Not a "Purist"

Frank,
Does puring work? Theoretically, it makes sense, but after I paid to have my shafts pured I didn't notice that much difference in performance.

As the inventor of the graphite shaft, you’re surely the best person to give me some insight on this process.
Brad

Brad,
I’m no “purist.”  To my mind, a shaft that needs to be “pured” is a bad shaft to begin with.

The problem lies in the manufacturing process.  The first graphite shafts were filament-wound, which means that a continuous bundle of resin-impregnated graphite fibers were wound onto a rotating solid core or mandrel, creating a woven pattern of material resulting in a constant thickness of material on the mandrel. This becomes the “wall thickness” of the shaft when the mandrel is removed after curing. The flex properties are thus very consistent in all directions, independent of the axis about which it is bent. These shafts were as good as steel shafts with regard to the consistency of bending and twisting properties, so none of them needed to be “pured.”

Today, however, graphite shafts are flag wrapped (a much less expensive process than filament winding), which means that sheets of graphite fibers, oriented in a specific direction, are rolled onto a mandrel. If just a few layers are used to make up the shaft wall thickness, then there is a good chance that an overlap will cause a thick section, or a high concentration of fibers up the side of the shaft which will create something like a spine. This would cause the shaft to bend differently in different bending modes. For example; an R-shaft bending about one axis may become an S-flex when the shaft is rotated 90-degrees and bent again under the same load. This is not good.

Some of the more popular shafts (Aldila NV for instance, and others) have many layers, and this reduces the potential inconsistency problems. Other shafts that are not as well produced may need to be oriented to a specific position to reduce the effects of their inconsistent bending properties – the so-called “puring” process, which only underscores the fact that the shaft is impure to begin with. 

If you were making a decision about what to put into your club, I’d suggest that you’re better off getting a shaft that does not require "puring" in the first place.  A better quality shaft may give you more peace of mind but since you’ve already had your shaft "pured", and cannot detect any difference in performance then my advice is not to worry too much about it.

Hope this helps,

Frank Thomas

Note: Pured is a trademarked computer process created by Dick Weis.  Spining is the term many use when referring to the process of making the shaft oscillate flat.  Each club we build at Pat Ryan Golf is spined or what we call optimized.  It is true that some individuals will never see or feel the difference between a shaft that is optimized and one that is not…but others will.  We choose to set up the club in the most optimal way, so it will perform at its best no matter who is swinging it.  We also know that most of the shafts made today are being flag wrapped, so they need to optimized.