Published in loving memory of Frank Thomas, inventor of the graphite shaft and a man who loved golf and dedicated his life to helping those who played it.
Hello Frank,
Enjoy your comments and views each week. I have a question about the flexibility of shafts. What does the designer do in the manufacturing process to make the same style shaft stiffer or less stiff?
Interested to have some insight.
Thanks.
–Jerry
Jerry,
Thank you for the kind comments.
This is one of the easier questions I have had to answer for a while for which I thank you.
The design of a shaft can be very complex but to make it simple let me say that the designer of golf shafts is somewhat constrained by industry wide unofficial accepted dimensional standards for shafts. Especially the tip end of the shaft, which needs to fit into the hosel (socket) of the various head designs. The designer is also somewhat restrained by the accepted butt diameter for shafts influenced by standard grip design.
With these outside dimensions somewhat fixed the designer must increase the shaft wall thickness or diameter to make the shaft stiffer.
This is not necessarily the case with graphite shafts, where the Flexural and Torsional stiffness can be modified by fiber orientation.
Hope this helps
Frank
franklygolf 