Hard stepping graphite shafts , good or bad , worth it or not ?

[Sparkee]

Has anybody had any experience with hard stepping graphite shafts ? I am considering trying it with a set of ping TFC 419 I soft regular shafts hoping to get them closer to regular . Opinions are all over the map after doing some surfing . Since this is my go to site what do you have boys ?

[jaskanski]

As a general rule of thumb, hard-stepping a shaft once makes it 1/3 stiffer in flex. To get to the next flex category (ie Regular in this case) you would effectively need to hard step 3 times (ie using for example the 8-ron shaft in the 5-iron) which would mean you will be found wanting for more shafts in the lower irons.

The other problem is length if these existing shafts have previously been trimmed to length for their respective iron#.

If tip trimming to get the flex to where you need to be, you run into problems with the available parallel tip section you may have and with a weight as you lose it with the trimming.

These are just some of the issues you may encounter when considering a hard-step. For this very reason - and for the same reason shafts come in different flex categories in the first place - I always say get the right weight, length and flex shaft in the first place and build a set accordingly. If you try to make something out of something it wasn't really intended to be in the first place, you get problems.

The takeaway is if you want Regular, buy Regular - not Soft Regular.