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The Japanese and their Forgings


TourSpecGolfer

Forged vs. Cast ( Be Honest )  

153 members have voted

  1. 1. Can you feel the difference between Forged and Cast?

    • Yes, forged feels softer and more pure
      131
    • No, Its all the same to me
      15
    • I dont know
      7


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One of my favorite wedges are Cleveland TAs and the CG12s. (they are cast not forged) I love the feel of the cast 8620. To, be quite honest, I like them better than the a lot of forged wedges out on the market.

But then again, when I look at a high end forged wedge, I always pick the forged wedge. ie, I play my epon wedges more than my CG12s, cuz of the WoW factor I get from friends and others.

I think it's a tactile thing, forged products have a finer, more dense and compacted grain structure and this gives rise to a different appearance, lustre, heavy feel (higher density) etc - and less defects in the way of porosity, inclusions etc. Loving my new Fourteen 1020 TC1000 irons - best feeling cavities I have hit, and the fit, finish and quality control is a thing to behold! Forged may be softer and easier to bend, but the forged alloy itself is a lot stronger and tougher than a cast material due to the microstructure described above - that makes me happy too.

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I think it's a tactile thing, forged products have a finer, more dense and compacted grain structure and this gives rise to a different appearance, lustre, heavy feel (higher density) etc - and less defects in the way of porosity, inclusions etc. Loving my new Fourteen 1020 TC1000 irons - best feeling cavities I have hit, and the fit, finish and quality control is a thing to behold! Forged may be softer and easier to bend, but the forged alloy itself is a lot stronger and tougher than a cast material due to the microstructure described above - that makes me happy too.

Couldn't agree more.

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  • 1 month later...

Forged is softer by far much softer

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  • 11 months later...

Play what looks and feeels good, forged for me.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I play Japanese forged irons, but my hands don't feel the difference between castings and forgings or between carbon steel and stainless.

There are some higher tech game improvement castings that I'd like to try, but the higher the technology, the fewer custom options are available. Castings come from inventory. Custom forgings are crafted when you order them, and therein, to me, lies the bigger difference.

I wish I knew it at the time, but I could have had my Miuras stamped 2-9 instead of 3-PW, this so the loft/number correlations matched that with which I grew up. Try getting that from Callaway.

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Funny that Tom Wishon would say there is no difference between forged and cast. I have a set of his 560MC forged. They feel fine of the tee but are harsh off of tight lies. I can't stop hitting these things fat off of tight fairways. The feedback is not that good and I have had better with Taylormade cast clubs. For me the grind is as important as feel. If I can find both then I have found the perfect club.

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  • 1 month later...

Soft=TM R7 Forged 07 model. Softest I've ever hit.

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Funny that Tom Wishon would say there is no difference between forged and cast. I have a set of his 560MC forged. They feel fine of the tee but are harsh off of tight lies. I can't stop hitting these things fat off of tight fairways. The feedback is not that good and I have had better with Taylormade cast clubs. For me the grind is as important as feel. If I can find both then I have found the perfect club.

Feel is also determined by sole grind, loft, and design believe it or not. The material does make a big difference and there are indeed ultra soft castings that purr when hit but Keep in mind that we each have our own sense of feel and feedback, some peoples more sensitive than others. Tom Wishon is only one designers opinion, his opinion and words are well documented online and in books, he markets his message better than other designers but that doesn't mean they are all facts.

There are dozens of other designers that you have never heard of especially in Japan & Asia, they don't need to market their opinions like Tom does but we have to give them credit they are producing today's most advanced clubs and shafts with massive R&D budgets working daily on high tech projects current and future.

Each designer has their own opinion and I can tell you first hand that those who I consider to be best still feel forgings are the top choice, they just don't have the need to come out and convince their case to the people. Some designers create 5 new clubs a year while others 50 new original designs, it's pretty interesting and big brands like Tourstage, Srixon, Yamaha, and others are always looking to steal them from a competitor.

Another thing to take into account is that producing forgings are still more expensive than high quality castings, If the research showed that cast vs forged doesn't matter then the OEMs would save a ton of money producing their clubs with castings.

All that said, forgings are better IMO but I would play a soft cast set if it had everything I wanted in it.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Wishon did a test with 12 golfers and 12 sets of irons all masked black half forged the other half cast. they used PGA tour players and the pro's couldnt tell the difference between forged and cast on a steady basis.

What do you guys think about that?

do pro's know less than ho's?

What most people feel in difference is not so much the difference in forged or cast but the difference in metals. Stainless is very rarely if ever forged, if it is you are talking 303 or 304, which are both on the soft side for stainless on the Rockwell Hardness Scale. Cast is normally 431, 17-4 which are much much harder than 303 or 304 on the Rockwell hardness scale..

Forging was initially much more consistent than casting which is why all of the pros played them. Now casting has gotten much better and is more consistent than it used to be, it is also easier to make exotic design with casting than forging.

If you forged a set of 8620 steel irons and cast a set of 8620 irons with the same weight, design, shafts, grips, SW's etc, NO ONE could tell the difference. Not a person on the planet would EVER be able to consistently tell the difference. A machine could tell based on grain structure and many other things but the difference is discernable to 99.9% of humans.

Edited by golferplus1
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If you forged a set of 8620 steel irons and cast a set of 8620 irons with the same weight, design, shafts, grips, SW's etc, NO ONE could tell the difference. Not a person on the planet would EVER be able to consistently tell the difference. A machine could tell based on grain structure and many other things but the difference is discernable to 99.9% of humans.

Am I mistaken or is 8620 a liquid cast metal to start with? I always thought 8620 was a form of liquid alloy casted... And many companies for exe. adams, and cleveland claim to have thier heads "Form forged or soft forged or liquid forged" when really its just basic 8620 liquid cast, that ffeels really soft.

I play 8620 wedges... some jdm 8620s and mainly the cleveland wedges from the US. they feel soft but they cannot compare to a ENDO forge ie. the KGX or the yamaha S10 knotch backed wedge from 07. Those solid S20 and S25 wedges are pretty damed sweet, though IMO honestly they don't feel anything like the 8620s.

another example of difference in softness I've noticed is the Titleist wedges from JAPAN mainly the TVD is 8620 cast, but for some reason to me its way softer than the US spinmilled wedges... another is the Fourteen V2 and V3 both cast from what I understand and are remarkably soft. another example is the TS 901s they are not Forged, they are 8620 I believe, and feel like an 8620.

Softest I've ever felt is the epon kgx and Miura wedges. (both forged one is Endo and Miura is Kyeoi I think)

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