Titleist Vokey Wedge Groove Sharpening Tool

Vokey is one of the only wedge brands that add an additional manufacturing process to improve groove wear and durability.  The process is called case-hardening or carburization.  Vokey “heat-treats” the grooves on their wedges after the club head has been formed and the grooves milled into the face.  (Fun fact, that little “toothed wheel” logo on the toe of some older Vokeys is actually a depiction of the carbide cutter that mills out the precise groove.)  Case-hardening or “heat-treating” the metal takes a relatively soft 8620 carbon steel from around 62 Rockwell hardness and increases it to 85 Rockwell (Diamond tops the Rockwell Hardness Scale at 100 HRC).  However, this process only hardens the “case” of the wedge to a depth of 1-3mm, leaving the “core” relatively soft.  If you were wondering why Vokey’s feel so good…now you know.

Vokey grooves do last longer than most, but over time they will wear down causing you to lose that “like new spin”.  For Vokey enthusiasts (like this writer) that don’t have access to a tour van for free wedges every 6-8 weeks, those carburized grooves cause a problem when it comes to sharpening.  Many of the cheap $10-20 groove tools on the market are made from a hardened tool still that is around 58-63 Rockwell, which is about as hard as the 8620 steel, but not even close the 85 HRC of the grooves.  Some tools claim to use carbide, but as with anything, you get what you pay for.  Carbide comes in many different grades (think the quality of the material).  The cheaper grades are harder than steel, but are very difficult to machine with any precision.  Higher quality or sub-micron grade carbide can be CNC ground to create a super hard and hyper-sharp cutting edge as you find in high-performance endmills and drills.  

Vokey Groove Geometry 

Are Vokey grooves U-shaped or V-shaped?  The answer is….yes.  I love this question.  The old golf industry lingo of U vs. V-shaped grooves dates back almost two decades ago.  Today, groove geometry is more of a blend of groove width, depth, interior wall angle, and edge radius (sharpness of the groove edge).  The conforming groove rules enacted in 2010 give a conforming “envelope” for manufacturers to design golf clubs with more than 24 degrees of loft.  Vokey takes this to another level and designs specific wedge geometry for each of their wedge categories.  The grooves will be slightly different in their LW (58,60), SW (54,56), AW (50,52) and PW (46,48).  By taking a high-precision design and manufacturing approach, Vokey is able to dial in spin and trajectory for each wedge.  Don’t get too hung up on wedge geometry that is measured to the thousands (.001”) of an inch, there is only one small area of the groove that puts spin on the ball…”It’s the groove edge stupid”.  The groove cavity channels dirt/sand/moisture away much like the treads of a tire on a wet road.  When you want to bring back the bite on your Vokey wedges it’s all about the edges of your grooves.

What really causes the ball to spin?

No matter the geometry of the groove, the real “spin engine” of any wedge is the groove edge.  Unfortunately for us as golfers, that is the first part of the groove that sees wear over time.  It doesn’t take much to round or dull the edge of a groove.  Tour players replace their wedges on a 4-3-2-1 schedule as a rule of thumb.  Each year they go through 4 LW, 3 SW, 2 AW, and 1 PW…that’s 10 new wedges a year!  Go into the kitchen and take your wife’s favorite paring knife or your go-to Spyderco or Buck pocket knife.  The next time you go to the course jam the blade into the ground or drag it through the sand every time you hit a wedge shot.  While this might seem like an extreme example, that’s exactly what is happening to your grooves every time you hit a shot.

Re-sharpening golf grooves requires a tool that precisely sharpens the edges of the groove to a like-new, conforming .010” sharp edge radius.  Don’t trust your beloved Vokey gamers to imprecise, and often ineffective tools that can damage or even eliminate groove edges.  GrooVex uses premium C-2 Grade tungsten carbide that has a 92 HRC hardness, and CNC machines the maximum conforming groove geometry for width, depth, and edge radius to +/-.001”.  Again, you want to focus on sharpening the edges groove.  Angle the sharpening end of the tool to the clubface until you feel the edge of the tool “engage” with the edges of the groove.  You’ll know you have found the right angle when you see small shavings of the worn groove edge start to appear when you drag the tool through the groove with light to moderate pressure.  GrooVex is a high-precision metalworking tool designed specifically to re-sharpen worn-out grooves, specifically the edges of those grooves.

How much more spin can I get?

Many factors affect the backspin on a wedge shot.  Clubhead speed, playing conditions, ball type, shot type, the location of the strike on the face, and even shaft flex can all play a role.  For this article, we will focus on groove wear.  Vokey has a great article on groove wear that shows how wedges lose spin and control over time.  Their solution…of course…is to buy new wedges.  But what if you love and trust your scoring clubs and don’t want to invest the money, or time involved to learn how new clubs perform?  That’s where groove re-sharpening comes in.  

As mentioned previously, the spin engine of any groove is the groove edge.  New wedges have a maximum conforming edge radius of .010” (yes, machinists measure the radius in inches not degrees).  When the diameter of a human hair is .004”, you can imagine how precise you need to be when re-sharpening the grooves of a golf club.  Over the years golfers have used many different “tools”  in their attempt to increase backspin.  Screwdrivers, drill bits, nails, screws, Dremmel tools, etc. All of these items may or may not affect spin.  However, one thing is for sure, not of them have any safeguards to prevent your club from being deemed illegal under the rules of golf when it comes to conforming groove geometry.  Good luck keeping the groove width to .035”, depth to .020”, and edge radius to .010” with a screw.  Plus, using the wrong tool can easily damage the groove.  Groove damage can result in either reducing spin or causing too much spin.  That’s right, TOO MUCH spin is a problem!  Spin controls how far the ball flies, the trajectory, and what happens on the green.  

In short, the amount of spin you can expect to gain will depend on how worn your old grooves are.  That could range anywhere between +200 RPM for newer clubs and +2000 RPM for your old gamers.  The end goal of groove re-sharpening is to bring back a consistent spin rate that is equivalent to a new wedge.  Check out the content on Instagram or Tiktok for before-and-after GrooVex spin case studies for Vokey Wedges and other brands.