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Awhile back I read something about building a set of irons with 1/4" difference in club lenghs between the irons instead of 1/2". Just wondering if any of you club buildiers have any experience with this and what your opinion of this idea is. If you use 1/4" instead of 1/2" you end up with a 3 iron the length of a normal 6 iron. Should make for better ball striking with the longer irons if nothing else. While the shorter club length for a 3 iron might cost you some distance, I'm thinking you might make up for that with more solid ball contact.
Any one have any opinions on this method of building a set of irons?
I know the lie angles may have to be corrected a few degrees, and the head weight of each of the irons will have to be increased to get the swing weight back to normal. Each of those items can be corrected with no big problem. If you have any experience with this, I'd appreciated your reply. Thanks in advance.

Ever heard of True Length Technology? Here are a couple of links to explain it. Then google it and find reviews and more discussion. I think this is what your looking for and most people who have been fitted this way swear by it.

Dan's Custom Golf Shop
True Length Technology

No reason why it can't work, especially with a clubmaker that has his wits about him. I built my pops a set with 1/3" between clubs and he loves them. I started with a 7i at 1/2:" over std. But I will add this... having trouble hitting long irons is not a real valid reason for approaching this concept. Truth is, the vast majority of guys should never touch a 3i, a 4i, or even a 5i for that matter. The design of a hybrid allow them to be played at std. iron lengths or longer and be easy to get the ball airborne and land softly on the greens. Instead, its interesting to see the improvements of ball striking throughout the set with irons that all play very close to the same lengths..with the lies and weights adjusted properly so that each iron has a very similar setup position.

True length Technology is sort of a hot topic right now. I agree with the concept, but it relies on the body to be a perfect well-oiled machine and not so sure that there is any real advantage out on the course. It certainly would not be a hindrance. I believe the body is a wondrous machine, but not because of its machine-like precision but rather in its uncanny ability to adjust to certain external stresses. One of which would be a completely different concept in clublength agenda. Over time, the body will adjust and you will become "used to" 1/4" difference in clublength and they can work.

Explain why the body has to be a well oiled machine, please? It's a golf swing. You already swing clubs of different lengths so how is the body gonna know if it's a difference of only 1/4, 3/8 or 1/2 inch?

how much distance would you lose? 10 yards for the 3 iron? but I think distance loss would go down gradually (compared to the usual distances) for the 4 iron-8 yards, 5 iron-6yards and so on....am I right?

Correct, You would lose the most distance with the 3 irons, as it's 1-1/2 inches shorter than standard, The 8 iron would be only 1/4 Inch shorter, so I doubt you'd would every notice a difference. I'm thinking half a club length lose with the 3 iron, If you want to hit an iron less than full distance, you pretty much need to choke down an 1-1/2 inches to get half way between club yardage. Chole down 1-1/2" on a 6 iron should get you about half way between a 6 and a 7 I'd think. Will vary from golfer to golfer, but that's a fair guess for that an average would be. Right now, I'm making a guess that with better ball striking due to the short club length, I might in fact gain distance with this shorter 3 iron. On average I mean. The best shots with a standard 3 iron might be longer, but I'm guessing my average will be longer and straighter as well. Will need to hit a lot more balls before I decide if this is going to help my overall iron game or not. The one time I hit balls with the short 3, my call contact was pretty much the equal to what I was doing with my 6 iron. The short 3 is the same length as my 6 iron, so I'd think my ball striking would be equal, and it seems to have been the case last week. More practice session will tell the whole story in the next few weeks I think.

I'm confused how you think that the 3i would be 6i length.......say your 5i is 38.5" and you use 1/4" increments, the 3i would be 39" and the 6i 38.25". How are you coming up with your measurements? I must be missing something here........

Choking down 1.5" is a bit much for me. Instead of choking down learn to swing 1/2, 3/4, etc. Choking down that far messes with grip size to much.
Having clubs 1/4" different is useless IMO, most people won't even notice 1/4" diff. in length, so you might as well have them all the same length. 1/2" is typically the point where most of us can tell we are holding a shorter or longer club.....remember the grip cap is 1/4", how many of you grip it right up to the end of the club. I would say not many.

edit....are you saying your 3i is 37.5"? If so you have really changed your lie angles making it that short. With that said...if it works for you go for it, there is no hard fast rule that says you can't do what your doing.

