Xstiffshafts

Wow. Very cool! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yeah looks real good. That thing must've had some kind of pvd finish. I've run into a couple putters that had silver pvd for finish and I always thought that was sooooo pointless (except for rust protection) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I'm pretty sure he'll go blind if he games that thing during a Texas summer Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Here's what the 2.5 looks like before handing it back to buddy. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yeah... I like it and I don't. Maybe if I had the satin finish back it would look better to me but I'm not gonna go thru the rigormaroll of finding out. Dumped some clear blue in the weights and dots, looks decent to me, buddy will love it. Onto finding an insert putter to pay some attn to this weekend Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Wanted to see what the group thought of this... my regular golf buddy's 2.5. This was his request: face and weights dark bronze, as close to purple as it gets without crossing line. Body: hi-polish. I think it looks cool and kind of like the concept, but I also think it looks like sort of a half-assed crack at customization/finishing. To just do the inlay and weights... like, if you're gonna do it, then do it... but then again, the contrast looks cool to me... You see my dilemma. Opinions please. I was thinking about picking up a studio style or something and only doing the insert, or finding one of these and doing the same thing. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

That's going to look fantastic! Looking forward to seeing. I may have to pick up a putter with an insert this weekend and do something with it. Very cool. Btw, if you decide you're going to pull the trigger on a blast cabinet setup... let me know. For my first one, I made one out of a Rubbermaid storage bin. I can give some pretty straightforward instructions on making one that'll do the job. If buying one, a place like harbor freight/northern tool is the route to go. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yeah, it's definitely tricky business. First, my two wheels are 1/2" and 1/4" thickness respectively. The thinner wheel is what I use to reach tighter spots. Also I have a chuck attachment that I can use to put the wheel in the drill, so the first couple of wheels I bought are little stubs now, smaller in diameter than the arbor plates on my grinder, but they work nicely in the drill. I'll use those to reach cavity, backplate, flange -- or I'll use scotch brite if it needs to be done by hand. When polishing, I'll use the bench grinder for most of the body, and use the dremel with a polishing wheel to get the tighter spots. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I haven't found blasting to be a great way to strip finishing down to raw. I use beadblasting as a finishing tool to achieve satin finishes. It def won't smooth the rough spots out... the best way to both strip Finish and smooth out dings has to be the fine silicon carbide deburring wheels, imo -- I use the half and quarter inch thickness on my 6" grinder.

I hand sanded the most recent putter, that Sonoma. 120 grit to get dings smoothed + file where necessary, then 400 grit paper, then 1000 grit, then 1000 grit wet sand, then 2000 dry sand... the finish should be entirely gone by that point, and the head so shiny that you can see your reflection all over it. Then polish the head using like a flitz or white diamond or if you have access to a buffing wheel that's even better.... after that I have a little routine I go thru to wash the head that seems to work with some measure of regularity --- then torch. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

That's some good advice. On the 3 or 4 putters that I have simply destroyed over the course of learning how to do some of the torching/working on welding/stamping/etc... as well as the putters that I'm just not pleased with when all is complete, it's always because I got impatient in the prep process, just wanna get it in the vice and put the torch to it. But, it's all for naught if you're not thorough, careful, and MOST of all, CLEAN! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Here's a Sonoma I picked up for $100 at the used golf swap shop down the street the other day. Condition when purchased: [imghttps://i.imgur.com/KWP2gBD.jpg[/img] Midway through prep: [imghttps://i.imgur.com/uQ9od4i.jpg[/img] When complete:

Snap a photo in the daylight tomorrow. Colors you don't even know are there yet will be visible.

Damn Kor, looks fantastic! Very impressive! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

What kind of putter are you working on? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

It's kinda hit/miss. I've ruined a few putters by not understanding what I was working with to begin with. *Most* Camerons are just blasted stainless. The beadblasting produces that satin Finish. However the earlier newports are gun blued, and the black mist Finish on the select series from a few years ago is PVD. Finally, the studio design line has some electroplated Finish that is a real mf'er to try to strip-dont even bother. Gianninis are generally either PVD or plated. Bettinardi, except for the DASS heads, usually has some kind of pvd finish. Torching a pvd head can produce cool results... but it's not worth picking up a beat up putter with a pvd finish because it's nearly impossible to "restore" or smooth out the imperfections while maintaining the finish. Plus if it's beat up, chances are the pvd is chipping anyway. Here's a Golo with that black mist pvd that I torched a month or two ago: Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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Got the chance to do a couple putters with the O/A setup. https://i.imgur.com/cUo8614.jpg https://i.imgur.com/5oKQgwK.jpg Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

You probably don't have to go that long with MAPP gas. My advice is to keep the torch moving rapidly all over the head to get a heated evenly you should start to see it change from silver to gold or straw right before your eyes, before it starts to glow. As soon as the metal starts to glow, The color has changed to purple. As you go longer it will change from purple to blue. If you over torch I doubt you'll like the color, but maybe you didn't overcook it-it's hard to say without seeing it. If it turns out you did keep the heat on for a little too long, you can just put it up to a buffing wheel with some polishing compound-it will polish it back to the original color, and you can start again. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

When I first tried my hand at torching, I used a run of the mill bernzomatic propane torch, then I upgraded to a MAPP gas torch, which is what I've used to do probably the last 4 pages of putters with. Then, last weekend I stepped up to an oxy/acetylene rig which I told myself I'd use to weld and cut as well to justify the spend. I'd suggest propane for a beginner or if you're just gonna do a putter or two. No need to make a big investment for one or two projects. Plus, propane may take a little longer but it makes it easier to heat evenly when you're trying to figure it out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I've noticed wire brushes can kind of pit or create uneven texture on the clubhead. I'd use a silicon carbide wheel if you can pick one up at local hardware store. That or a hard stitch buffing wheel with a good buffing compound. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Here's some pics in natural light: Now I'm off to boston on business for the bulk of the week. Coming back thrs night. At least the flight will give me time to finish up my stage 2 review of the Sentio. It's a great putter. Blown away by it actually. I don't know what I'm gonna do with 4 days of not scouring the golf shops in DFW for used putters that can be brought back to life. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Man, I really don't even know if I could replicate the process I went through to achieve that finish. First, I over-torched it a bit and wasn't pleased with the outcome, so I buffed it back to silver, cleaned it, re-torched it. The color was dark bronze/almost chocolate, then I blasted to dampen/mute the color a little bit, then I wasn't real thrilled with the blast job so I put it back in the vice and re-torched again to basically purple. After it cooled I lightly buffed it with the least abrasive compound I have and I was blown away at the resulting color. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Well fellas... in times like these, life seems basically pointless. These last 5.5 hours or so have really stretched me thin. It's weird too, because I was not even close to as emotionally invested in this season as I typically am. Usually from September to Jan/Feb I live and die with every play call, every W/L, I listen exclusively to 1310 AM The Ticket, and I've got more hours invested in watching, reading about, and listening about the cowboys. My attention turned to politics last summer (2015), and I've listened to no sports talk, read very little about, and felt less emotional connection to the team than in recent years, and still... it's a strange Low when your team succeeds to exceed expectation, but then fails to live up to the new expectation that the unexpected success created. I have been one of the guys saying Dak is awesome and I'm pumped for the future but he's the second best QB on the team right now and we need to be starting Romes. It also sucks that he's prolly gone in the offseason. Anyway, got a new color out of the torch today. Really really like this one. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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