Hi All, I am new to the site and just getting up to speed on all the ABS stuff. Great site.
Quick question on grips - do most of you vintage iron players stick with vintage grips or do you play a more modern grip? I just picked up a set of ABS spec’d irons with what looks like original grips, although I have no idea really. The grips seem super hard and not very grippy 
Just wondering what most folks go for.
Thanks!
JT
I like Lamkin Crossline cords a lot. You can get them dirt cheap from time to time on golfsmith’s website when they’re having the blemished ones on sale.
Cord grips… Leather grips are all good ways to go. Sometimes we find vintage Green Victory which were the popular choice on tour back in the 70s and 80’s. They are still great grips.
Forget soft or spongy grips. You want as much feel and feelback from the strike as possible. Anything cushioning or mushy hinders your improvement.
Think of the tight suspension on a race car compared to the soft spongy ride of a Cadillac. Comfort maybe, but performance hindering.
GripMaster USA has leather grips. They are not cheap, usually going for at least $19 a pop.
I have a set of them at home, but I prefer a slightly smaller grip even though I have big hands. I use an air compressor to install grips, so even though I don’t quite like them, the grips can be re-installed and re-used.
Since I live in Orlando, I need grips built for humidity. The humidity causes sweat and in the summer, it practically pours almost once a day. I’ve found that the GripMaster grips are the best to deal with the sweat. Then the Iomic grips (which I currently use at $17 a pop).
3JACK
I use the football style leather grips from bestgrips. They are expensive as well. Generally happy with them. Very firm and good tack, but in humidity they can still get a bit slick. They are really built to last, however, and the feel is very good. If you go on a golf trip, which I recently did, however, your hands will hurt by the third day. I got mine on the old fashioned way, but blew out one with the driver. Air would be better.
Thanks guys. I like the feel of a firm grip so was not planning on going mushy I just wanted to make sure I was not being a wuss by peeling off the 50 year old petrified rubber and cork grips that are on now.
JT
Yeah, grips are a wear item just like tires for your car. You don’t have the same worn out factory tires on yer '57 Chevy do you? Nobody would call you a wuss if you wanted to be able to drive yer '57 Chevy without bald/flat tires. Now you may want to get grips that were similar in style to the originals, if possible, just from a nostalgia point of view.
If you are playing your clubs as opposed to having them sit in a display case, then replacing them is common. I usually replace my grips every year. It really depends on how much you play/practice. They might not look that worn, but dirt and oil build up in them. If you get them on sale and in bulk and don’t go for the fancy brands you can get them for about $2 a grip. If you have an air compressor, it will literally take you seconds to remove/replace the grips.
Some people get excited about getting 40+ year old clubs with the original grips (WOOT!). I’m not sure why they would get that excited unless they are a collector. Just dry rot and age alone will render those grips almost useless.
Was reading about ‘cost cutting measures’ on the other thread about laminates v. persimmon and had a first today that was an eye-opener and related under a cost cutting context.
Some dude brings in an old Taylor made driver today, didn’t pay much attention to year/make, as he just wanted a new grip on it. It was a frying pan maybe 5-6 years old. Anyhoo, the grip looked fine to me, and I told him the cords look fine but the grip is quite filthy and just needed to be cleaned good. Didn’t have much to do at the time so I told him I would clean it up for him and it could air dry outside and he could use it fairly soon into his bucket of balls.
Rat goes into his routine…liberal dousing with Simple Green full strength, stiff bristle finger nail brush scrub, warm water,…start scrubbing that sucker and…THE FRICKEN CORDS COMES OFF! 
It was some kind of cordy mesh that was glued on top of the rubber after I looked more closely, you could even see the seam on the backside. WTF Taylor Made…are you too freakin’ cheap, and/or stupid, not to embed the cord into the rubber. 
One of those days I guess.
I’ve used the Golf Pride BCT cords for a long time, pretty soft, but great feel and traction. I recently bought some used persimmons with leather grips and wow… they slip so easily.
Speaking of the grips… does anyone know if anyone’s making some extra long grips? If you look at some old Hogan footage and noticed that his grips (in some cases) were at least 1.5x longer than anything I ever used… I could see them coming in great handy when playing shots choked up. Often, I find that I’m gripping down to the metal to hit certain shots.
Anyone have any experience using Mint Grips? Thought I may try them since they’re so economical. Interesting note, my set of '73 Wilson blades has what looks to be the original set of Lamkin Sure Tac Classic grips that are still viable. They offgas like crazy though. Shafts are also bad.
The Mints are good synthetic grips. I like the rough texture on them.
Cords are my favorite… but what you don’t want are grips that are soft and spongy. You want hard grips so that there is no give between your hand and the shaft.
The more you can stabilize clubface rotation on off centered strikes the better. Soft grips do not help one do this.
Mint grips are great I have them on my dyna powers great feel they start to get slick every few months but a quick scrub with soapand water brings them right back to new
Santa brought me some super clean Staff Dynapowers (c. 73-75). The shafts unfortunately are “Ultralite” with a R-flex. The best part, however, is that 2-PW all don Wilson genuine leather grips…amazingly tacky and firm.
…Those leather grips appear to be one piece. Is it possible to remove the grips and put on a stiffer shaft? I’d hate to screw up those beauties!