GolfvsWife; It's real easy to figure out. You start with a normal 9 iron at 36 inches. If you use 1/2" longer per club, your 6 iron would be 37-1/2 inches. Good so far? Now, if you use 1/4" longer per club, still starting with a 36" 9 iron, your 3 iron would now be 37-1/2 inches, the same as a normal 6 iron. And YES, the lie angles would be off but that's not very hard to correct. With a standard set of irons, the difference in lie angle from a 3 to a 6 is only 1-1/2*, not very much. I've seen that much difference from one OEM to other, so I doubt it will me a problem. Also, think about when you choke down to the end of the grip on your wedges to play a pitch. Do you have a problem with the lie angle being wrong? I don't.
As for learning the swing 1/2 and 3/4 etc. that's fine for partial wedge shots, but that's not the point of my question. I was asking how much yardage you'd lose if you choked down 1-1/2 inchs, the same as my short 3 iron. If you only reduce your carry yardage 1/2 a club length when you chole down that much, I'm saying you'd only lose the same 1/2 a club length using the 1/4 inch gap between clubs method with the shorter 3 iron. For the 7 iron, which would only be 1/2 inch shorter than normal, I doubt you'd notice any difference in yardage.
The whole idea here is to make a 3 iron that's as easy to hit as a normal 6 iron, and maybe 6 or 7 yards shorter in distance. And with the more solid contact most golfers would get with the shorter length, they might not lose any yardage at all, might even gain some distance in fact.

You seem to have it all figured out so why not cut them and find out for yourself, either that or learn to hit your 3i. With that said I have a program that allows you to input lengths, lofts, etc. and it tells you approximate distances...it's based on your driver yardage. Your scenario with a 37.5" 3i and all the clubs following 1/4" increments would net a loss of 24yds. My 3i length is 187yds at 40.5" w/ a 19* loft. The 3i at 37.5" w/ 19* is 163yds. Your idea of hitting it more solidly sounds great in theory, but a 3i isn't a driver. There isn't that much of a variance on a 3i head when compared to a driver. You are correct in saying a shorter club will give you more control, that holds true for everyone playing the game....not anything new. The yardage gap you would have between your 3i, and say your 3w would be something like 55yds. Only you can answer your questions, I have given you some info that is pretty accurate. You can take it as you see fit....

Golf, as I stated in another post, I have built a 37.5 inch 3 iron and hit some balls with it already. I want to do some more testing with it so as the get some good carry yardages with it and compare those numbers with my standard 3 iron before I proceed with building a full set.
A standard steel shaft 3 iron length is 39 inches, so I don't know why you have one at 40.5"s. I also can't speak on how far I'll be hitting my 37.5" 3 iron, but I can tell you it's more than 163 yards. At this time, with my standard 8 iron, I hit 165 carry. 7 iron is 180 carry. When I've hit my 3 iron well, which isn't real often, carry is 225 yards. And I can't speak about your program for figuing out yardages, since I don't know anything about your program. What I can speak to is the fact that when I did hit the shorter 3 iron, the yardage was much more than the figure you prodicted. Going with the fact I hit my standard 6 iron 195 carry, I find it odd that your program would come up with a figure of 163 yard for a 37.5" 19* 3 iron. What driver carry yardage did you use to come up with those numbers? While I appreciate your imput, I don't believe the numbers you gave are correct for what I'm doing.

The numbers are based on my driving yardage...if you give me your driver yardage I can plug in all your info and you can see if it is accurate for you.

My 3i is 40.5" because I have longer clubs. If you are building clubs I would have thought one would know that not everyone uses standard length. Just so you understand something, there is no standard club length. Golfsmith has a number and Ping, TM have theirs. You must be some kind of hitter if your 6i carry is 195yd, that's some serious distance. I'm not sure how to better explain what I posted above, the numbers are all based off my yardages...I though that was pretty clear.

