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Persimmon anyone?


nobmontana

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A few months ago, I picked up a new old stock Honma Super Persimmon 4 wood. Beautiful piece of equipment. However,it had this slinky Carbon Boron stock shaft in R flex which I am sure was top notch technology back in the day. I was not going to possibly use it as is, so I took one of my all time favorite semi-vintage shafts, Rombax Prototype 80B in Sea Foam Green color ( I believe P Mickelson had it in his Cally Steelhead for the longest time ) and decided to use it in this head. Reshafting these things takes special tools and material and skills which I do not have, so I decided to send it off to a clu restoration specialist called the "Golf Club Hospital" out in Minnesota. After a couple of weeks, the club came back with the shaft installed.

These Super Persimmon heads actually were hollowed out persimon impregnated with Polymer

and had a carbon fiber face piece with and oval titanium center plate with brass pins. Now that's mult - material!! :)

This head size is just about the same as a modern 3 hybrid. Real loft was measured as around 21deg ... Wow, the 4 woods back then were pretty lofty!!

Anyway, while I'll be mostly be using a #3 driving iron as my gamer, I may from time to time take it out for a round to enjoy some nostalgia and the softest, and I mean "Softest" , impact that no modern metal head would be able to match!! Enjoy the pics!

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beautiful club, not sure it looks "right" with graphite shaft and not steel tho

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Wow this brings back memories... I used Honma persimmons 1w,3w & 5w many decades ago...they were the bees knees I reckon....lovely brass sole and back weight.

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beautiful club, not sure it looks "right" with graphite shaft and not steel tho

Yeah, I thought about going steel as well ... like an DG S300.. but that would be too normal. :)

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I do recall Honma was one of the first manufacturers to use graphite shafts in those days....cost you a kidney though..bet you not many clubmaker really know how to work with wooden heads anymore.

Off subject but those Honma PP737 blades anniversary are beautiful too.

Edited by Jeffrey Tan
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Beauty! Can I ask you, where did you find it? Just curious.

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quite a bit on the auction site. lots to select from.

Edited by nobmontana
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  • 4 weeks later...

I ordered a Joe Powell limited edition persimmon driver last year. Went with a Grafalloy Prolite stiff shaft and Bestgrips Hardcourt grip. It is call the Beast because of the number it is in the series. I love using The Beast when it gets windy here in South Texas. I can keep it low and straight all day! Plus it is fun when you are waiting on tee and everyone things you are laying up with a hybrid or fairway wood.

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I had been playing with Three Amigos, these Ping Zing Blonde woods. Driver, 3 and 5 wood. These are laminated maple and a bigger than my Beast but they still play beautifully.

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Beautiful! I will post pics of my re-finished Honma Tour Model 4-wood with a 2-star shaft; NTB driver with a G-Loomis (bought at the Japanese "Fairway Golf" in San Diego) and a Dunlop driver when I get home. I also have two Mizuno woods, laminate and red painted, from the late 60's. They are in horrible shape and were aparently the first Japanese golf clubs imported to Sweden. They were in my bag when I started playing golf as a 6 year old in 1983. In pretty shabby shape back then too but would be fun to have re-finished.

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Beautiful clubs! Reminds me of my first golf club, a 7-wood my dad gave me long ago and far away...

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very cool. I have a persimmon 5 wood sitting in the garage. I can still remember the feel of hitting it on the screws; just wonderful.

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Since it is hard to find anyone to work on these clubs, I have kinda retired the Pings. I thought about Louisville Golf but settled on Joe Powell for my modern persimmon driver. I was looking at some Mizuno persimmon woods on some sites but went with a custom new club. I love the sound and the feel. No tinny sound, just a good hard THWACK! I like it on long par 5's too, you can hit it off the deck too. I compare it to playing blades, it improves your ball striking skills.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not JDM, but a beauty none the less!!

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You got in just in time with Joe Powell. Believe they have closed shop now (back end of 2015).

There are indeed a fair number of Honma persimmons around on auction sites, many of them in great condition. I suspect Honma had a glut of persimmons at the time steel woods took over the market. Remember seeing pictures (Golfwrx?) of a hundred new Honma persimmons that had had the 4* shafts pulled and gold plugs stripped out. The savaged heads and separately the shafts were being sold on Ebay in a couple of job lots. Criminal what had been done to them.

Until recently, there was a Japanese craftsman making persimmons at his workshop in Germany. Name was Norio Gondo. Three of his "Gondo" 3 woods (second hand) are still up on Ebay. I saw one of his drivers in person and it was a fabulous block of wood. Rifle 7.0 shaft. Sadly left handed or I would have tried to buy it from the guy. Anyone know of Norio Gondo (background, current) and if he is still handcrafting persimmons? (I'm guessing he must have been with Honma, Maruman, Daiwa or Mizuno at the back end of the persimmon era?)

This was his website until 2015:

https://web.archive.org/web/20131006024744/http://golf-workshop.de/index.php?Site=home

https://web.archive.org/web/20131006024748/http://golf-workshop.de/index.php?Site=clubfitting

https://web.archive.org/web/20131006024214/http://golf-workshop.de/index.php?Site=presse

Edited by Nolixul
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I remember the gold plug thing a few years back. Was really stupid.

Louisville Golf still makes persimmons some more modernized than others.

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Here are some of my relics. Must get my really old Mizuno's that are at my moms house to put them on here too. They have seen better days though.. These ones here are not bad. Would love to get a sleeve of Titleist Tour Balata 90 and hit the course. Here goes:

Hiro Honma Tour Model 2-star 4-wood

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NTB Limited Edition G-Loomis Tour X

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Maxfli/Dunlop Pro Model DP-901 Black Gold S

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