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AXE Tour X Graphite shaft study

Nippon Shafts
So after an hour on the monitor I discovered that the wild increase in spin I was seeing on the DBM/AXE combo was all in the heads. The Z545 6 iron and 9 iron both had a 95 gram AXE Tour X shaft. The data showed the 9 iron to average the a yard more and near identical spin compared to the Z545/S300 combo. Dispersion was very tight and it played very much like my Cleveland wedges with the same shaft.
The 6 iron was with mixed results. The averages were the same, distance and spin, but it wasn't as easy for me to hit as with the S300 shafts. Sure after a good dozen swings I was doing ok if not great but it wasn't as mindless as the S300. Though I was sure the extra spin in the DBM head was all shaft, it's not.

For the money. I really don't think there is any product out on the market that can equal the AXE in performance for its value in a graphite shaft.

Not sure why I have a love fest with these shafts with the higher lofts, but they really work well. For me the lower lofts just need more time to adjust. I also think the stark difference in shafts weights make it harder to swing the lighter shaft with consistency when switching back and forth so quickly.
 
Great approach on your method in narrowing down the setup. Just got the shafts in and finally I can build the rest of the set.

Interesting thing about this axe setup is that at no time do I ever feel like the shaft is "graphite" the only hint is in the lightness of the club, which I much prefer over a traditional setup but without the stout harshness that usually accompanies a lighter steel setup.

I can't wait for this coming season.

Sent from my ONE A2005 using Tapatalk
 
Holy crap did I stumble upon something with the 85 gram shafta. So I found the Z 545s easier to hit in the long irons than my beloved but short DBMs. So I have an 85 in the 5 iron and an 85 in the 3 hybrid, hollow but same DBM treatment. I counter weighted the butt with a 10 gram weight... good lord it's a rocket launcher. I was crushing the 5 iron with a baby draw to 220 yards. Yes that's a hellava long way but I was able to be very aggressive with them. A solid swing was good for a 208 average. Plus they felt fantastic. I will load up the 4 iron with the same setup. As of right now it's gonna be a hell of a battle as to which clubs I game...the 3 hybrid did excellent as well. I'll get the 6 iron back on the sim and see if I want to swap that shaft as well. Really was a night and day affair.
 
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Adams CB3 with 130g, stiff KBS tour smoke shaft: Swapping out to AXE Tour X shafts. i put the 95g stiff in my 5-9 irons and the 105g into the pw and gw. i also altered the length of my irons from the 38.75" 5 iron in the standard cb3 to 38", dropping a 1/2" per club up to the 9, and then a 1/4" thru the wedges. The distances are close to what I am used to with maybe a few yards longer, even with the shortened length. I am seeing a very nice ball flight of mid high to high. they have a very stable and solid feel to them. i do not feel the weight change in my swing and I am able to keep my tempo. the dispersion is very consistent , when my swing is of course. i had noticed, previously, when i was trying just the 7 iron with the AXE shaft, that i was getting a bit of back spin when the ball hit the green. I now notice that almost every approach shot into the green, with a 7 iron or higher, does, more often than not, result in a pull back of the ball, more so with increasing lofts. this was never the case in 2 years of playing the kbs shafts. i don't know what about the shaft change has caused this??? i will have to play more to see if this holds true. here are a couple better approaches: 7 iron from 161 yards, a little pull back
7%20iron_zpsi8cuq3hf.jpg
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pw from 128 yards, plugged in
close_zpsgczzwh73.jpg
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Damn thats some legit shots
 
Great shots Art! Sounds like you've found a winning combo there, I'll have to check these shafts out during our next round.
 
Art M said:
Adams CB3 with 130g, stiff KBS tour smoke shaft: Swapping out to AXE Tour X shafts. i put the 95g stiff in my 5-9 irons and the 105g into the pw and gw. i also altered the length of my irons from the 38.75" 5 iron in the standard cb3 to 38", dropping a 1/2" per club up to the 9, and then a 1/4" thru the wedges. The distances are close to what I am used to with maybe a few yards longer, even with the shortened length. I am seeing a very nice ball flight of mid high to high. they have a very stable and solid feel to them. i do not feel the weight change in my swing and I am able to keep my tempo. the dispersion is very consistent , when my swing is of course. i had noticed, previously, when i was trying just the 7 iron with the AXE shaft, that i was getting a bit of back spin when the ball hit the green. I now notice that almost every approach shot into the green, with a 7 iron or higher, does, more often than not, result in a pull back of the ball, more so with increasing lofts. this was never the case in 2 years of playing the kbs shafts. i don't know what about the shaft change has caused this??? i will have to play more to see if this holds true. here are a couple better approaches: 7 iron from 161 yards, a little pull back
7%20iron_zpsi8cuq3hf.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

pw from 128 yards, plugged in
close_zpsgczzwh73.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
Click to expand...
Do you know what they swing weight at?. Mine came in from C8-D1.5
 
