High Balance and Low Balance designs compliment the ACCRA Tour Z shaft, released in 2017. High modulus. low resin prepreg results in low wall thickness, enhancing feedback. Uniform taper provides maximum energy transfer down the shaft. A woven prepreg from Toray runs down the length of the shaft, resulting in a uniform torque profile down the shaft. ACCRA tells us this creates the lowest resin to fiber ratio of any shaft they have ever designed. The shafts are made in a Japanese and the quality and conformity across weights and flex designations is as good as I have seen. Lets explore the EI Profile flex distribution of these shafts and look at how the movement of balance point changes a shaft.
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When I asked Jason Horodezky for review samples I did not understand just how many shaft Paderson is making. Fortunately he did not send me one of each SKU as I requested, but he did send me the largest, heaviest box of samples I have ever received. At the speed I measure, it was at least 40 hours in the shop in between fitting, building and editing video from the PGA show. Iron shafts span 6 different profiles is various weights and flex’s. To see the range of shafts offer by Paderson, visit their website, Padersonshafts.com.
In addition to the catalog of shafts, there is an in depth discussion of their technology and manufacturing process which I am not going to repeat here with one exception. All but a few of Paderson’s shafts are filament wound. They are one of a very few companies that have this manufacturing technology. This video copied from their site illustrates the process.
Most carbon fiber shafts are made by rolling sheets of material over a mandrel. Paderson ‘spins’ a weave of carbon fiber ribbon over the mandrel. This gives them the unique ability to tension the fiber during the weaving process.
When you scroll through catalog of shafts on the Paderson site you will count 12 models in multiple flexes. I did not even put a dent in that array but measured enough to give you some insight into their designs.
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Overall I see high quality shafts with atypical set stiffness designs. I will revisit this when I get a chance to compare the shafts to my current gamers.
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Oban in a partnership with Shimada, has introduced a set of iron shafts through their dealers called the CT-115. A taper tip shaft with a constant weight of 115 grams, it comes in 12 discreet lengths which in turn can be fit and assembled to bring you 7 different flexes. As follows; R, R+, S-, S, S+, X- and X. The lengths are 36” thru 41.5” in half inch increments. The aesthetics of this shaft provide a nice, brushed chrome finish and an eye-catching, hologram shaft label that you can apply over the steps on the shaft without any form of wrinkling. Now that is a club builders dream!
The club builder selects a group of shafts to build a set. Using the shorter shafts, the set is stiffer. With a group selected from the longer end of the matrix, the set will be stiffer. All of the shafts are .355 tips and all were remarkably consistent in weight as you can see in the chart below. The word remarkable meant 115.3 grams plus – minus .3 grams. To put that in perspective, a typical set of constant weight irons usually has a bit less than a 2 gram range. Adding to that attention to quality, the radial consistency was 99.9% with a 0.1% standard deviation. That’s impressive, aligning these is truly useless.
We have built a number of fitting irons with these shafts (PXG and Miura) all through the flex range and the numbers are quite impressive. Taking it from the Fitting Studio and on through the consequential building process we liked what we saw especially with the better player, who launched these lower in the shorter irons, higher in the longer ones and all with the characteristics of a low to mid-spin shaft.
Lets here from Ralph Riechert, the President of Oban, discussing the shafts with Woody Lashen of Pete’s Golf at the 2017 PGA Merchandise show.
The technical discussion and measurements are available only to registered readers
This set of iron shafts is designed for a golf fitter that wants to deliver precisely tuned stiffness to their clients. In the past, that was done by tip trimming parallel shafts. The Oban CT-115 has all the advantages of parallel shaft designs with none of the disadvantaged. Advantage one, the set will be constant weight not descending. Advantage two, the stiffness steps between clubs is precisely done by the factory and not left to the club makers frequency instrument. Advantage three, the set stiffness range is on the high side unlike parallel sets which tend to be on the low end.
Below are the Launch Monitor results of a 2 Handicap… A big, strong, strapping guy who can hit the ball as good as any I’ve had. He loved the feel of the shaft and did not have any reservations with the 115-gram weight. We brought him through the fitting process with all of the premium shafts that we offer. In the end, the OBAN won out with feel, stability, ball flight and ball dispersion.
The technical discussion and measurements are available only to registered readers
Give your club fitter a call and check it out! It just may be a shaft for you…
I was surprised by the announcement of a new shaft company VA Composites. A quick look at the website and I quickly recognized the VA in VA Composites are the initials of its founder, Victor Afable. I have know Victor for many years as one of the principles at Oban. Before you could become a distributor you got a personal visit from Victor. It was generally the better part of a day where he determined your competence as a fitter and club builder. If you passed you were accepted as a distributor. I tell this story because it gives some insight into a person that has a unique passion for golf shafts and ethical golf club fitting. Victor Afable has been in the shaft business over 30 years. His designs have had a lot of Tour success.
A box of Raijin review samples arrived quickly after I reached out. I was anxious to look at the profile Victor chose to launch his new company with.
To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership. Russ
To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership. Russ
To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership. Russ
The KBS Tour Hybrid Prototype is the first graphite shaft offered by KBS. It is a natural extension of the brand into carbon fiber products. My measurements of the EI profile of the shaft confirmed the KBS marketing claim, this shaft is an extension of the KBS Tour and KBS FLT set. Hybrids built with this shaft will be a perfect extension of an iron set. Listen to Kim Braly describe the shaft:
You can see in this chart just how the EI, Torque and Hoop Strength compare to a 2 iron KBS Tour steel shaft.
To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership. Russ
To continue reading this section of the review, you must be registered at a higher level membership. Russ
The Nippon Modus3 line released in the US in May 2015, it is available through Nippon Certified Dealers. I got my first look at two pullouts that were used at the PGA merchandise show two months ago. The profile was described to me as splitting the other two versions. The Modus3 profiles are unique. Nippon has put their substantial technical knowledge into the material and fabrication of these shafts.
There have been substantial changes to my measuring software since this shaft was first reviewed in May 2015. This update to the original review is based on remeasuring with the 4 point hoop deformation. It includes DataSheets for the golf professional subscribers.
The technical discussion, measurements and testing results are available only to registered readers
By Russ Ryden, Fit2Score, A Dallas Fort Worth Club Fitter & Club Maker
I was surprised by the announcement of a new shaft company 
The KBS Tour Hybrid Prototype is the first graphite shaft offered by KBS. It is a natural extension of the brand into carbon fiber products. My measurements of the EI profile of the shaft confirmed the KBS marketing claim, this shaft is an extension of the KBS Tour and KBS FLT set. Hybrids built with this shaft will be a perfect extension of an iron set. Listen to Kim Braly describe the shaft: