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Antique hickory shafts

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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. :o  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.

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