The Gold’s Factory Wedge Process: The ONLY True Hand Made Wedges!

Gold's Factory:  The last True Hand Made Wedges
When shopping around for the best made wedges money can buy you have quite a few options on the market, but the real question is are these companies giving you a sales pitch or are they really producing their own hand made wedges  in house and most importantly when they say it's 100% hand made is it really?

Do you know who did the grind on your wedges and if you do, there are some things you should know about how it was made especially if your paying top dollar.

TourSpecGolf has visited most of the manufacturing plants in Japan and even a couple in China noting the process used to produce some of the most expensive golf clubs on the market. We have learned a lot over the years and wanted to bring you the real skinny on  100% hand made wedges for those who care about quality and getting your money's worth vs what you are told you are getting.

Not Always as it Seems...
Almost every manufacture that claims they produce fully hand made wedges are really not doing so, well lets just say they are 25% hand made.  The process that 99% of the wedges on the market uses takes the finished ground head from an unknown factory grinder and puts it into a barrel of small stones and shakes it vigoursly for about 2 hours.  You can put 100 heads in these barrels turn it to shake mode for 2 hours, then set to vibrate for another 2 hours and presto you have 100 wedge heads done. I am not saying that these are not hand made or hand grind but the part that takes the most care, time and skill is done by the barrel.  So lets call them Barrel made wedges... let's be honest it isnt rocket science to grind a wedge to shape from a raw blank,  just about anyone can learn to do that in a month if they put great effort into it.

True HAND MADE or HAND GRIND are made by hand from start to finish.   It begins by using a #60 grit rough paper to change the shape as most companies do but it's after that where just about every manufacture skimps out at goes straight to the barrell while  Master Sasaya of Gold's Factory continues to produce wedges with Pride using the True Hand Made method.

The REAL Process
After the #60 grit is used Master Sasaya then switches to a totally different grind machine to use #100, then #120, #180, and  #240 making it semi smooth yet still seeing things that need to be adjusted or fixed. Following Semi Smooth #320, #400, #600 are used to make the wedge very smooth with no flaws.  After that another specific machine is used that has a pencil thick sanding belt for all corners, edges, flowing transitional lines and fine areas and even after that  the same process is done once again to ensure the smaller areas have the same flow.  I am talking about all areas from the neck to the topline & sole etc..  Every line must lead into the proper area with consistency before using #1000 to made the wedge shine from raw metal to almost mirror finish.

This means the shape is 100% intentional, Not 80% luck or cover up like barrel made wedges are.  A master of grinding can only produce 2 wedges tops each day, it literally takes 10-15 times longer to produce a wedge using this true method over barrell made wedges.  In fact the only other person I know who used this method has passed away making Master Sasaya to our knowledge the only person doing this in the entire golf industry.

Better than the Tour
Even the worlds top wedge companies  use this barrel method,  The worlds best PGA Tour players use custom wedges that are half ground half barrell.  Now the barrell wedge will work on the course but the shape is always rounded, very round with few sharp areas.  So if you are serious and big on quality and process  we suggest a TRUE hand made wedge.  If you see your wedge as simply a tool of golf then it's not a problem but if you are being told what your getting is a true hand made wedge question them and send us an image, we can tell you right off the bat if it really is.

Plating does cover up flaw's as well, I know many like myself enjoy a satin finished wedge but keep in mind even the finishes that Gold's Factory does are done by hand 100%. Yes you can request it plated if you want but it's something to keep in mind if you are Quality oriented and want only the best hand made product. It's truley special from start to finish.

I know it sounds like im knocking barrel made wedges but the truth is that the factories need to do this for mass produced product. It's when companies that sell product that is built with mass produced methods and try to pass it off as hand made that has motivated me to share this insight with you guys.

Below we have a video of Master Sasaya doing the early #60 grit step to create the initial shape of the wedge and at the end he explains in rough terms what i did above.

Dont Forget to Read Part 2 of our Interview with Master Masayuki Sasaya by Clicking Here or Keep Reading!

Q: How long ago did you start playing Golf?

A: When I was 13 or 14 years old.

Q: What is in your Bag Currently?

A: Often the manufacturers ask me to test their product and sometimes I do test other maker’s products to study but now I play mostly Gold’s Factory Product.

Q: What has been your favorite Gold’s Factory Putter that you have made?

A: Always the next model is the best.

Q: What type of Japanese customer buys Gold’s Factory Product?

A:  I don’t think my customers any particular special group of people, I think they went to a golf shop but just couldn’t find something they wanted or made them feel proud and good about. You don’t need to be afraid to be in the minority, the minority doesn’t mean you’re wrong and often the Majority is wrong in the Golf Industry.

Q:  What are you working on Next?

A:  I am testing many new putters, Irons, and wedges right now. I am thinking about many products and their design is very important to us. I do think that the timing of selling the product is also very important as well.

Q: Can you tell us about your famous Sword Oil Product?

A:  Well it’s not my product. It is ancient Japanese oil used to maintain the Samurai’s sword. It just so happens it is the best type of product for a forged golf club. If you go to the Japanese Museum of history swords that are hundreds of years old are still shining because they are protected by Sword Oil.

Q:  How do you manage working with so many types of custom options?

A: Somehow? Ha ha ha….
Custom orders always have the danger of mistakes. We do our best and only deal with the best like TourSpecGolf because you guys understand about intense options and a wide selection of features.

Q:  What is the craziest putter you have ever made for a client?

A: I have never made a putter I consider Crazy; I hope someone will surprise me some day.

 

Thank you again Master Sasaya for this interview…

-          Your Very Welcome.