Popeye said:
Do you know what they swing weight at?. Mine came in from C8-D1.5
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i couldn't tell you nor do i know how to figure it out. i'm a simple guy: cut the tip as instructed, pull the kbs shaft out of the head, prep the head, prep the shaft, add epoxy into the bore and on the shaft, insert axe in the indicated direction. after the epoxy cured, i cut to standard lengths and add golf pride cp2 midsize grips. Let it rip!
 
The graphite could just be getting you more energy transfer and more spin, hence the pull back.

If you feel like checking your setup, here's the site http://www.leaderboard.com/swingwt.htm , the more accurately you measure the weight and balance point, the more the SW make sense to the rest of the set.

I set up mine to be C9.5 to D1.5 from 6-PW right now. Still contemplating on getting an apex pro 5 iron instead of the Apex UT that I have and really liked last season. Really excited about this season, can't wait to let loose this setup on the course.
 
Popeye said:
Holy crap did I stumble upon something with the 85 gram shafta. So I found the Z 545s easier to hit in the long irons than my beloved but short DBMs. So I have an 85 in the 5 iron and an 85 in the 3 hybrid, hollow but same DBM treatment. I counter weighted the butt with a 10 gram weight... good lord it's a rocket launcher. I was crushing the 5 iron with a baby draw to 220 yards. Yes that's a hellava long way but I was able to be very aggressive with them. A solid swing was good for a 208 average. Plus they felt fantastic. I will load up the 4 iron with the same setup. As of right now it's gonna be a hell of a battle as to which clubs I game...the 3 hybrid did excellent as well. I'll get the 6 iron back on the sim and see if I want to swap that shaft as well. Really was a night and day affair.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a winner there, the lower SW on the higher irons are definitely a winner with these 85g shafts. Which makes me wanna experiement some more with a 5 iron...haha
 
Popeye said:
Holy crap did I stumble upon something with the 85 gram shafta. So I found the Z 545s easier to hit in the long irons than my beloved but short DBMs. So I have an 85 in the 5 iron and an 85 in the 3 hybrid, hollow but same DBM treatment. I counter weighted the butt with a 10 gram weight... good lord it's a rocket launcher. I was crushing the 5 iron with a baby draw to 220 yards. Yes that's a hellava long way but I was able to be very aggressive with them. A solid swing was good for a 208 average. Plus they felt fantastic. I will load up the 4 iron with the same setup. As of right now it's gonna be a hell of a battle as to which clubs I game...the 3 hybrid did excellent as well. I'll get the 6 iron back on the sim and see if I want to swap that shaft as well. Really was a night and day affair.
Click to expand...

So, I was looking at the shafts and they only come in 370 tip size?

Are all the heads you use also 370?

I'm fairly sure my irons are all 355...
 
dtak84 said:
So, I was looking at the shafts and they only come in 370 tip size?

Are all the heads you use also 370?

I'm fairly sure my irons are all 355...
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The Srixon irons are .355. It's some minor tapering you have to do to get them to fit, it's really easy to do.
I use a bench mounted grinder and just roll them as I grind. It's very uniform and after you do a couple it's pretty quick.
 
Popeye said:
The Srixon irons are .355. It's some minor tapering you have to do to get them to fit, it's really easy to do.
I use a bench mounted grinder and just roll them as I grind. It's very uniform and after you do a couple it's pretty quick.
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Nice, thanks. I have a bench grinder so I'll try that out.

My only fear is that in the past, I've had iron shafts break at the hosel multiple times (though they were all KBS shafts). But, I really want to experiment with this shaft so I'm willing to take that risk!
 
dtak84 said:
Nice, thanks. I have a bench grinder so I'll try that out.

