Some Interesting Redlines..

[fluffy265]

I've never really given Hogan clubs the full respect they deserved as I'd never really got along with Apex ( #3 & #4) shafts, and usually pass on most Hogans that cross my path.

That changed about a month back when I picked up a set of beat up Hogan Redlines. The difference this time was that they had the elusive Apex 5's in them. These I got along with straight away.

 

Now I'm assuming these shafts were most likely pulled from the owners previous hogan set, as the shafts sport the older 70's Apex shaft band and these clubs do not have their original ferrules.

It's like I'm stepping in to the old owners swing with these, they have jumbo grips, with a heap of tape under the right hand, and they are 4° flatter than published redline specs.

The "E" sports an evil dime sized wear spot a hair towards the toe, with the rest of the short irons not too far behind.

 

So nothing too out of the ordinary so far right?

 

Here's the kicker. These heads are not pinned.

At first I thought the pins were just well disguised by the huge amount of bag chatter.

Today curiosity got the better of me. I pulled the 2 iron head. Easy Peasy.. no pins.

I cleaned out the hosel and cannot see any evidence of filling or welding.

I highly doubt these heads have ever been re-chromed, they look like they've had at least 20 years of use, but apart from the bag chatter and wear spots and dings, the faces are relatively good with much of the original black paint fill still in the grooves.

 

Has any one else run into Redlines with no pins before??

 

 

 

J

[raggal62]

Thirty-some years ago when I was in the club repair business, I would send Hogan irons along with Maxfli and others to the Iron Factory for rechroming. Since these brands all had pinned hosels, I opted to take advantage of their welding service and have them fill the holes. My reasoning for having them do this was that I absolutely dreaded the pinning process, especially to a fresh rechrome.

 

In your case, I would venture to guess that at some point another owner sent these in, had them bent 4 degrees flat, then had the holes filled and rechromed.

[teevons]

Another possibility because it happened to me just yesterday is that they are Slazenger heads.

I had a set of Apex II I wanted the shafts, apex 4 for another project.

When looking at the hosels I could not see pins, thinking they were very hard to see, then I realized they were Slazenger heads, with Hogan Apex 4 shafts,shaft bands did not say Slazenger.

Slazenger did not use pins I remembered so heated hosel up and head came right off , no pin

[fluffy265]

That's an interesting suggestion teevons, considering we did have a Slazenger foundry here ( NZ) back in the day. Though I think it was not producing in the 80's. The Hogan Slazengers that I've run into locally have all been stainless and pinned also mostly from the mid 60's.

 

J

[fluffy265]

And just to add to the confusion, the pulled 2 iron shaft has never seen a pin either.

 

J

 

[teevons]

The Apex II I pulled the shafts on did have Slazenger ferrules so were probably original shafted without pins

Pretty sure Slazenger stopped pinning their Hogan clubs before US Hogan did, I have original Hogan Edge that some have pins and some do not, those are 88-89, so maybe hogan did the same with redlines as 89 is I think when they stopped pinning

[birly-shirly]

I never knew Slazenger were still making Hogan branded clubs by the time of the Apex II. I have seen '73 - '78 Apex heads from Slazenger, but those are the most modern designs I've actually seen. I've always assumed that the Slazenger manufacturing licence was connected in some way with commercial or trade barriers to Hogan importing to UK and commonwealth countries. Certainly, by the time the Apex PC came round, the Hogan Company was selling direct into the UK. I don't know whether they entered the UK market earlier or later than Canada, South Africa, Australia or NZ.

 

On the other hand, I have some Slazenger PC5s that aren't pinned - so definitely agree that Slazenger stopped pinning heads earlier.

 

As regards Fluffy's redlines, I grew up a short distance from the Wilson european manufacturing base. And I don't know how many sets of irons were in circulation locally that escaped the factory by an unconventional route. I do remember one set of pristine Staff heads that were spectacularly carelessly glued into an old set of shafts and grips and which came apart in the proud owner's first week or two of play. The irony was that they'd replaced a pinned set of Hogans that, barring a shaft breakage, would never have suffered such problems.

 

So one explanation, given that fluffy hasn't found anything to suggest the hosels having been welded or the heads rechromed, and given the older shafts - is that these were a "custom" assembly not carried out in the Hogan custom shop!