How to Make a Car Look Like a Horse: The History of Pyratone

Imagine inventing the very first automobile, but instead of flaunting its unheralded advancement in technology you wanted to make it look like a horse and buggy.

Sounds insane right?

Believe it or not, this happened in golf.

During the 1920’s and the decades preceding, the demand for hickory wood was at an all-time high. This demand threatened its unprecedented run as the dominant shaft for the game of golf. The lack of good hickory shafts, or perhaps better said, the threat of a hickory shortage pushed the USGA to reverse its steel shaft ban that it had adopted just the year prior and moved to legalize the use of steel shafts in 1924, followed 5 years later by the R&A.

Golf club makers had experimented with using steel as far back as the 1890s, but time after time, the technology either failed to match the feel and playability of hickory, or failed to inspire the golfer to utilize it. With what appeared to be an existential threat to golf club manufacturers sitting out on the horizon, and the improvement in steel golf shaft technology, manufacturers were forced to adopt an alternative method to marketing the technology that nobody seemed to want to purchase.

A FUTURISTIC SOLUTION FOUND IN THE HISTORY OF PLASTIC

You would never believe it, but the solution to their problems pre-dated the first Open Championship of 1860.

In 1856 a metallurgist and inventor by the name of Alexander Parkes created the first man-made plastic, which he named Parkesine.  Parkes invention inspired another inventor, John Wesley Hyatt to create a new and even more pliable plastic known as “Celluloid” by adding camphor to parkesine. In short time, Celluloid became one of the most popular plastics in the world, originally thought of as a substitute for ivory, the magical plastic could take the shape of almost anything. Celluloid found its real fame when it became the substance that the movie industry made its movies on. Celluloid and film would be tied together forever, even after the cease of its use.

Decades after Hyatt’s invention, there were hundreds if not thousands of chemical companies manufacturing celluloid for every purpose you can imagine - phones, ping pong balls, tables, chairs, glasses, if you needed a solid form celluloid could provide a cost effective solution.

After the USGA made steel shafts legal in 1924, an enterprising, out of the box thinker by the name of Harold Barrett had an idea. Barrett recognized that the Monsanto Chemical Company had already developed a hollow celluloid tube and he also knew that golfers loved the look of hickory shafted clubs. Harold came up with a novel way to combine steel shafts with a celluloid casing to add a bit of tradition to this aesthetic problem.

Harold Barrett working with Charles Sippel developed a process of heating the celluloid tubes, provided by Monsanto and stretching them over a steel golf shaft. The process would officially be patented on March 8, 1928.

THE PYRATONE ERA

The resulting patent ushered in the famed Pyratone era of golf, in which golfers played metal shafted golf clubs wrapped with a celluloid sheath called Pyratone. The Pyratone sheath would be made to look just like a wooden golf shaft.

Barrett and Sippel founded the Pyratone Production Company in 1929. Their Pyratone shafts would soon be one of the most popular products in all of golfdom.

By the late 1920s and 1930s the Pyratone era was in full flight. Nearly every equipment manufacturer by 1930 offered both Hickory and Pyratone shaft options. Perhaps the most famous of these manufacturers was Spalding, who had hired newly retired golfer major champion extraordinaire, Bobby Jones to design (with assistance from J Victor East) his first set of Robert T Jones Golf Clubs.

The 1932 Spalding Bobby Jones clubs were offered in both Hickory and Pyratone options.

As a collecting aside, many of you DM me about the value of these Spalding Jones clubs. I will dive into collectibility a little later, but the hickory versions of the Spalding Jones clubs are the more valuable of the two options. If you can’t tell the Pyratone from Wood, check out the club’s serial number. If the serial number starts with “H” that stands for hickory.

The Pyratone Era lasted just under a decade and a couple of things factored into its decline. The first of which- Pyratone didn’t add to the playability of the golf clubs. It was merely a cosmetic accessory to help golfers transition from the beloved hickory era to the steel era. The second was its danger. Pyratone was made of celluloid and if you have ever watched Quentin Tarantino’s movie, “Inglorious Basterds” you might remember that one of the major plot lines was the flammability of celluloid film. It’s highly combustible, which led to fires in movie theaters and even the Pyratone Products Corporation. In 1933, arguably at the height of its popularity, the Pyratone Products Company’s manufacturing plant caught fire & 5 tons of celluloid was lost in flames.

The fire wasn’t the end of the Pyratone Products Corporation, but within a couple of years the demand for Pyratone shafts started to decrease & by 1939 the company shut its doors for the last time.

Soon players like Hogan, Snead and Nelson were on the links playing with shiny steel shafts and the world moved on from trying to emulate the inferior technology of wood shafted golf clubs.

For about a decade the golf industry made a car that looked like a horse to help out our golfing forefathers and foremothers accept the inevitability of steel shafts.

COLLECTIBILITY

As it stands today golf clubs with Pyratone Shafts are not very valuable. However, I truly believe their day in the sun will come again. They represent a truly unique transitional period in the game of golf and tell the story of how stubborn we as golfers can be. The Pyratone Era lasted for only a decade, but there is something to marvel at in their faux wood aesthetics.

When their time does come and their collectible value increases, I would assume the best focus would be on the 1932 Spalding Robert T Jones Kro-Flite Irons. The famous Bobby Jones set with its flanged irons was state of the art in 1932 and the Bobby Jones line of clubs continued to be one of the best selling sets of iron for decades to come.

EPILOGUE

I think we can all agree that our ancestors were silly for not switching to steel shafts earlier.

Quick question: Have you switched to graphite shafts in your irons yet? No…maybe we could find a sheath to make them look like steel:)

As always thank you for reading this newsletter and sharing it with your friends. It is my pleasure to share these little sometimes unknown stories with you.

Until next time…

Yours in Golf History,

Connor T. Lewis