Carbon golf shafts?

[W I S N E R !]

Anyone have a lead on a good current supplier for trekking poles?  I’m lost on ebay….

Thanks!

[Edgar M]

Look for golf club repair services near you.  I found a guy who “re-shafted” clubs and had a barrel of old graphite shafts.  The specialty golf chain stores didn’t have any they had kept, but were able to steer me to the independent guy.  Best of all, he was a parent of a former scout.  When I told him I was using the shafts to make poles for a trip to Philmont, he would not take any money for them.

I used Black Diamond tips.  For the handles, I used thick bicycle grip tape with a layer of foam tape underneath to add a little thickness.  The pair I made for my son are about 6oz for the pair (very light shafts).  Mine have heavier shafts, but are still under 10 oz for the pair.

[Michael P]

If you’re looking to make some fixed length poles, you could use these graphite golf shafts from Amazon (“stiff”). I made a pair of poles for myself using these, and have loved them the last couple seasons; light, quiet, and inexpensive.

After adding tips they were around ~45″. If you need them longer, use extenders (mine are now fixed at ~48″).

Here is one of them (i’m using the gossamer grips). Each pole, with everything, weighs 4.3oz

[Michael Samford]

Golf clubs at Goodwill. I got four for $6 each, stripped off the grips, cut off the heads, inserted the bottom of one shaft into top of another and trimmed to length.

Edit:  Tallbloke posted this idea a few months ago and I copied him.

[J-L]

For the Amazon poles, do you know how the other stiffness poles compare (“Regular” or “Senior”)?

It seems like “Senior” golf poles are less stiff, but wondering if they are actually lighter and strong enough

[Michael P]

I can’t comment on the other selections, have only used the one version (we need someone from the golfing realm to step in!). I imagine you’re right about the correlation between the amount of flex and weight.

I’m not sure the risk to reward ratio is worth trying a less stiff pole though. Not being able to set up my shelter (easily) and losing stability while hiking if they break just to save a few *potential* grams doesn’t seem worth it.

This isn’t to say the one’s I’ve linking are untrustworthy, The poles together are about 8.5 ounces, and have lasted hundreds of miles. I can’t say for certain that the “regular” or “senior” would be any less reliable, just being cautious of walking the “stupid light” line.

[Jake J]

Thanks for planting the seed on these. I put together a set using GG grips and tips and a set of shafts from Golfsmith that were in the clearance section. As they sit they are around 110cm or 43″ long which will be perfect for my son.

I’ve posed the idea to the parents of the scouts in my sons troop of these as a MYOG project for the scouts. These are the proof of concept ones I’m going to show off at the troop meeting tonight. For the scouts that are taller in our troop it will require grip extenders which add $2.00 per set of poles. All in I’m currently sitting at around $40.00 for a set of poles that weigh around 8oz for the pair. The tips are a little large on the shaft end. The specs for the shafts listed the tip dia at .370. The tips on the GG site are listed with the ID at 9.6mm which is .378. I heated the tips in hot water and tapped them home. They fit in fine, but there is a small gap at the top between the shaft and the top of the tip. Nothing that couldnt be filled in with a little epoxy. I may try the BD tech tips to see if the end dia is a little smaller on the next set I put together. Plus with the tech tips you can replace the tungsten tip for rubber ones.

[Michael P]

Looks great, love the color scheme! Seems like you’ve got the entire process dialed in, too.

I like your idea of bringing this to your scouts; easy to replace the shaft if they break/scouts break them, not too expensive, and lets them be creative. Maybe make a side project to see who can come up with alternative hand grips to bring the cost down even more.

[J-L]

I made a trekking pole using the golf shafts from Amazon that Michael linked to above. I went with the “stiff” version. From my research, it seems that the different stiffnesses of carbon fiber golf shafts don’t change their weight appreciably. I would love to hear from a golfer on this though.

Anyway, here are the weights of the components I used. Weights listed are for 1 pole:

“Stiff” carbon fiber golf shaft: 88g

Gossamer Gear grip: 16g

Gossamer Gear tip: 12g

Gossamer Gear basket: 7g

Total Weight (without basket): 116g (4.1 oz)

When I first got all the materials, I press-fitted the grip onto the pole. This was quite difficult, and I planned to remove it and apply some Gorilla Glue on the inside; however, I was actually unable to remove the handle, so I guess press-fit is good enough. I used Gorilla Glue to secure the tips to the bottom of the golf shaft. The weight of glue added was < 1g.

The result is pretty cool. The pole is light, quiet, and seems very strong. We’ll see how it holds up

[Michael P]

Awesome job man! Super detailed, love the breakdown you gave. Pretty interesting about the pole weight V strength correlation, for strength they’ve proven to be excellent for me. Not too long ago (true story!) I found myself in an epic fight with a raccoon after it carried my pack off into the woods, and the trekking pole held up pretty well during our “negotiations” (the only thing that was hurt was my ego and perceived wilderness skills that day)

I found that the grips are difficult to remove, but by twisting (or rotating) the grip while pulling up makes the process a lot easier. I was concerned with tearing it the first time, but the GG grips seem durable and flexible enough to handle the force.

[bjc]

John: No real standard on weight differences between different golf flexes. Normally the weight difference will be 2-5 grams between flexes depending on the specific shaft. I know as a clubmaker and backpacker I would be really hesitant to use anything less than a stiff golf shaft as a trekking pole.

You could also use double sided grip tape and grip solvent to slide a grip on the shaft. Once the solvent evaporates the grip should be pretty solid.

[J-L]

Thanks, that is good to know. 2-5 grams does not seem like a good payoff for a reduction in stiffness. I did notice there seems to be no industry standard on how “stiff” the different stiffnesses are. I read there’s a lot of variability between manufacturers. It was interesting browsing the golfing forums trying to find this information – the people who post there actually remind me a lot of the people on BPL :)

The handle seem so solidly attached to the pole right now that I’m not worried about it coming off. Good tips though if I do have issues at some point. The grip tape and solvent idea seems great – much cleaner than Gorilla Glue

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