There really is a standard for a set of irons, Most all irons use the same length for a certain iron. I have 4 different sets of numbers and all of them list 36 inches at being standard for a steel shaft 9 iron. I do understand that some golfers need longer or shorter clubs, but 1-1/2 inches over standard is a bit much, even for really tall golfers.
My carry distance with a driver is 275 yards. Let me know what all my other yardages should be according to your program and we can see how close they are.

You don't go by the 9i for determining standard length. You use the 5i...which is used by every manuf. My 3i isn't 1.5" over standard, your confusing yourself. Where have you been getting your info? Being tall or short isn't the key factor in dertermining your length of clubs, it has more to do with wrist to floor and swing.

I have to say from what you have said and remarks you have made tell me you need some more information on all of this. I don't think you know as much as you think you know.

I get my information from Golfsmith, Golf Work, CSG Golf, and a few OEM catalogs. You're the only one I know that claims all iron lengths are based on the 5 iron. I'm also well aware that wrist to floor measurements are what is used to determine the starting point for the length of clubs, not overall height. Known that for years. I also never stated the you go by the 9 iron for determining standard length. What I posted was that the standard length for a 9 iron is 36 inches. And if you start with a 36 inch 9 iron and use 1/4" progression in club lengths, you end up with a 37.5" 3 iron. All of this is true, was when I first posted it and it's still true.
If you read the original post, you might notice that I was asking for comments from any one with experience with this way of building clubs. I never asked anyone for what they think is a standard length for a 5 iron, or if there is a standard at all. Fact is, whether there is a standard club length for a set of irons is not the point. It's quite clear you have no experience in the subject I was asking about. Going by my first test session with the 37.5" 3 iron, it's also quite clear your statement that I'd lose some 24 yards and only hit the club some 163 yards was totally false. Common sense and experience would dictate that if I hit my 37.5" 6 iron 195 yards carry. I would hit the 37.5" 3 iron longer than that, which is exactly what I did. The statement that a 37.5" 3 iron would be 24 yards shorter than a standard 39" 3 iron also makes little sense based on my experience and that of some other golfers I've talked to. It's my experience that when a golfer chokes down on an iron to produce a shot half way between that club and the next shorter club, the golfer has to choke down between 1 and 2 inches. This means that if a golfer has a 12 yard gap in his yardages for his irons, choking down 1-1/2', (the average between 1 and 2), would provide a lose of about 6 yards. Not 24 yards. Again, this is based on experiece, not some computer program. Going by your 24 yard lose claim, it would make sense that choking down 1/2" would mean a lose of about 8 yards.. Again, I know from experience, that's way off. I have 15 yards between all my irons, and I know for a fact that if I choke down 1-1/2 inchs, I lose half a club, or about 7.5 yards. If I choke down 1/2', I hardly notice any difference, certainly not the 8 yards your numbers would dictate.

As for my knowledge or lack there of, I'll put my knowledge base up against anyone on this site. I have no doubt that there are a few members on this site with more experience or knowledge about club making, but I truly don't believe you're one of them. You stated that you think the 1/4" idea is useless, and yet you have NO EXPERIENCE, with the idea. Since you have no experience to base your thinking, I find your thinking quite useless. I never claimed to know it all, and that's exactly the reason for the original post, to gain some knowledge from those site members with personnal experience with building clubs with 1/4" between irons.

Sorry dude your just plain wrong....any clubbuilder will build your clubs off a 5i, not a 9i. You need to understand what your reading, obviously you are lacking in that regard. There is just to much of what you have said that is wrong, I don't have the time or care to dispute everyting. Do yourself a favor and do some more research.
Once again the numbers mentioned were my numbers...not yours. How many times must that be said. Your one of those that reads something different than what is actually there....this explains why your lacking in what you think you know.

Frankly I don't have to defend my knowledge base, I really don't give a ****. You type a bunch of useless jargon trying to come across like you know what your talking about....and it's people like you that post information that confuses the everyday golfer. Stick to what you know ...which by the posts I have read by you isn't much.

Ahh why even bother repsonding to someone like you.....it truly is a waste of my time..