McSquiggles

Thanks for the response @SnowbirdTom, cool to see another set so close to mine! They look great with the woods too. I got out for a quick 9 yesterday afternoon, and the irons performed much better on course than on the (90% mud) driving range. I shocked myself with a full dollar bill divot out of very thick rough with an aggressive 10 iron swing. Took up the full intact roots and I had to walk like 15 feet to pick it up 😂 I don't even have much club speed, that was a 95 yard shot onto the front of the green. These clubs are sweet guys, don't sleep on the split soles.

Valuable conversation in this thread, seems like sanding is the way to go. I know ~300 grit sandpaper is the usual recommendation, but would finer paper work? I have some automotive wet/dry sandpaper lying around in the 1000-2000 grit range. Figured that would also make it harder to take off too much material, unless it'd be too fine to get the job done. Also, would wet sanding work better, or leave it dry to feel when it gets tacky?

@mocokid thanks for the replies, I'm gonna do a bit more research before making any hasty decisions on the grips. I assumed they weren't particularly sought after, I'm more into affordable and playable clubs that I personally find interesting. For instance I've picked up some Wilson Fat Shaft clubs, a driver and 2 putters, if you consider those "vintage" yet. Better they get use in my Sunday bag than rotting in someone's garage. Not really looking to collect any grails, I have student loans to pay off 😅

Thank you @EvanH and those are some beautiful clubs you had as well! I definitely agree that the muscle back curvature is similar, and I gotta say they also look nice and clean with the square soles. I never knew MacGregor had anything come out of Japan so thanks for adding to my knowledge base.

Thank you for the tip, I will certainly give that a try! I know people commonly restore old leather grips but I hadn't given it much thought regarding rubber. A very gentle water-only cleaning helped a bit, so I look forward to seeing what Dawn and mink oil can do for them.

Thanks for that info! I've seen mentions of those books but I appreciate you being specific, and I might just pick up some new reading materials per your recommendation.

Hey WRXers! First post here but I've lurked plenty, and I've previously been active on forums for other interests. Thought I'd introduce myself and show off these irons I recently picked up. They are MacGregor VIP Limited irons with Split-Level Soles. The set is 2 thru 10 irons with Tourney Taper 1 Stiff shafts, all original Golf Pride grips, and all matching serial numbers. I've searched through all the threads I could find, and from this thread I've gleaned they're no older than 1971, but I'm not sure the exact age of this set. I'd also love any other info the experts here may have about them, as I'm new to collecting vintage clubs and these are much older than I am. I'm building a little Sunday bag of vintage clubs to start walking some 9s, and even though I have no business hitting blades, I thought these clubs looked too good to pass up. I know the split soles aren't for everyone, but I personally love the way they look hanging in the bag. I took the even numbered irons out to the range today for some testing. Unfortunately the grips are pretty slick but still manageable for now. Best I can tell the clubs are standard length for their time; no idea on loft and lie specs, but they're definitely weaker lofts than my gamers. They also feel very heavy to someone that's used to cast GI clubs, but this actually has me thinking my gamers are a bit too light now. I thought the 10 iron would be my bread and butter, as is the case with my normal PW, but I actually found the 4 and 6 irons easiest to hit. I believe this is due to my heavier reliance on bounce with my normal PW, as every club in this set has zero bounce. I typically take pretty small divots so the digging tendency of the split soles doesn't feel too aggressive for me, though they definitely keep me honest in terms of depth control. I hit a few with the 2 iron but that was mostly for S's and G's, they all came out terribly. At any rate, I look forward to getting out with the full vintage bag in a week or two.