1963 Hogan Blades vs. Today's Blades

[Richie3Jack]

I purchased some Hogan IPT (Improved Power Thrust) blades on eBay and just got them in the mail today.





I wanted to compare them to the current style of blades and even the MacGregor 985's ('70's style blades).

I'll try to bullet list the things I've noticed.

- At the bottom of the club, each number is followed with a '+', like a +3-iron, a +5-iron, etc. Just see the pic above. I believe this line of irons was the first of the Hogan company that Mr. Hogan did not design.

- Who made the grips?

It wasn't Golf Pride.

It was CHEVRON.

Y'know, the oil company.

I thought that was extremely interesting.

- The 2 thru 7-irons are not ridiculously small looking and actually look almost identical to the new Mizuno MP-68 irons. In fact I'm pretty positive that Mizuno designed the MP-68's after previous Hogan designs.

- The 8 - PW (Equalizer) are very unique looking, very round looking blade. I know other Hogan short irons looked like this, but I can't find anything today that looks like this.

- The clubs are short. 5-iron measured 37.5" long. My current MP-62 measures 38.5" long. The MacGregor 985 measures 37.75" long. Lag Erickson has his 5-iron in his sets at 38" long which is about the standard in most irons today (he just sets the lies flatter).

- The shafts in both the Hogan's and MacGregors seem much smaller in diameter than the Flighted Rifles I have in my MP-62's.

- The hosels in both the Hogan's and MacGregors are noticeably longer than the hosel in the MP-62's. I have the Hogan and MacGregor hosels about +3/4" longer.

- I can noticeably feel the sweetspot more towards the heel and higher up with the IPT's. The same with the MacGregors, but the IPTS seem even more closer to the heel.

- The MacGregor's feel decent, but not nearly as well as the MP-62's when caught flush. The Hogan's are very close to feeling like the MP-62's. Much better forgings out of the Hogan's and Mizuno's. Although I really think Mizuno has something with their 'grain flow forging' process.

- The lofts are weaker on the MacGregors, but seem really, really weak on the Hogan's. I'd say 2-3* weak on the MacGregors, but maybe 3-5* weak on the Hogan's.







3JACK

[Richie3Jack]

Just an update. Today was the first time I hit the Hogan IPT's outdoors (on mats). Clubs feel much different outdoors than indoors, IMO. Anyway...

WOW!

The forgings are tremendous and when you catch the sweetspot the ball trajectory is fantastic. I would say the feel from the forgings is very close to as good as Mizuno and just as good as Miura irons. And that is with 47 year old shafts that need to be replaced.

If you're looking for a set of blades but only want to spend less than $500 instead of paying about $900...I would highly suggest giving eBay a try and look for some vintage Hogans and then you can get them re-shafted and/or rechromed and regrooved.




3JACK

[kevcarter]

Those were just plain GREAT irons!

Kevin

[Richie3Jack]

Sevam1 mentioned to me that pretty much all of the 60's blades had razor shaft leading edges. A bit of an exagerration, but they are razor sharp as far as golf clubs go. Just love it.



3JACK

[kevcarter]

Besides the Macs and Hogans, I think all you need is a set of 68 Staffs, 82 Titleists, and Mac Muirfields from around 83 and you'll have a great compliment of the best forged irons ever made!

Kevin

[Richie3Jack]

I would like to try some '71 buttonback Wilson's.





3JACK

[kevcarter]

Jan 26, 2010 18:39:45 GMT -5 Richie3Jack said:

I would like to try some '71 buttonback Wilson's.
3JACK

LOL, times change, in 71 we wanted to find the 68s! ;D

Kevin

[jonrobert]

I bought a set at a rummage sale figuring I would use them to practice with. The theory being that - according to everything that we read - they will be so hard to hit that I will have to improve my swing or die trying.

A very funny thing happened. The blasted things are like a dart gun. They are vastly superior to my Hogan Apex Edge "game improvement" irons.

I still have a hard time coming to grips with the fact that these "hard to hit blades" are so unbelievably accurate. I literally have a hard time believing it, they seem to have a mind of their own which is to zero in on the target.

I took them out on a "vintage" outing and also took along some Macgregor Persimmon woods and a Spaulding Lady’s choice 7wood (laminated wood) It went right over the flag stick 200 yards (pin was 185) the woods likewise are stellar producers.

I have discovered that these vintage 1963 Hogan IPT irons and vintage woods are now going to be getting some serious play and the modern clubs will have to earn the right to unseat them. The accuracy of the IPT irons is astounding.

I will keep the Callaway 454 driver but the Callaway metal woods and my Apex edge irons are in danger of being scraped. The Vintage IPT irons have no bounce at all making for a knife blade edge but I am finding that I am not cutting balls so that is not a problem. The only down side is that if I hit fat there is no "bounce" to skip into the ball and get a reasonably good result.

I lengthened the vintage clubs to today’s lengths (I am 6"4")

The Hogan IPT irons are just awesome. They might be a hair shorter than the game improvement modern clubs but I will trade that for the laser like accuracy any day.

[Richie3Jack]

Welcome to the board. Great to hear you liked the irons.

I've found that out of the vintage clubs, Hogan's were very reasonable to hit. I think what happened is that years and years of companies beating it into the brains of the golfers that they can't possibly hit blades gave way to that being the popular conception. The only reason why I use a CB 3 and 4-iron is to help with a little extra loft...but that's it. I have little worries about hitting 3 or 4-iron well enough, just looking for a little extra trajectory to help hold greens.





3JACK

[cloran]

Blades, modern and vintage alike, are NOT more difficult to hit... and as noted, they tend to be more consistent. Turf interaction is the main difference between vintage and modern blades, imho.

That being said, I just bought a set of SE 685x heads and I'll be building the set soon. I wonder if they can kick the blades out of the bag... maybe.