Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1898-04-21
WOODS FOR GOLF STICKS.
DOrwood, Persimmon and Hickory
Are Vow the Kinds Ia
Universal Demand.

AMANtFhAA bNhAAhAa
In Scotland, from time immcmorial,
beech and hornbeam have been re-
gurded 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. |
1t is an old story now that this season |
the Scottish handmade golf clubs are |
riyaled on the home market by ma
chine-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
,ste idly 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. 1t
is on an upper floor in a factory on the
West side, dingy, sawdust-flled room,
in which the dust from the whirling
band saws settles on the clothing like
-four and Initiates the nostrils like
snuff.
1T had been % years had cut and
twisted wood before l heard of golf,
said the pcasant-faced German boss
yesterday. but now l 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 FStill get the best pay,
and my time is filed 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 Richfeld
Springs. Persimmon 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 a close-grained reddish African
wood, sent to him by Beveridge, the
club maker ct Shinnecock Hills. Ac-
cording to Beveridge, the wood is called
assagai, and is used by the Zulus for
their spears, as the Indians formerly
used laneewood for arrows.
Applewood makes durable and resil-
lent head, but it is so apt to be Inotty
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 anC
money than they are worth to Gull thu
good from the bad blocks.
The wood turner's opinions, whilt
based only on the commercial side o
the question, agree with the expert
enees of American golfers. Hickory il
incompatible for shafts, and in on
changeable climate dogwoud and per
simmon are more satisfactory thar
beech in the heads. In the moist air o
Scotland or England beech head will
keep so soft and springy that it viii
show the dent of the ball after tn
drive, and when the face wears ava,
the head is still kept serviceab,e by
rcfacing ofleather. But in this countr,
beech hardens and chips or splits, and j
cannot be depended on. Dogwood, j
well seasoned, is as durable as com
pressed wood or metal, and whethe
faced with leather or not does not los
its resiliency on account of its hardness
Many players hold that when a-sea
soned dogwood head can be obtaine
fer the second play club. it is useless
carry brassey, for where the dogwoo
cannot he trusted it is time to use a
from. 7. Sun.
Every Day a Month.
The, gradual change in the day an
the month now taking place proceed
continuously until the duration of a re