My only fear is that in the past, I've had iron shafts break at the hosel multiple times (though they were all KBS shafts). But, I really want to experiment with this shaft so I'm willing to take that risk!
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The material you have to remove is at the bottom third, you really don't go near the hosel other than normal tip prep. Just take your time starting at the tip and remove some material, check fit and go again. It's not that much.
 
dtak84 said:
Nice, thanks. I have a bench grinder so I'll try that out.

My only fear is that in the past, I've had iron shafts break at the hosel multiple times (though they were all KBS shafts). But, I really want to experiment with this shaft so I'm willing to take that risk!
Click to expand...

The first and only shaft I had broken at the hosel was a KBS test club as well.

As Popeye suggested, either go with a tappered grind or you could get a reamer to enlarge the hosel.
 
They also have the 125 wedge flex tour X shafts....any thoughts on these? or should I go with 105g on the last two wedges.
 
Plin said:
They also have the 125 wedge flex tour X shafts....any thoughts on these? or should I go with 105g on the last two wedges.
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I have never tried those shafts, but I would assume they may be spinner that the 105, that's just a guess. I'm very content with the 105 shaft and how they hit the deck like a dead fish.
 
Popeye said:
I have never tried those shafts, but I would assume they may be spinner that the 105, that's just a guess. I'm very content with the 105 shaft and how they hit the deck like a dead fish.
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Sweet. I am sure I'd be perfectly fine with 105s but at this point it's more academic than anything. Plus having a matching set does appeal to me.
 
So, due in large part to this thread, I purchased two 95 gram shafts to try out in my 5 and possibly 6 iron. I have a very low trajectory and usually miss right with a weak push. I'm a 6.6 handicap with the long iron game of a 25 handicap. My current shaft is a Dynamic Gold S300 which I am now realizing are too heavy for my long irons. I took my newly assembled 5-iron to the range today at lunch and I'm sold. There's no science to back up my results but trajectory was noticeably higher and I'm now able to turn the ball over to the left with a lot less effort. I'm anxious to hit real golf balls to get a better feel for distance. My dilemma now is whether to use the other shaft to put into my 4-iron or put it into my 6. My 4 has sat in the garage for at least the last 2 years because of previously explained long iron woes but this has given me hope.
 
dunkjez said:
So, due in large part to this thread, I purchased two 95 gram shafts to try out in my 5 and possibly 6 iron. I have a very low trajectory and usually miss right with a weak push. I'm a 6.6 handicap with the long iron game of a 25 handicap. My current shaft is a Dynamic Gold S300 which I am now realizing are too heavy for my long irons. I took my newly assembled 5-iron to the range today at lunch and I'm sold. There's no science to back up my results but trajectory was noticeably higher and I'm now able to turn the ball over to the left with a lot less effort. I'm anxious to hit real golf balls to get a better feel for distance. My dilemma now is whether to use the other shaft to put into my 4-iron or put it into my 6. My 4 has sat in the garage for at least the last 2 years because of previously explained long iron woes but this has given me hope.
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I was surprised as well at how easy it is to turn over my long irons, a previously near impossible task. Nice to see another experiment gone well. I have a feeling we may have a similar swing. Your results with the S300 sound very familiar.
 
Popeye said:
I was surprised as well at how easy it is to turn over my long irons, a previously near impossible task. Nice to see another experiment gone well. I have a feeling we may have a similar swing. Your results with the S300 sound very familiar.
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It sure does sound like it. So I decided on reshafting the 6-iron this go around. I'm much more inclined to hit the 6 than the 4 anyways. I'm going to give her a hit tomorrow at lunchtime. We'll see how it goes.
 
I have a 95g coming in tom!

I currently have S300 in my 4-pw with a 3i head (shaft broke long ago) that I'll be putting the AXE in.

Was on the range hitting mostly my 4i in hopes that my experiment with the 3i will yield much better results.
 
To all those who have had fun with the AXE shafts,,, that will now carry the XCALIBER banner, Robin Arthur is looking for some help. He is just about ready to launch his website and it's going to be epic when it's fully done. Early site hopes to go up Monday but he is looking for testimonials.
His active e mail address is robinarthur14@gmail.com.
Just put in the subject line, Testimonial. He has some new products coming that he hopes will shake up the industry as he did many years ago.
 
I really want to try these in my Fourteen irons!
 
kuyaariel said:
I really want to try these in my Fourteen irons!
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I don't think you will be disappointed, especially when you compare prices and performance. I have yet to have someone do a double take at my irons and ask if they can hit one,, and not be impressed. They really are eye catching in person.
 
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