Does anyone have any experience with grinding more loft onto the face of a Persimmon driver and then regrooving it? I have a head that I’d like to do that with and don’t know if it’s feasible or even recommended. Any thoughts?
Cheers…
BOM
Hey Bom,
I remember sitting around the clubhouse on a rainy days as a kid and my old club Pro would always be tweaking his woods…Most of the time it was with bulge and roll and can recall him regrooving them too. I’ve never done it but pretty sure I have an old club repair book that might have some instructions if no one else has any experience…
BTW I always enjoy your posts
Mashie
Bom,
No direct experience with adding loft either.
A quick glance at my Maltby book and it looks like it’s pretty much done with a file. He recommends using a loft/bulge/roll gauge to get “before” measurements, then take the file to the face (and loft) and double-check those 3 measurements. Once you get it where you want it you re-groove, re-face, and re-finish.
Easy stuff. 
robbo
You can pretty much just do it by eye…
I like a little budge and roll, but not like some of the Velocitized MacGregors I have seen, those are crazy.
One of my Penna’s I ground down the loft to 8 degrees to use in the summer or in a windy day. The other I have at 10 degrees
to get the ball up.
The nice thing about persimmon is you can adjust your gear with a file!
Thanks for the info, guys… I may just go at it until it looks right, though the bulge and roll might be tricky to gauge… we’ll see. Any recommendations for how to regroove it? I’m thinking a fine hacksaw or something similar- without a wavy edge. Or is there a specific tool for that?
That’s a cool a story about the old pro, Mashie, I love the idea of personalizing clubs like that. It all adds to the feel of the game…
Cheers…
Correct!
It is kind of neat to think about how much one can do to dial in a persimmon as compared to what’s achieveable today with titanium.
I was thinking that very thing…
Also, you mentioned re-facing it, what’s that? I’m thinking I can just take the file to the whole face, insert included, and just file away- is that doable? I was looking at the screws and wondering would they protrude after, or will the file take them down too? I can’t imagine myself taking the insert out etc. maybe on some other job…
Cheers…
Maltby recommends removing the screws prior to doing the actual loft mods, then re-installing them after regrooving the face. You would then file the screws down so they’re flush with the face. Probably something to do with trying to re-groove the face with those in place and “getting in the way” of the sawblade. The final step would be a light sanding of the entire face and re-applying the finish.
I’ve never tried altering the loft, so Lag or NRG (or someone else) may have a better approach.
robbo
Thanks, Robbo… makes sense. I’m pretty excited about the whole thing. I’ve had an idea in my head for years of the perfect driver, so I think I’m going to get stuck into it and not hold back. I’m definitely going to be adding some lead plugs after it’s all done… there may be some wood on the floor when I’m done…
Cheers…
I’ve never tried doing this.
All I know is that those brass screws are pretty soft and are hard to get out. Rat once recommended applying heat to the screwdriver tip to melt the epoxy that the screws are sometimes embedded in, but that could melt the insert I guess. I once added some lead right behind the face and the heat transfered along one of the screws and melted the insert a bit.
Why you need more loft Bom? I thought that was for old men. 
I think I’m an old man in the process of being made- I’ve the good 'ol days curmudgeon down pretty well, just waiting on the joints to seize up, then I’ll be all set 
I don’t like looking down at a driver with no loft because I’m inclined to hit ‘up’ on it a bit and try to help it up. I’ve always been a very long 3 wood player, sometimes just as long as my driver- I like to go down after it and I always teed it down low. When the big drivers came in and I started teeing it up high, I lost the zip on my strike because I learned how to hit the driver ‘well’. So my ideal driver in my mind is fairly close to a 3 wood just a bit longer and a little less loft- I want to be able to ‘drive’ it the same way I do with a 3 wood. It might sound like a 2 wood 
but it’s not, I’ve never seen a club like the one I can ‘feel’ in my head. It might be cool to just go at the Persimmon and see what I can come up with. I like the idea of trying to get the face closer to the shaft line too, as most drivers have it out ahead- I’m sure there are structural reasons for that, but I’ll give it a go anyway.
Cheers…
NRG/Robbo…
What do you guys use for that ferrule type thing under the whipping? Is there an actual thing for that? The best I’ve come up with is a load of epoxy and then sand it down to blend in the taper. It seems there’s probably a better way…
Cheers…
Bom,
A ferrule. 
Then some epoxy just higher up the shaft which you file down to fine taper (like you said) so you can get the whipping started off.
Cheers.
This encourages me because I know you really think through things and this is very similar to how I have sized things up as a hacker but did not hear others thinking like this. I am really looking forward to following your investigation and tweaking to develop the driver you can ‘feel’ in your head because I think you are onto a good and interesting track with this.
BOM, I’m interested in your findings as well.
Would you consider posting a photo of your ideal driver once it’s finished (or some pics of the work in progress)?
There are wood ferrules for persimmon. I think they’re still available in the Maltby catalog. My grandfather used to have this sweet deep faced brassie that was his favorite club. He said there was no point hitting drivers when he could only get it back “umbrella high” hehe. I wish I knew whatever happened to it. Sounds like an interesting project. Maybe reinforce the insert though when you remove the screws to make sure the block doesn’t crack behind it after a while.