I've often ground a little relief or whatever into a raw wedge, but never taken one from blank to finished before. Much more delicate than I'd imagined, and I have even more respect for the guys at Scratch, etc who do this all the time with such consistency and grace.

This was a 56° blank which Jacque sent (along with a 58°) - see

http://forum.tourspecgolf.com/index.php?showtopic=24079

Unfinished weight was 347gm - grooves already stamped, very oversize, big flange, huge bounce, lots of rough areas in the web and leading edge. The tools I have to work with include an 8" bench grinder with stone, Bear-tex and wire wheels, along with a 1 by 30 belt sander. There's obviously a lot of material to be removed to get to a reasonable playing weight. The blade itself needs a fair amount of thinning since just grinding to size and reducing the flange really only gets you to 320 gm or so. The area of the web was the hardest to work with these tools, since it was hardest to reach (a bigger grinder would really help, and so might a good handheld). I bent it slightly strong with the idea of fitting it between a 49 and a 60. Substantial relief in the heel area, killed leading edge. The only area I wasn't happy with was the web, where I didn't achieve a very graceful line. I'm eager to try again - a fun project - but I don't think this will replace my Scratch gamer. Here are some blurry pix - something weird going on with my camera.

Great first try!

Having this much extra weight is a good thing, it allows you to do much more to the wedge than say if it were only 10g overweight.

Another thing you may want to try after grinding the head is finding the CG location via balance on a nail.

Good job!!

Love the wedge and the Wilson Staff ferrule.

Thanks guys!

I did keep track of CG ( I have a little spring-loaded gadget which makes that easy) and kept it relatively high and slightly out toward the toe compared with a 588, since I have a high ballflight otherwise and toe-side is my typical miss. Haven't taken it out on the course yet (none open yet nearby) but it works nicely in the yard.

Those ferrules came in a huge grab-bag from Golfworks a few years ago - big OD which was needed for this club. I always prefer longer ferrules on wedges for some reason.

Hey I applaud your efforts. Looks great for being home ground. I think wedges are the one club that can be a little rough around the edges. After all they are the blue collar workers of the bag. Doing all those little gritty things to help us save pars. Look in a lot of players bags and you'll see little grinds here and there, lead tape, etc. You'll have to update us once you take it to the course.

Great Post!!!

Only bad thing is now I see me getting the equipment to try this myself. Looks like a bit of fun as you experiment.

Okay, headed out to the garage to see where I can set everything up.

Its much harder to grind a head from scratch than it is adjusting a retail one. Let us know how it plays

Its much harder to grind a head from scratch than it is adjusting a retail one. Let us know how it plays

Actually, it plays really well - best with a full divot taken, as you might expect. I've continued to tinker with it, mostly to get the weight down a bit more and to allow the leading edge to set tighter to the ground when set up square. The grooves aren't nearly as sharp as on my other wedges (although they're quite wide), but they seem to be sharp enough - I pretty well ripped the cover off a Nike One Black today. My best shot all day, in fact, but I had to throw the ball away afterwards... If my Scratch 56 (bent to 54) weren't so versatile this one would be in the bag all the time. At the moment I'm playing 48/54/59, which has me covered pretty well. Once my swing gets into form I think I'm going to need a 52, and then I'll go 48/52/56/62, possibly bending this one back to spec to fit in.

Of course, if my iron play continues as with today, I'm just going to switch over to the Thomas 25 wood. Thin toe-misses all day - no idea why