Blades

Been thinking about this, theres a nice shiney set of blades in the shop that i look at everytime im in. But how much difference do they make as apposed to cavaty backs?

I dunno if i have got my physics wrong here, but surly the front of the clubs where you hit the ball are the same for both types, so both hit right will send the ball straight any open or closed club face should impart spin on the ball for either type to. Also as the loft is the same the ball should go the same height to?

looking at your handicap Matt, i'd stay away if i was you. I tried some on the simulator at urban golf saturday night and produced some fantastic air shots

Everyone these days is looking for the easy way out, in other words they are trying to buy their improvement from over the counter.

In days gone by, all clubs sold were blades, so everyone of my era, either, learned how to strike a golf ball correctly, or gave up the game.

The beautiful thing about blades is that there is nothing more satisfying than striking one perfectly. The newer generation of irons let one get away with so much and give no feedback whatsoever as to how good the strike was.

You are hankering, Matt, so why not borrow a set and give them a try. You will soon find out whether or not you will be able to hit them.

If John says its a good idea then you should give it a go

Have you ever hit a ball with hickory shafted clubs, J P? I have and I can tell you that the hickory shaft was in fact a very good one and very powerful. Steel shafts came in about the early 1930's and the reason was probably because of a shortage of hickory, like we now have these ghastly jumbo sized woods made of space age material just because of a world wide shortage of Persimmon.

I still have my persimmon woods, safely tucked away till the time I start striking a driver correctly, if that day ever comes again.

I also still own what, IMO, are the best looking blades ever manufactured and I am not far away from being able to use them again.

Personally speaking I find no difference between steel or graphite shafts, we have to suffer all these different types just to keep the industry making money. I still play with a balata covered ball and have done all my life. It is very nice that they are now considered obsolete and the prices are rock bottom.

Matt, as what everyone says here! give them a try first, you never know you might be hitting the ball sweet and with blades you will feel it within the first 10 swings. I tried blades a while back (before i had a handicap) and i thought that they were terible but this was only down to my ball strking and i should never have been using them in the 1st place.  

However I have just changed from my old cavity backs to a set of second hand forged Taylormade 300's (these are between cavity backs and blades but not quite muscle backs) . And already im seeing improvements in my game, especially on the distance and control. But as with Blades if you strike these off centre you feel it. 

What i would advise if you are going to purchase some new toys, would be to book lessions with them before you even think of going to the course, as a pro sould make the trasnition a bit less painfull. 

I agree with you entirely, Kevin.

Matt,

Before you buy have a word with Chris Curry. He uses blades and I am sure he would let you strike his 5 iron...

NWOT.......

Matt,

Blade golf clubs by design have a much smaller "sweet spot" and as such will are much less forgiving. As mentioned above a shot that is slighly off the sweet spot will result in 1. a uncontrolled shot 2. heavy vibration through the shaft. However a cleaner shot in from the "sweetspot" will result in more feel and more control (being able to shape shots and induce backspin is eaisier from blades). However blades aid these types of shot but do not produce them, that is up to the skill of the player.

Cavity backs were designed to be much more forgivingand are therefor more suited for the Mid to high handicaper.

Having said all that, with the advances in Iron technology of ther past few years, the cavity back irons now available are getting closer to the performance of Blades*

The Bottom line is that its your ability with your irons that makes the diffrence overall.

Cheers.

 *edit: That is if you beleive all the marketing hype of Iron manufacturers

Hmm, may have to do a bit of research into this....

...project 232 perhaps Tim!?

Nah, done 232 now, up to 236 now

The first set of clubs I had, were titleist blades, and ping persimmon woods.

I still say my best 3 shots ever were with those clubs. The 6 iron, the 3 iron and the 3 wood, magic.

I wonder If another set would help me get some consistency back with my distances?

Maybe a part set like these.

These are my Blades.

I can see the differance in cavity backs and blades, can someone explain the differance in muscle backs please, are they a transition between the other two.

Marketing bollocks

So which of the two words are incorrect?  Have been drawing up a cavity back 3 iron and equivalent blade, when I get a moment I'll run an FE analysis on them both.  If anyone has got info or pics of a 'muscle back' I'd be interested to see the difference. 

Spot on Kevin

Matt,

As John P said above, at one time there was no such thing as cavity irons or muscle backs, all you got were blades. So from that premis i would suggest that most people today start with Cavity backs because of the forgiving nature of them, and then go onto blades.... muscle backs are quite a rare thing now as manufacturers are progressing the technologhy for cavity backs and (if you beleive the hype) the performace levels are getting closer to blades. In all reality a handicap player of above 15 really should be sticking with cavity backs for the enjoyment of the game.

I know the argument that a bad shot is a bad shot regardless of the result, however i belive that golf, like a lot of other sports, is confenence based so therefor 20 good results from poor shots over the course or 95+ shots when using cavity backs is far more benificial than 2 good results over the same amount of shots when using blades. But thats just me!

And let us know how you get on!

If you wish to try some blades, Matt, then I have my old set of Maruman Conductor Pro pure blades that cost $3000 (Yes 3 thousand dollars). They are in nice shiny condition. The set  comes with a gap wedge and I added a lob wedge of the same make but chromed as opposed to the satin finish of the rest.

They are too difficult to hit by me these days, but a good striker would immediately understand what he has in his hands. £100 plus postage and they are yours.

When I first started playing all clubs were blades and were for many years.

I can agree entirely with your post Jonathan, will be interested to hear you history having achieved a fairly low handicap.

Sorry to hear about all your problems, we all have had them at different times. I too was offered the Pros job at Malden Golf club in 1960 but there was no money in the game then, so stayed an amateur.

At least you have the chance to get your game back, I'm afraid that no matter how hard I try I just cannot seem to get the consistency I was once famed for.