How are Steel Shafts Made?
There are two primary ways to manufacture steel golf shafts. One is called “seemless” construction; the other is “welded tube” construction. A seamless steel shaft starts life as a large cylinder of solid steel. The cylinder is heated and pierced with a special machine, turning the solid steel log into a large, thick-walled tube. Over a series of stretching operations on very specialized machines called draw benches, the large, thick tube is gradually reduced in diameter and wall thickness to become a thin-walled steel tube five-eighths of an inch in diameter. These shaft “blanks,” as they are called, are then subjected to a series of squeezing operations that form the individual sections of diameter reduction called the “step-downs” on the shaft. A welded tube construction steel shaft begins as a flat strip of steel that is coiled and welded into a tube. The welding procedure is quite different than what most people are used to seeing. Through what is called high-frequency welding, th
