance it on the face with a sharp object?
So you got access to a table clamp?

The CG of all the irons and wedges I've played with all fall within 10mm of each other. While the difference is very slight, the result on our golf shots are very significant.

To find exact CG on the clubhead, you must pull the shaft. Here's a clubhead CG marker:
http://www.golfmechanix.com/Items.asp?Pdts=07&CatDescription=CG%20and%20inertia%20surveying%20instruments

Instead of a CG marker, you can use any pointed object like a blunt pencil or a tee. You'll just have to hold the pencil or tee very still or clamp it vertically. Then you can balance the club face on the pointed end. Don't drop the clubhead or you may dent it.

This part is confusing, but to estimate the iron CG with shaft intact, you can:
(1) tie a string to the grip and hang the club where it can swing without obstructions
(2) let the club stop moving completely
(3) use a pointed object (eg pen with cap on) to gently tap on the clubface
(a) if the clubface twists, then the spot you last hit is not the CG
(b) if the club swings straight back and forth, then the spot is very near the CG

Hope I didn't confuse you further....

I think what you meant about table clamp is a vice clamp. With a vice clamp, the angle was difficult to file. So I used a cheap (<S$10) F-clamp to secure it to a table top (as in my first pic). That allows me to work on the back easily. Here's a sample of the F-clamp I used:
http://www.goodhand.com.tw/fclamp.htm