The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1898-04-21
WOODS FOR GOLF STICKS.


- xA1M2
Universal De1aand.
Al q Es59*S r.
IN Scot land, from time immcmorial,
beech and hornbeam have been Re.
garded as the best wood for golf club
heads and ash as the most pliable and
springy for the shafts. One effect Of
the growth OF the game in the United
States has been the Introduction of dog
wood and persimmon for heads, and Of
hickory for shafts into Great Britain.
It is an old story now that this season
the Scottish hand made golf clubs are.
riyaled on. the home market by ma
5ehine-turned clubs from this country,
but the importation OF the woods
named in rough blocks into Scotland
] has gone on for some two years, and is
steadily increasing. The first wood
turner to take up the saving and shap-
ing of clubheads in the rough in this
country has his shop in New York. It
is on a4 upper,tioor in a factory on the
West side, q dingy, sawdust- fill led room,
in which the dust from the whirling
band saws settles on the clothing like
-four and t;tillates the nostrils like
snuff. 1T
1T had been % years had cut and
twisted wood before heard of golf"
said the pleasant-faced German boss
yesterday. "But now i turn out many
heads and shafts, aber there is now
opposition; even the sewing machine
companies are now to make them for
the trade. Yet still get the best pay,
and my time is filled up, so it must be
mine are the best goods already"
Willie Dunn, then at Shinnecock Hills,
was the first golfer to give an order to
the German The latter worked on
beech for Dunn, Sam Tucker and 9TH
ers, until some time in 1895, when
Tucker brought him some dogwood
sent from Tom Barker, at Richtield
Springs. Persimms was the next wood
tried, and the two, with hickory for
shafts, have since been in strong de-
mand. Greenheart is also used for
shafts successfully, but it. is apt to be
too stiff. The German boss now fur
nishes the wood, supplying any sort of
head or shaft wanted by the gross. He
obtains the dogwood and persimmon in
Virginia, hickory in New Jersey and
this state, and greenheart from the
West Indies. He has made many ex-
pcriments with different woods for
heads. Cedar, California redwood, pop
lar, blackgum and maple were found to
he too soft, elm and ash too variable,
and oak too short-grained and brittle.
The old wood turner has now in hand
an experiment in shafts that he thinks
may amount to something. This is the
use of close-grained reddish African
: wood, sent to him by Beveridge, the
club maker at Shinnecock Hills. Ac-
cording to Beveridge, the wood is called
assegai, and is used by the Zulus for
their spears, as the Indians formerly
used Lakewood for arrows.
Applewood makes durable and resil-
lent head, but it is so apt to be knotty
and hard that it does not pay the
wood turner to use it as a staple COM
modify. A carefully selected piece of
applewood, he admits, will make good
head. He says the same of certain roots
brought to him by some amateur golf
ers. Both applewood and roots have
merits, but they cost more time and
money than they are worth to Gull the
good from the bad blocks.
The wood turner's opinions, while
based only on the commercial side of
the question, agree with the expert
ences of American golfers. Hickory is
Incompatible for shafts, and in our
changeable climate dogwood and per-
simmon are more satisfactory than
beech in the heads. In the moist air of
Scotland or England beech head will
keep so soft and springy that it will
show the dent of the ball after the
drive, and when the face wears away
the head is still kept serviceable by a
refacing of leather. But in this country
beech hardens and chips or splits, and it
cannot be depended on. Dogwood, if
well seasoned, is as durable as COM
pressed wood or metal and whether
laced with leather or not does not lose
its resiliency on account of it's hardness.
Many players hold that when a sea-
soned dogwood head can be obtained
for the second play club, it is useless to
carry brassey, for where the dogwood
cannot he trusted it is time to use an
iron.-N. Y. Sun.