Aerotech SteelFiber i110CW Iron Shafts
Get Your Iron Game All Wound Up
Graphite. Yuck. Try as I might, that’s generally the reaction that occurs in this confused mass I am forced to call a brain. I’ve never really had any sort of inclination to use graphite shafts in my irons. Thoughts of them being too light, too inconsistent, and just lacking in feedback start creeping in, and I pretty much tune out the idea there and then. I had a chance to test the Aerotech SteelFiber i110CW (Constant Weight) shafts over the last couple of months. Did the little devil on my shoulder screaming “Graphite Sucks” get forced to eat crow? Read on…
First things first: Opening the box. I’m not one to get wrapped up in the look of a shaft, but these things just plain look cool. They are understated dark grey with some silver graphics. The technology of the SteelFiber shafts lies in the fact the graphite core is wound with 50 miles of steel fiber on each shaft. That steel fiber is visible beneath a slightly shiny yet transparent outer finish. The look is almost like the old satin Project X shafts, only darker. If you took a quick glance, you probably wouldn’t even notice these are graphite. For those with a graphite “vanity” complex, -your disguise is pretty much built in already, so no worries! Looks alone aren’t going to steer me into graphite iron shafts, however, so it’s on to the performance.
I had played the Adams Idea Pro forged irons for the last few months of the ’06 season and was pretty pleased with them, aside from the Black Gold shafts being a little soft for me. This was the perfect opportunity to try something new, and up the flex to an X flex. One of my main concerns with graphite iron shafts is whether they would play true to flex and keep up with my swing. The SteelFiber i110CW’s certainly did just that. On Aerotech’s web page, there is a quote from Jack Nicklaus stating how he was looking for a shaft that had the properties of the True Temper Dynamic Gold, only with the benefits of graphite (which I would assume old man Jack means vibration absorption.) If that was the goal in creating the i110CW’s, I’d say Aerotech met the challenge. They played very true to flex, and felt very much like a Dynamic Gold X100. They held up to my swing speed without issue, and I didn’t experience any hooking to my shots that I was half expecting. So far, so good.
In staying with the Dynamic Gold comparison, in terms of trajectory, the i110CW’s again performed very similarly. With Dynamic Golds, you can pretty much feel the flex of the shaft right underneath the grip. The i110CW’s were very close, if not perhaps a little further down the shaft where I could feel this flex. The resulting trajectory was a little higher than Dynamic Gold X100’s for me, but not by much. The tip section has just a slightly softer feel about it in the i110CW’s. The perceptible “kick” is more noticeable, but the kickpoint of the shaft is still mid/high and there is no amount of “snapping” sensation through the impact zone. The steel fiber wound around the outside of the shaft seemed to be doing its job. The dispersion is also very good. I was hitting nice, controlled little draws with these shafts. Part of this I attribute to the slightly lighter weight than what I am accustomed to. I felt like I was really “getting around” on the ball with them, and that there was a perceptible increase, if only just slight, in my swing speed as a result. This caused two things. One, my iron distances seemed to pick up about 5 yards instantly. Second, the less desirable of the two increases, came in the form of shot trajectory, which was a little higher and perhaps had a bit more spin when compared to Dynamic Golds. My shots into the green were really hitting and stopping well, but shots into the wind on gusty days were sometimes ballooning a bit. It was nothing terrible, -but notable nonetheless. With torque values that of steel shafts, the Aerotechs kept things on line nicely.
One main advantage to be gained by using graphite in your irons is that of shock/vibration reduction. Having been in a car accident last Spring, I can have days where the old body just isn’t moving so well. I was more than happy to try on graphite iron shafts for at least this reason. Overall, I’d say there was at least some benefit as far as shock reduction. The feel was always smooth with the i110CW’s, and I did not experience any elbow tenderness like I can sometimes get from Project X shafts, for example. I thought perhaps that wrapping steel around the exterior somewhat defeats the vibration dampening of graphite. But, then again, the graphite core likely acts as one large “sensicore” insert. I’ll put the Aerotechs ahead of at least some steel shafts for certain, and leave it at that. I’d have to play them for an entire season to likely judge if my body experienced any less wear and tear.
One interesting comment made by my club fitter when installing these shafts was how he liked the “feel” of them. Not that I would have had a problem with him hitting my clubs, but I asked him in a sort of befuddled way, “Oh, did you hit them?” He had not, but he said in working with many sets of irons shafts, that just merely handing and installing them he can generally tell if he might like a shaft, and how “consistent” the i110CW’s feel overall. He said he had not felt many shafts that seemed as balanced as the i110CW’s, and likened them to the very pricey True Temper Tour Concept shaft in their very “balanced” feel.
Speaking of balanced, this brings me to the last point I wanted to cover about the i110CW’s. If you hadn’t been wondering already, the “CW” on the end stands for “Constant Weight.” Meaning- the short iron shafts, despite their lesser length, weigh the same as that of the long iron shafts. This gives the i110CW’s an extremely consistent feel from club to club, and it really helped me to maintain a good tempo throughout the set with these shafts, despite the slightly lighter weight than I was accustomed to. It did take a little bit of an adjustment period to get my swing synched up with the lighter Aerotechs, but once it did, the very balanced nature of these shafts really shined. I felt as though I could put a very nice, controlled swing on the ball and see good results. In this sense, I felt very much like I was getting more out of these shafts than I was putting in effort-wise. I still like to really dig in and up my swing speed with steel shafts on occasion, so this was a little counter-intuitive at first. (OK, so I over-swing usually!)
In summary, the Aerotech SteelFiber i110CW iron shafts took me from “yuck,” to “hmmmm?” Now, that might not be the most ringing endorsement ever; but for me, this was really a quantum leap in how I think about graphite iron shafts. I think I’ll stick to steel for my own game right now. But if I knew someone that was contemplating graphite to take advantage of shock absorption and to pick up some distance instantly, I would not hesitate to suggest they check out the Aerotechs. One thing was clear: the steel fibers seemed to do their part to ensure a consistent shot shape and excellent dispersion. With Aerotech, you no longer need to get all “wound up” when thinking of graphite shaft performance. There is definite technology at their core.
Michael White
Independent Equipment Reviewer
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