Well, after ending my golf season with an injury, I wasn’t able to pick up a golf club for quite some time. But I couldn’t stay away completely.
I bought some new wedges last year and made do with the boring, black paint, but it was time to change that. This time around, I stuck with the same colour scheme as the last time I painted my clubs (go Flames, go) but used different colours over the Vokey badge and Titleist logo for each wedge. Hopefully, this helps me to avoid those few times I mistakenly grabbed my 58 instead of my 50. I did not do a bunch of tiny detail work to fill in the “Vokey Design” logo. I just laid the coloured clear enamel nice and thin right over top. I did try to apply the paint over the shiny plastic piece in that area as well, and it looked really good, but it became pretty clear that the enamel would chip off pretty easily when rattling around in the bag.
This year, I made some changes to how I applied the enamel. Last time I didn’t use a base layer – I just applied translucent enamel directly to the metal so I could see a bit of the metal texture through the paint. The only exception to this was my driving iron, since it had a darker metal on the sole than the rest of my set. For that one, I applied a thin white base so the red would be closer to the colour of the other irons.
This season, after researching some tips on some model painting forums, I used a gold leaf enamel as my base coat to get more of that jewelled look. After trying it out on the wedges, I liked it so much that I had to redo my iron set and putter. It’s hard to capture it in a photo, but it really does help create a bit of a twinkle under the clear enamel.
Last year, I used needle-tipped paint bottles and a sewing needle to apply the paint. This time, I opted for blunt-tipped Luer-Lok syringes. The syringes allowed me to use a much higher (thinner) gauge of needle compared to the paint bottles. This was great for the detail work on the wedges and getting the paint in and out of tight spaces. I started with a 20-gauge, which worked well overall. The biggest downside to using syringes is that cleaning them caused the rubber and plastic to break down (likely from the acetone nail polish remover I ran through them when I finished for the day), so I had to order more syringes as I worked. I did try out some 25-gauge needles on my last order, but they were not blunt-tipped and made extracting excess paint from the club surface almost impossible, so I highly suggest using blunt-tipped needles with the syringe.
The biggest benefit of the syringes over the bottles is the control they offer. Not only is it easier to control where you’re applying enamel and how much you use, but you can also use the syringes to suck up excess enamel if you end up applying it too thickly. I really liked being able to lay the enamel on thick to ensure I had full coverage and then using the syringe to draw back some of the excess to make sure it was still a good, thin layer. Leaving too thick a layer of enamel will increase your cure time and can affect the shade – especially if you are using clear enamels and want to make sure you’re not making it too opaque.
After I had finished up my clubs, I decided to take a look at my girlfriend’s set. She was in need of some new grips (there were at least 5 different grips used in her set from the previous owner), so I figured I’d paint hers up to match the new grips.
Her putter grip was a little more hot pink than the ones on her irons. I was able to get a bit of a candied hot pink look in a few spots by mixing the clear enamel with just a drop or two of the clear red and laying it over top of the pink. All in all, not a bad result.
Now, I just need the snow to melt so I can get out there and use them now that my broken thumb is almost healed up. This has been a very long winter, and I cannot wait to golf again.
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