Golf club shafts

These are best had by running down to your local independantly owned golf pro shop and making nice with the owner. Often there are laws about how you need to dispose of graphite, so he's probably happy to give them to you. Make sure you stress that you have a non-golf use for these cores. You don't want to make it seem as though your competing with his business. Dress nice and bring a nicely formatted rulebook with you in case he expresses interest or curiosity. Your goal isn't just to get clubs from this guy, but to build a relationship with him. My local guy has provided me with well over two hundred clubs over the four years I've known him.

Another place for cheap golf club shafts is your local thrift store (Salvation Army). Their golf club collection is going to be %90 (or more) metal, but hunting through them will turn up quite a few graphite shafts. Unless, of course, some other Amtgardian has already cleaned them out. $1 each in this author's limited experience. Sadly, these will be full-on golf clubs, complete with heads. You can cut them off with a fine-tooth saw. Alternatively, sufficient heat will soften the epoxy holding them in place. Several golf sites recommend a blow torch or heat gun. WARNING: The club head will get extremely hot. Wear gloves, use pliers, whatever. 1000 Fahrenheit will wreck your whole day.

Note: I tried using my grill to heat the club heads enough to melt the epoxy on two golf clubs. While I was able to remove the heads, the underlying graphite rod was mangled. Apparently the epoxy holding the carbon fibers together melted a bit too. No bueno. If someone else has been successful, please inform us.

If you can not get golf club shafts on the cheap and you get desperate, you can buy them new. This is, of course, more expensive, but does not cost as much as you might fear. You can find shafts for as little as $3.50 each. (Bamboo from Home Depot is still cheaper at $1 a shaft) In general, Junior (for kids) shafts are cheaper, and come in 36" and 39" lengths.

From Petruchio

The "Weight" of the club (50g, 60g, 45g), determines the amount of graphite used PER INCH in the construction of the shaft. This is important in determining speed Vs. durability.

The "Kick Point" is the point at which the shaft is designed to bend. This is important for Amtgard as you want a HIGH kick point to prevent hard blocks from snapping the weapon; and to prevent the tip from whipping too easily and too often. Sometimes a kick point is a "bulge" shaft is core that has a flair out in the graphite which creates a flex point but also a structural weak point. These seem to break much faster then other shafts.

The "Flex" of the shaft has to do with how the graphite is shaped, but it determines how much the whole thing will be able to move. Super Flex is FAR too whippy in my opinion, as is "ladies flex", but most things, either medium flex or firm seem to work really well when making an amtgard weapon. Super stiff (heh) also tends to break pretty quickly, though it FEELS more solid then the rest.

Other considerations need to be made when considering the colf club, such as its "flair back". The amount of graphite used in every inch of the shaft remains the same, however if the diameter of the shaft increases, then the thickness of the walls must decrease accordingly. Drivers that have long handles are best cut from the BACK END where you will be removing the shortest, structurally weakest section of the shaft, and leaving the thinnest portion where your hand will be, rather then where blocks will happen.

Places you can find cheap new gold shafts:

http://www.goldeneaglegolf.com/components/component%20shafts/Harrison%20JR%20Series.htm