Antique hickory shafts

[StevenT]

I have been a member of PA for a while an mostly just into the knapping side of things. But I do follow the Bows, Arrows and Primitive Skills discussion groups. I will be the first to admit I have not made a bow or any arrows, but I would like to take the skills I have seen you guys use here and see if I can apply them to another interest I have. That would be love of restoring and playing with antique hickory shaft golf clubs. If any of you are familiar with old hickory shaft golf clubs, you know that most of the time, the shafts on these old clubs start to bow or bend. What I want to do in the restoration of the clubs is to straighten the shafts back out. I am thinking I can use the same techniques you use for shaping staves or straightening arrow shafts. I know this is outside the normal primitive archer interest, but it does have some similarities in that the antique clubs are primitive by today's standards, they have hickory wood shafts and I would be shaping the wood.  If there are any objections to me having this thread here, let me know and I will remove it. If it is ok, I would like to continue by getting you guys opinions and ask some questions about heating and bending wood shafts. And for those that mind wonder... my knapping skills and my golf game are about the same in that I have not mastered either, but I sure love trying.

[burchett.donald]

     Steven,
                  I would try a heat-gun. Heat till you can't touch and with a pair of gloves and a towel across my knee or leg try to do some straightening/bending. The heat can cause scorched areas so do it slowly. Maybe a gas grill would do and give you a wider swath of heat. Goodluck
                                                            Don

[StevenT]

Thanks Don. What I was wondering is about the dryness of the wood. Since this wood is from the 1920's and 30's, the wood is going to be very dry. I was wondering if I should try to add some moister to the wood before applying the heat. I was thinking of wrapping the wood with a fairly damp towel for a couple days to give it a chance to absorb some moisture. I also recall on another thread that someone applied oil to arrow shafts before heating to help prevent scorching, so was wondering it that works. I was also thinking about making a jig like what folks do for shaping a bow limb and using clamps to gently pull the shaft straight and then applying heat while it is clamped. I am looking for a couple old junk clubs to experiment with, but just looking for different ideas or thoughts before I give it a try.

[burchett.donald]

   I wouldn't induce moisture. I don't know where you live but the shafts probably have ambient moisture from your humidity level. You could build a jig of some sort but I would try straightening like I would an arrow. Heat, flex/bend and sight down shaft. Adding moisture through damp towels may cause more warpage. Using oil while straightening may affect your final finish unless you are going to leave them that way but it would help guard against scorching. I would use dry heat only. JMHO...   
                                                         Don

[turtle]

I wouldn't add moisture unless you are going to steam them. Otherwise the moisture and dry heat will likely cause the shafts to split. As Don stated they are probably acclimated to your relative humidity and not overly dry unless you live in an extremely arid area. So if it was me, i would use dry heat.

[nclonghunter]

I think some add oil to prevent burning the wood?

[gstoneberg]

I learned to play golf back in 1977 with a hickory shafted set of clubs borrowed from the friend that taught me.  The wedge and 9 iron were missing because he had a temper and had gotten mad after missing greens and broke them over his knee.   I wish I had those clubs today.  I also played a few rounds with an old-timer back then that had whittled a driver out of a single chunk of hickory, head and shaft both.  He wasn't a good golfer, but told a good joke making the rounds fun when you were playing like ... well, you know.  I haven't played in years...takes too long to get a round in anymore and costs too much.

Anyway, the only thing I would add to the advice you've gotten is that you might need to sand off the finish to keep from melting it into the wood (depending on what it is).  I honestly think matching the finish might be the hardest part of your quest (assuming the original finish is faded and yellowed).  Might be easier to take off the finish the entire length and then try to refinish to match the rest of the set.

I'd love to see pictures.

George

[WDELongbow]

I play golf exclusively with hickory shafted clubs.  Most have original shafts that are around 100 or more years old.  The quality of the hickory was better than most stuff we use for shafting arrows today.  I use stiff shafts, and with minimial maintenance, these shafts are still going strong.  I have only had one shaft to chip near hosel end of clubhead.  The Scots actually purchased timber rights in Tennessee so could get hickory on preferred slope, partially up hillsides.  The old-growth timber had a lot of growth rings as well.  As far as straightening hickory golf shafts, my club restorer rubs the shaft over a notch in a wood table.  This generates heat.  Then he applied pressure to take out the bend.

[JEB]

I will start by saying, I am not saying  "do this" but when I work on my self bows and want to get a bend or a set out of them I put them on a bow form and start to clamp while coating the bow with deer fat and heat the fat into the bow.  I get the bow hot, top and bottom but do not burn the bow.  I continue to apply the deer fat while heating it until it bends easy enough to clamp to the form without forcing it.  After the bow is clamped up and cooled down I then take the clamps off.  I sand the bow and it seems as though the deer fat does not have any effect on the finish of the bow.

Not sure if this technique will work on arrows but it would be interesting to see if it works on those old golf club shafts.

I know it's a differant material but I also use heat on bamboo shafts to straighten them out without using deer fat.