Black-Ion face - slippery when wet

[theblake]

I have a Epon AF-101 in the Black-Ion finish. Have been using it now for about 4 months and love it, though I was warned by my clubmaker that it goes sideways and goes nowhere when its wet. Yesterday I did use it for the first time in the rain and that was an understatement of epic proportions.

Being forewarned I did assume that by keeping the ball and face dry, I would be fine, as I had already experience what happens hitting wet balls at the driving range, (cold night, freshly washed balls), but that does help at all. I discovered after 9 holes that even if the face is dried with a towel, almost instantly a layer of something appears across the face, I would just run my finger across the face and it just slides across as if it was oiled. I am guessing it is mousture. This suggests to me that even if it stopped raining the face would still be like that. I then began to rub the face furiously with the butt of my palm just before I hit it, and that made a lot of difference but still nowhere near enough to be reasonable.

What are my options, apart from changing the head?

My clubmaker sanded or grinded the black-ion face off his.

The rules prohibit the application of any material to influence the spin on the ball, so that eliminates anything temporary like a polish, resin, glue.

I did buy this club off PeteThePilot, and whilst he did his best to rough the face up by hitting rocks with it, the actual texture of the face remains like polished glass.

thats Ptp in the reflection, I am much better looking.

Edited August 28, 2011 by theblake

[king6]

what golf balls do you play?

[angelhc]

Maybe you can try to "paint" it, there's a link (on spanish) how to do it:

http://www.galaxiagolf.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=29984&highlight=pavonado

[theblake]

what golf balls do you play?

Usually Srixon Z Star, on this occasion Vision X3 UV (doubt you have heard of it). It is definitely not the ball, my clubmaker is an Epon dealer and he spent a lot of time investigating the issue before he decided to shave the black face off his own personal driver.

Surely with so many Epon drivers in play here, someone else has used this in the rain and can comment on their experience?

Maybe you can try to "paint" it, there's a link (on spanish) how to do it:

Thanks, though I think the issue is that it needs to be unpainted! I was thinking of lightly sandblasting to roughen it up a bit. Not even sure if that is practical.

Edited August 29, 2011 by theblake

[Duffer19]

To be honest, I have never heard such a thing about slippery face on a driver. I have the EMS which has a very shinny chrome like face that you can almost use as a mirror and never experience anything like that while playing in the rain. Perhaps the face treatment of the black Ion is very different than the EMS.

[supo]

i had this exact driver for a while and found nothing like it happened to me.

i used it plenty of times in al sort of conds.

i found it to be longer than the non ion plated version and softer the ball seemed to stick to the face longer.

nope i cant think it slipped lot at all actually.

i only sold mine bec i wasnt using it, for a long time while i experimented. i

i thought it was a great club.

i do prefer the silver faced drives to the black bec i like to see a bigger surface, the black faces to me seem a little small

[theblake]

Thanks Supo, to put this into proper context, previous round I hit three personal best drives for the respective holes by a lot - so yes I think it is a great club, but the next time in the rain, no wind, and a slight mis**t goes 160m. Now I know I am a slapper but something is wrong here :-) These days I only get 95-96mph, and this is a low spin head, I have a low spin shaft, and my spin rate was around 2300rpm, and a smash factor of 1.49. And everyone knows that water between ball and clubface equals less spin. Maybe the issue is that i am a girl that is getting old, and I need more spin (in the rain)

However in contrast my clubmaker, an Epon dealer and a recent National long drive champion for the over 50's also agrees that this club does not work in the rain, so he shaves the black face off. I might be a goose but he knows his Epon's and he smashes it.

Perhaps its the difference in the weather, and its not strictly rain? That day it had been raining non-stop for 12 hours and didnt stop while playing, and was quite cool for around here. Wipe it dry and it just appears reappears after a few seconds, like isopropyl alcohol evaporating but the opposite. Its just wet, but the beads of water are so thin you cant see them and it just forms a perfect thin film across the face. Seems it is just attracts moisture from the air.

I just did a little experiment, poured water over the face, and it just beads off, dry as a bone. Then I put the club outside in the garden for 30 mins , its a cool damp night as its been raining all day, yep doing exactly as it was doing on saturday.

Edited August 30, 2011 by theblake