Tip trimming question for 0.355 iron shaft

[toddmanley]

I've got a couple of spare 7 irons around the house I want to trim one by 1/2" - these are 0.355 taper tip shafts.  I'd also like to experiment and see how one of them plays if I make it stiffer...which begs the question: Can you tip trim a 0.355 shaft (KBS $-Taper) without any significant consequence of the shaft fitting back into the iron head?

 

-Thanks, Todd

[skraly]

If the head takes a .355 shaft, unless it is a very sloppy fit, like some Pings, tip trimming a .355 shaft won’t allow it to be fully inserted into the hosel.  A .355 taper tip shaft is only tapered for about 1/4-3/8” at the tip.  After that it is .370.  To get a stiffer shaft you’ll either have to hard step a tapered shaft or ream the hosel to accept the .370 tip size after you’ve tip trimmed the tapered shaft.

[toddmanley]

Glad I asked - thanks.

[Nessism]

1/2" is too much.  3/8" is about the most you can tip, and depending on the shaft and head there is no guarantee it will fit afterwards.  Dynamic Gold for example taper to larger than .370 pretty quickly so you have to really watch those.

[toddmanley]

I think I’ll go the route of hardstepping the shafts to get the half inch change. 

[Howard_Jones]

Like Nessism say, Up to 3/8" is what we can expect without insert issues, some heads accept even more. Taper tip shafts comes in a bit different depending on shaft model.

Most has a taper thats 6/8" long, from that point to first step or to the taper we find both 0.370 parallel tip and shaft models where the taper rate changes at 6/8" but goes on all the way to first step.

In general, steel shafts respond with 1 CPM for each 1/8" tip trim, so 4/8" is considered equal to hard stepping once, even if we cant really get there, since a hard stepped shaft is both 4/8" shorter at the tip and thicker shaft walls on top of shorter tip section. (constant wgt shafts)

If you dont mind a ream job, and have a caliper so you can measure tip OD, you can do what ever you want here, so ive made a chart with the options explained.

Edited January 23, 2021 by Howard_Jones

[toddmanley]

Thanks everyone for the help. Hardstepping did the trick and got me the results I was seeking.