Bottle Opener From Old Wooden Golf Clubs

If I may, I would like to offer a piece of unsolicited advice. If you enjoy making things and upcycling or repurposing items let everyone you know, know. By letting people know that you repurpose items they will be inclined to think of you when they are getting rid of something. Over the years I have had several different folks ask me if I was interested in an item or items they were going to throw out or donate. Sometimes I take what they are offering and other times I pass on the item. I always make sure to thank them for thinking of me. In this instance I had a buddy of mine that was cleaning out his father's garage and found some old wooden golf clubs. He thought they were pretty neat looking and asked me if I wanted them. At the time I had no use for them, but I also thought they were pretty neat looking and decided to pick them up. They sat in the corner of my garage for a while gathering dust. Then one day my wife was telling me that she wanted to get a going away present for a gentleman at her work that was retiring. As he put it he planned to, "live on the golf course" for his retirement. So, I thought it would be a cool idea to make a bottle opener out of the wooden golf club. Other folks have made something similar, so this is not a unique idea however no one has created a tutorial on how to do it. This Instructable will go over my process.

Golf Clubs

Portable Bandsaw or Hacksaw

1x30 Belt Sander

Metal Files

Acetone

Various Grits of Sandpaper 600 thru 2000

Water and Soap

Toothbrush

Wood Stain

Rags

Paper Towels

Bottle Openers

Digital Calipers

Mini Blow Torch

Brass Brush

Leather Cleaner

Microfiber Towel

High Gloss Lacquer

1/8-inch Diameter Wire or Nails

Wire Cutters

1/8-inch Drill Bit

Hand Drill

EVA Foam Mat

5 Minute Epoxy

Black Pigment (Charcoal Dust)

Mixing Cups and Mixing Sticks

Spring Clamps

Blue Tape

The first step is to clean up the golf club head. I used acetone and a paper towel to remove the marker writing on the bottom and just give the whole piece a quick cleaning. At this point I was working with the whole club and it was a little unwieldy.

So, I decided to commit to the project and cut the shaft to the desired length. I used my portable bandsaw table to cut the shaft, but this can be done with a hacksaw as the shafts do not have very thick walls. The shaft has steps in it as it goes from wider at the top to narrower at the bottom, I chose to cut the shaft at one of the steps to give it a cleaner look. This also made it easier to work with it on my bench.

Initially I wanted to try and do a full-on "restoration", but I was not able to remove the screws from the bottom plate. I was able to remove one of the screws but the second one started to strip so instead I abandoned this idea and decided to do what I could with everything still in place.

I moved on to cleaning up the brass plate with some sandpaper. I started off with 600 grit since I didn't want to scratch up the surface too much. I probably could have started with 400 grit but the 600 grit was fine it just took a little longer. I then moved up to 1000 grit and finally 2000 grit sandpaper. Already this made a huge difference, and the clubs were looking a lot better.

In order to give the clubs a more thorough cleaning I used some soapy water (water with a few drops of dish soap in a spray bottle) and a toothbrush to scrub the golf club head and remove any debris. I used a microfiber towel to dry it off.

After the sanding there were a few areas of the wood that needed to be touched up. I used a brush and some dark stain to retouch those areas. The stain wasn't a perfect match, but it was good enough to blend in with the rest of the wood. I set that aside to dry.

There was another brand of golf club that had a brass covered plate. The brass finish was chipping off, so I decided to remove it. I used a small blow torch and heated up the metal section being careful not to burn the wood and scrubbed off the brass finish with a brass bristle brush. This worked really well, I not sure what the coating was but the torch and brass brush made quick work of it.

I went on to clean and polish the golf club in the same manner as the other one. Any wood scuffs were touch up with the same stain.

The golf club bottle openers I have seen online often use the loop type in the first pic. The big box store usually gives you one of these when you buy a gallon of paint. I prefer the second type in the second pic which is good for bottles and cans. Either one will work. Both of these are too wide and need to be cut to fit inside the shafts.

I used a pair of digital calipers to measure the hole in the shaft and then transcribed it on to the bottle opener. Next, I used my portable band saw to remove the excess material. You could also use a metal file or a belt sander to remove the material.

The big box store sells the paint can/bottle opener for $0.68 if you don't have any in your garage. These are also a little too wide at the bottom because of the hook so I removed it using my portable bandsaw.

This is just a quick test fit to see how it will look.

To protect the wood and give it an overall uniform look I sprayed the wooden section with 3 coats of clear gloss lacquer. I set these aside to dry in between coats, lacquer dries quickly so this didn't take very long.

I decided to also utilize the leather handle sections as well, so I used my portable bandsaw to trim down the shafts. Here again I found a stepped section on the shaft and made the cut at that point.

The first picture is a "before and after" the clean process. To clean the leather, I used some Meguiar's Leather cleaner which is meant to be used on cars, but it works just as well on golf club handles. I sprayed the leather handle liberally with the leather cleaner and used a soft head clean toothbrush to scrub the leather. Then I used a clean microfiber towel to wipe away the dirt. I repeated this step 3-4 times until I was happy with the results.

My plan was to epoxy the bottle openers into the ends of the shafts, but I thought it might be a good idea to add a semi-mechanical connection so that it would be more secure. I used my drill to drill two 1/8-inch holes in the sections that would be epoxied. Then I cut some small pieces of nails that were also 1/8-inch diameter and placed them in the holes.

My thinking is that the pins will help lock the bottle opener in place and provide a better connection between the shaft and bottle opener.

Since I was filling the shaft with epoxy, I didn't want to have to fill the entire length of the shaft with epoxy, so I made a stopper out of some EVA floor mats. I used the golf shaft itself to cut plugs out of the EVA mats. Then I used a bamboo skewer to shove the EVA plug into the shaft to the appropriate depth for each bottle opener. The plug will stop the epoxy from dribbling down the shaft and create a reservoir for the epoxy.

Now it was time for the epoxy pour. I made sure to prep all of the bottle openers and their pins. Next, I mixed up a small batch of epoxy and charcoal powder. Since it is 5-minute epoxy I only work in small batches as it sets up very fast. Once the epoxy was mixed, I began to pour it in to the shaft. I used the stir stick as a honey dipper of sorts to get the epoxy in the shaft. I made sure to clean up any spillage right away with a paper towel. Once the epoxy had filled the cavity, I gently slid the bottle opener into the shaft and made sure it was facing the correct way. Then I used a spring clamp to hold the golf club upright while the epoxy cured.

My wife is going to gift him a two of the clubs, one with each type of bottle openers. But since I was making the two and I had several golf clubs so I made a few more, I figured they will make nice Christmas gifts or stocking stuffers for any Golf fanatic. While this isn't the most complicated build it was very satisfying "restoring" the golf clubs and giving them a new purpose. I hope you find this helpful and possibly even find some inspiration in my process.