Here's a Question for Our Engineers

As an innocent boy in the 1960s I looked at golf irons, often decades old, and never a sign of rust. Those same irons today still largely remain rust free. There was in the 1960s cheap 'Spalding' irons which were chrome plated (shiny horrible things) which quickly peeled their chrome and became rusty, but they were the only poor quality brand which I can personally recall.

Why then is it that nowadays one can pay close on a thousand pounds, for what one would imagine are top drawer forged irons, yet within a couple of years their chromed heads are already showing significant rusting?

Earlier today I asked an old club builder (even older than me) how irons were made fifty, sixty, seventy years ago - and made to last. He replied that heads were even then largely chromed but done properly. I struggle to believe this.

Nowadays what does one need to look for when buying forged iron heads if say you wanted the clubs to remain rust free to be passed down to one's grandchildren in due course?

Are there truly any present day iron heads which are being manufactured to stand the test of time?

Oooh, ooh, please sir, I know. Not got time to explain at the moment though.

Go to the back of the class boy, take your hand out of your pocket, and stop reading 'The Dandy!'

Health and safety mate. Many years ago wedges used the best steel available for the job which were generally medium to low carbon steels. They were easy to cast, forge and to machine but not particularly good at being golf club heads. They were prone to work hardening which could be relieved by annealing (heat treatment) but this made them corrode really rapidly. Luckily this did mean that they did take electro-plating very well. Back in those days hard chroming was a three stage process, copper, nickel (or cadmium for the very expensive) and then chrome. The first two layers allowed the very brittle chrome layer to be more flexible and hence last longer when repeatedly hit with a golf ball and slung into bags. It is almost impossible to get that level of plating now, due to the fatal qualities of nickel and cadmium plate being frowned upon (even in China) so the plating is thinner and more prone to damage. However, it's pretty rare nowadays to get a plated steel - most clubs are made from more advanced 'stainless' steels (not exactly stainless such as austentitic or martensitic, but carbon steels high in chrome, vanadium, nickel etc) such as the maraging range which are soft enough to work (cast, forge and post forge) and polished - the 'corrosion' is usually a loss of polish.

A truly professional answer as usual. Most readers don't respect such talent, but I'm the exception. Always willing to learn. Thanks! Incidentally where my polish has worn off rusting has kicked in. If I didn't use my irons so much these days I would spray the heads with WD40 before storing.

I agree with Tim

The words China (Where most clubs are made) and "Stainless Steel" should never be used in the same sentence. If you want stainless you need to look in Europe, Scandanavia or the good old USA. The term "stainless" covers such a range of steels that some will rust almost the same a carbon steel.

As for the Chrome plating Tim is spot on, I think they had to cut out one of the 3 layers and it was something to do with disposing of the waste material solution, it's been a long time ago but that answer is close.

I'm afraid you're wrong there Bob. One of the best properties of stainless is that it is readily recyclable and that is where China sources most of it's stock from. As it's resale value is around 75% of virgin stock and the Chinese market so massive if I were to, say, specify components in A2 Austenitic Stainless from a manufacturer there that is exactly what I'd get. Full spec, high grade stainless, albeit second hand. The Chinese may have the same reputation as the Japanese did 30 years ago for churning out cheap rubbish but if the end user specifies high quality steel that is exactly what they get - and obviously if they specify less than optimum to cut costs...

See also my many posts on the 'counterfeit' clubs market ad nauseam.