How to Remove a Golf Club Head
Removing a golf club head from the shaft is simple enough, if you have the right tools for the job
Whether your golf club shaft has broken, gone dead, you want to shorten your shaft, or you simply want a new and improved shaft, you have two choices: pay to have it done or do it yourself.
Doing it yourself is a simple process, particularly when you remove a golf club head from a steel shaft. It’s still possible to remove a club head from a graphite shaft, but it is more difficult and there’s a risk of damaging the shaft.
I've gone through this process multiple times, most recently last year when I put my entire set of new irons into my old iron shafts, removing two sets of irons from their shafts then putting the old shafts into the new heads. These are still the irons I use today.
Follow these steps and you'll be back on the course in no time.
Checklist of Tools for Removing Club Heads
Before you start ripping the golf club head off the shaft, here’s a list of all the tools you will need. I'm also linking to the product I use or recommend on Amazon, where you can get a good deal on most of these items .
| Tool | Buy on Amzaon |
| Blow torch or heat gun | CHECK PRICE |
| Gloves or oven mitt | CHECK PRICE |
| Vice | CHECK PRICE |
| Shaft Puller (Graphite shafts) | |
| Damp cloth or paper towel | |
| Grip solvent | CHECK PRICE |
| Golf club hosel brush | CHECK PRICE |
Instructions For Removing a Club Head From a Shaft
Difficulty: Easy
- Here’s a hack I use when I want to save the ferrule from a club I’m removing the head of: toss a wet paper towel over the ferrule before you apply heat to the hosel. This prevents the ferrule from melting when you take the torch to the hosel.
- Use a blowtorch or a heat gun to heat the hosel of the club. I use a little butane kitchen torch I got off Amazon, and it works perfectly for stuff like this, and I don’t have to worry about burning my house down with a larger blow torch, which is also nice. Apply heat for 30 seconds at a time evenly around the perimeter of the hosel.
- STEEL SHAFT: Put your club in a vice to hold it in place while you pull the head off. Re-apply heat as necessary until the club head easily slides off the shaft. When removing the head from a steel shaft, you may twist the head to pull it off. Depending on the age of your club, it could take a minute or two before the epoxy begins to melt and soften. The club head will be very hot. Use an insulated glove or an oven mitt when touching the club head.
- GRAPHITE SHAFT: If you want to save your graphite shaft after removing a club head, you have to use a shaft puller. Any twisting when you remove the club head will damage a graphite shaft, and using a shaft puller will eliminate twisting and save your shaft so you can reuse it after pulling the club head off.
- Clean the hosel of the club head and the shaft. I use a brush that fits into my drill, and it works great to clean out hosels. It’s also best to clean the tip of the shaft while the epoxy is soft. Use a blade, heat and even grip solvent as needed to wipe the tip completely clean and smooth, then dry it.
- Here’s another helpful hack I use: label the shaft you removed the club head from. I stick a piece of painter's tape labeled with the iron number that the shaft corresponds too. That way if I use those shafts for a set of irons later on, I’m not trying to figure out which shaft goes to which head (you could figure this out based on the length of each shaft easily enough, but it’s better to label them).