Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1898-04-16
WOODS USED IN GOLF.
Dogwood, Persimmon and Hickory Now
In IrniversaI Demand.

Dogwood, Persimmon and Hickory Now
In Universal Demand.
In Scotland, from time immemorial,
beech and hornbeam have been regarded
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 dogwood and per-
simmon 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 rivaled on the
home market by machine turned clubs
from this country, but the importation
of the woods named in rough blocks in
to Scotland has gone on for some two
years and is steadily increasing. The
first wood turner to take up the saving
and shaping of club heads in the rough
in this country has his shop in New
York. 1t is on an upper floor in fac
tory on the west side, dingy, sawdust
filled room, in which the dust from the
whirling band saws settles on the cloth
ing like -four and Initiates the nostrils
like snuff.
"It had been 20 years had cut and
twisted wood before I heard of golf, "
said the pleasant faced German boss
Yesterday. "But now turn out many
heads and shafts, aber there is now op-
position; even the sewing machine COM
panies are now to make them for the
trade. Yet 1 still 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 or
der to the German. The latter worked
on beech for Dunn, Sam Tucker and
others 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 demand.
Greenheart is also used for shafts sue
cessfully, but it is apt to be too stiff.
The German boss now furnishes the
wood, supplying any sort of head or
shaft wanted by the gross. He obtains
the dogwood and persimmon in Vir-
GINA, hickory in New Jersey and this
state, and greenheart from the West
Indies. He has made many experiments
with different woods for heads. Cedar,
California redwood, poplar, black gum
and maple were found to be 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 clubmaker at
Shinnecock Hills According to Bever-
idge, the wood is called assegai, and is
used by the Zulus for their spears as
the Indians formerly used Lakewood for
arrows.
Apple wood makes dura BILE and re-
silent head, but it is so apt to be knot
ty and hard that it does not pay the
wood turner to use it as staple COM
modify A carefully selected piece of
apple wood, he admits, will make q good
head. He says the same Of certain roots
brought to him by some amateur golf
ers. Both apple wood 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 experiences
of American golfers. Hickory is incom-
parable for shafts, and in our change
able climate dogwood and persimmon
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 refacing of leath-
er. But in this country beech hardens
and chips or splits, and it cannot be de-
pended on. Dogwood, if we'll seasoned,
is as durable as compressed wood or
metal, and whether faced with leather
or not does not lose its resiliency on ac-
count of it's hardness. Many players
hold that when a seasoned dogwood
head can be obtained for the second
play club it is useless to carry bras
sey, for where the dogwood cannot he
trusted it is time to use an iron.-New
York Sun.