Using FireExpress 65S as 3-wood shaft

[Dreamer]

Guy,

Does it make sense to install the Original FireExpress 65S driver shaft into a 3-wood?

From performance point of view, will this shaft perform better than the FireExpress FW shaft?

Appreciate any advice.

Cheers

[mr.haha]

i would be very hesitant to do so but it may work. i say this because the shaft my play way too light for you. what do you currently have in your 3 wood and do you know the headweights of your drive and 3 wood?

if you are going to cut down your fire express to 3 wood length you will probably lose about 6-8grams, perhaps more, of shaft weight. this will then put your fire express into the 50g weight class.

in general you may get the flex to work by tipping but the weight of the shaft and overall club may be your biggest crutch.

[Eca]

Quite a few prefer the original fex driver shaft 75g over the dedicated fw shaft.

Looking at your shafts in your bag (55g SR driver), 65s can work maybe a little tipping. There are quite a few that uses 60g class driver shaft in their 3w with appropriate tipping.

[TFL07670]

I recently did it with my TRPX messenger shaft. Frankly haven't had enough time with it to tell how it performs.

Can someone pls enlighten me on what does "tipping" mean? Might help with the next club build.. Thx.

[nobmontana]

"Tipping" refers to cutting the shaft at the "tip" end of the shaft as opposed to cutting at the "butt" end of the shaft.

It is common to see driver shafts to be "tipped" 0.5 inches to be utilized in a 3 wood. and then 1.0 inches for 5 wood etc...

This is mainly to compensate for the heavier head weight seen in fairway woods ( 210g + or so ) vs Drivers ( 195g + or so )

As far as using a driver shaft for a FW, there should be no issues as long as you are able to achieve the desired swing weight and flex ( cpm ) with it.

Only down side is, of course, you cannot reuse that shaft in a driver once you cut it to FW length. ( stating the obvious :) )

Not that its the absolute correct way to do it, I like to put my shaft weights in progression thru my whole set.

My current set goes like this.

70g Driver shaft

80g 3W shaft (tipped driver shaft)

90g Hybrid shafts

100g Iron shafts

105g Wedge shaft

[mr.haha]

I recently did it with my TRPX messenger shaft. Frankly haven't had enough time with it to tell how it performs.

Can someone pls enlighten me on what does "tipping" mean? Might help with the next club build.. Thx.

"Tipping" is a term to describe cutting the very tip of the shaft that goes into the hosel. by cutting the tip you can obtain a stiffer shaft profile which would lead to a lower trajectory.

i for one cannot put a cut down 65g driver shaft into a 3 wood. i do not get along with light weight shafts and would have an immensely difficult time trying to control a 55g shaft in a 3wood.

i would think in order for this to work you would need to 1) have a very smooth swing 2) have a smooth transition from backswing to downswing and 3) have very good upper/lower body timing.

[nobmontana]

Oh one warning... be careful with the tipping because tipping basically changes the kick point relative to the head.

which means that launch characteristics is likely to change with tipping.

Just as an exaggerated example, a higher launch shaft could potentially behave more like a lower launching shaft with enough tipping.

I always try to stay within the tipping guideline of the manufacturer.

[TFL07670]

Got it, thanks Nob and haha for the explanation - I thought that's what it means as well, tho I thought there is a hosel size issue as well? i.e. .335 vs .350 at the driver's hosel? As the shaft move from tip end to butt end, the diameter grows as well? I guess the manufacturer leaves 2-3 inches of the tip the same size?

[Dreamer]

Thanks for all the responses.