Master Craftsmen

Honma’s meticulous approach to production is second to none

o, what is it about the manufacturing S process that sets Honma apart? Well, I’ve never actually set foot inside another brand’s club manufacturing plant, but I’m pretty sure that 100 individual craftsmen handling each and every club during a 156-step production process is a pretty rare phenomenon.

Among the many highlights of Honma’s club-making operation is the fact that it is one of precious few brands to make its own hand-rolled graphite shafts, which are then hand-painted too – a skill that apparently takes eight years to learn. The clubs are also assembled by putting the grip on the shaft first rather than the head, a point of difference that allows for more precise weight control when the head is added, rather than allowing minor differences in the grips to potentially throw things out, even if only slightly.

In this age of adjustable clubs, Honma has also engineered an ingenious way of ensuring that the shaft is always aligned with its spine in the six o’clock position down the back of the club (graphite shafts have a spine as a result of the manufacturing process). Honma firmly believes that this generates more consistent performance.

“We as a company care very much about the spine alignment of our shafts,” Sanchez tells me. “When we

roll our shafts by hand it’s very important for us to be able to identify where the spine lies so that the shaft always performs in the same way. We developed a technology to allow us not to rotate the shaft when we rotate the head, because it has a massive influence on the performance of the club. If you rotate the shaft when you rotate the head, it can lead to greater dispersion than is ideal.”

Hand crafted

Then there are the countless fine adjustments by hand along the way, coupled with a final human-eye inspection before any club is allowed to leave the factory. This meticulous production process and unrivalled level of attention to detail have long been Honma’s USP in its home market and certain other parts of the world, but at a price that UK and European golfers have typically balked at.

With the arrival of the Tworld747 range at a pricepoint previously unavailable to would-be customers, that could all change in 2019. We asked Sanchez about the company’s ambitious plans within these shores...

“Unrivalled levels of attention to detail has long been Honma’s USP in its home market”