What are the differences between a shaft designated as a “hybrid shaft” vs. one that is an “iron shaft?” They are both the same tip size (.370). If I were to install a hybrid shaft in an iron, would I notice a difference in distance (?), trajectory (?), feel??
I’m nearly certain it was Britt who was asked about this in the thread at Golfworks where there was a closeout of KuroKage “X stiff” hybrid shafts early this last spring*.
[*The shafts were then priced at $25.00 each]
Whoever answered the query was asked this same question, and the answer was (paraphrasing mine): “Yes, it can be done, but because the hybrid shaft has a shorter parallel tip section than would a similar iron shaft (4″ in that case ^), you’ll need to ‘get creative’ as far as tip trimming between [the iron] clubs vs. the shaft’s originally intended hybrid heads goes.”
In the case of those ^^^ specific KuroKage X hybrid shafts I bought ten myself (and found four others from another source) with exactly this idea in mind–put the shafts into a set of irons, possibly into one or more hybrids, and potentially even into a set of wedges. If possible, and if I’m not sure where I’m going with an idea, I like to allow as much flexibility as possible until I narrow things down.
At the time I had the black DBM heads in mind as a match and still do. I can move them over from another set (and I do have the three iron head too), but I’ll admit to being intrigued by the new TS1-IM, and I think I’ll want to try one first with this shaft before making a final decision about it. Probably more than once–range balls are cheap. Soon…before the snow flies.
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Given that I do have the DBM #3, my math tells me a trim between heads of 3/8″ rather than 1/2″ between successive clubheads, would be a good way to go, and since my own reference head when testing is a seven iron, that’s a tip trim of 1 1/2″ off a single shaft to find out (we’ll leave the butt length out of it).
1 1/2″ tip trim + a 1 1/8″ hosel penetration depth = 2 5/8″ effectively “used” off the tip end of a single shaft. If I really love it compared to the DBM head with the same shaft**…enough so that I want to go with the TS1-IM…then I now have a new #7 iron.
[** I have already put one of these shafts into the DBM #3 head, and I really do like it]
If I don’t, but want to drop the test shaft into another clubhead (probably a DBM), then I can cut the head off at the top of the hosel, and scrape off another 1 1/8″ to insert it into a wedge. A DBM PW, GW or other wedge head, for example. This works because the original 2 5/8″ + another 1 1/8″ for the subsequent head is a 3 3/4″ total used from the hybrids 4″ parallel tip section.***
[*** my experience tells me to measure the tip end of a given shaft with an outside caliper–some may have a longer parallel tip section than others, some shorter. For an experiment like the one I’ve just described, you’d need a shaft with a 3 3/4″ tip section at least. So I’ll go with the longest parallel tip I have to run my test.]
Further updates as events warrant…and “Film at Eleven.”
Depends on the raw length of the shaft and the head weight it was designed for. In some cases, if the raw lengths of the shafts are the same, the shafts may be very similar. The Mitsubishi C6 Black Onyx hybrids shafts and iron shafts are exactly the same shafts. they just have different trimming for hybrids or irons. You can use an iron shaft in an hybrid if you know the head weight of the hybrid, which will determine how you would trim the tip of the shaft. If the head weight of #4 hybrid, for instance, is 240 grams, that is the same or close to the standard head weight of a #3 iron, so you would trim the tip of the hybrid shaft for the #3 iron to accommodate the similar head weight of the #4 hybrid. That is if you wanted it to play to it’s intended flex. Even if you were going to make the hybrid longer in length, you would still trim an iron shaft based on the head weight of the hybrid.
A little more difficult to use a hybrid specific shaft in an iron that takes a .370″ shaft since hybrid head weights are not as “standard” from one type of hybrid to another and they may not have a long parallel tip section length. Just depends on how the manufacturer designed it. You can use a hybrid shaft in an iron, but you need to know what the parallel tip section length is to know how much room you have to tip trim for whatever iron # you are wanting to use it for, and of course the hosel of the iron must take a .370″ tip diameter shaft, which is what most hybrid specific shafts are.
Britt Lindsey