This is my first hickory club restoration project ever. It was a journey and I learned a lot and also fell in love with the process and history behind the clubs. This is an excerpt from a journal that I made at the time and just a fun time all around, frustrations included.
For several years now I have been interested in owning a set of hickory golf clubs. I spent time looking at purchasing a new set from places like louisvillegolf.com or Tad Moore but ended up purchasing a set of 10 clubs off eBay. I had no clue what I was getting myself into.
My original plan was to remove and clean the club heads and then purchase new shafts and grips. Upon receiving the set we discovered the shafts were in really good condition with only one club having a slight bend. This changed my plan to refinishing and re-gripping the “original” shafts instead.
And so it begins….
I began the project in early September of 2026. It was quite an adventure learning to remove the pins from the clubs. It also involved getting some tools that I did not own and building my own whipping stand.
Here are the photos from the eBay listing, an example of the shape the clubs were in when I started.
After some effort and learning we were able to remove 9 of the 10 pins from the clubs. The final one was stubborn and refused to budge at all. We ended up having to drill out that pin and we’re mostly successful with only slight damage to the hosel.
Next came the fight to get the club heads off. We got a little more than half off fairly easily with just a rubber mallet but the other took a combination of things including a heat gun and some hard work.
So with the shafts free from the heads we started the job and grip removal and sanding. The grips came off mostly easily, one or two had been glued and not maintained so it was a job to scrape and sand before sanding some more. With my eldest daughter’s help, we ended up with 10 beautiful shafts all ready for a re-stain and refinishing.
At this point I stopped and built a whipping stand to assist with working on the clubs. It is a simple design and came together quickly. A quick stain and a few coats of varnish later I had a great new tool.
The club heads went into a rust removal bath. Several had minor spots and were good to go after a short soak while others took several hours but made a crazy transition from reddish brown to a beautiful dark patina. A quick wipe with some gun oil wipes locked out the rust and will keep the club heads protected.
I restrained just a few of the shafts sticking to a natural color. Then I applied a layer of gun stock oil (Tru-Oil) that hardens to start the re-finishing process.
Next was re-gripping the clubs. I wrapped them in several layers of hockey grip tape as an under layer. Each layer went slightly less far down the shaft creating a tapered effect. Once the layers were done I put on a new leather grip, tacking it down at the start and end with a 6mm brass doll house tack.
Once the grips were on, it was time to whip the clubs. Whipping uses a waxed linen thread to reinforce the shafts near the hosel and also helps taper the start and end of the grips. It is held on initially just through tension in the waxed thread but eventually gets coated with tru-oil as well when the club is finished.
The final coats of Tru-oil went on just a few days before we were heading out on a trip.
We had a noon tee time at The Raven in Silverthorn, CO, that weekend to celebrate of my wife’s birthday. I had managed to finish 5 clubs before for that weekend. I got to swing them all on the course that day and a deep love for hickory clubs was born. I had the Lincoln Park Mid-Iron, Spalding Dundee Mashie, Spalding Kro-Flite #6 Mashie-Niblick, Wilson Walker-Cup Niblick, and the Windsor Special Putter.
*The “First Five”
I did not play the best golf of my life, but I did play fairway golf which I will count as a win. I only lost one ball into the trees but did lose several to the water over the day. I had a blast and the clubs played great. I am looking forward to playing them more over the years.
*The finished clubs, the putters, a chipper, and a niblick
*A few more of the finished clubs. A driving iron and all of the “wedge” clubs
*The rest of the finished clubs, the mashie and the driving irons
*The first re-gripped club, the Windsor Special Putter