Re: Blade vs Cavity back
- From: David Geesaman <dgeesamanIHateSpam@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 31 Dec 2005 15:46:29 -0500
K Lam wrote:
Hi gang....
What is the "real world" different between blade and cavity back iron? I know .... well! I "read" that cavity back is more forgiving and you can shape the shot better with blade.....etc.
Which one do you prefer? Is there a minimum swing speed in order to take the advantage of blade irons?
Thanks
Kenny @ NH
Here's probably more than you wanted to know. Much of this the others have covered, but I hope to put it all together.
First, we must consider what makes a 'blade'. In reality, all the modern clubs are musclebacks because they are thicker at the bottom than the top. Actual blades are a uniformly thick slab. It is this shape that gives it the feel it is known for. But that's just history - nowadays blade means muscleback design.
A cavity back is, obviously, a variation with a pocket in the back. The idea (going into physics) is that by putting the weight toward the outer edge of the clubhead, when the ball hits the clubhead a little off center, it has less leverage to twist the clubhead off line. It is with these off-center hits where the cavity back is considered to have an advantage. Again, it's the shape that gives it this effect and its characteristic feel.
IMO, the difference in recovering an off-struck shot is real, both in feel and the resulting shot. But IMO the latter item is not a big difference. I find that bigger clubheads result in more sloppy ball striking. But others find that the ease of good contact to be a confidence builder, and we all know that confidence in your swing improves results too.
There is some discussion of so-called 'forged' clubs. Forging simply means the metal is shaped by force. (Casting is the other method in common use). Another factor is hardness - depending on how a steel is heated and cooled, you can make the same piece significantly harder or softer, and reheating allows you to repeat the process. In order to make forging a reasonable exercise, forging is done with steel in its softest state. So a clubhead straight from the forge is a soft steel - it's not hard to bend, easy to ding or nick. Cast clubheads must cool in the mold, and this process creates the steel in a hard state. But it doesn't have to end there - you can later soften a cast steel, or harden a forged steel. Which is my point: cast or forged doesn't imply much about the finished club - only that at some point it was cast or forged.
Much of the marketing talk you see out there attributes a certain feel to a forged club or a cast club. (For a moment, I'll assume that the forged club is a soft steel and the cast club is a hard steel). The fact is that the stiffness and density are identical in both clubs. The only time they behave differently is when they are loaded to the point of bending - which obviously is much more than is present in executing a golf shot. The softer steel will 'ring' a little more than the cast club, but that only affects the magnitude of the vibration felt in your hands, and it's heavily damped by the rubber grip. So the bottom line is, feel is a result of sound and vibration in a club, and the weighting, shaft choice, and clubhead shape are the biggest contributors. It's certainly not easy to tell the difference between two clubs that are identical in every way except that one is cast (hard) and the other is forged (soft).
As for shaping the shot, a blade design will require less adjustment to change the shot shape - but it's only an issue because of their familiarity with their current clubs. A pro could, if they chose to, learn to put the same shape with any club, and do it equally consistently. In reality, their consistency would suffer since they invested so much practice learning with something different. So the reason is a practical one, having nothing to do with the potential or performance of the equipment.
One advantage of a cavity backed club is they usually have a lower center of gravity than the muscleback. With long irons this is noticeable difference. Hitting it a little thin or heavy has much less effect with the cavity back. The cavity back will hit a higher shot, especially with less strong players. Whether this is good or not is arguable - and I might argue such players should consider a hybrid or metalwood for such shots, which surpass a cavity-back iron in this regard.
It all comes down to preference. With a blade design you get more feedback, meaning you are more aware of the quality of your ballstriking. With a cavity back, it feels different and you get higher shots, and arguably straighter/longer bad shots. You have to choose which is better.
Dave .
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