1928 Spalding Hickory Shaft Straightener 

         The Spalding Company in the USA came up with a rather clever solution in the shape of this wooden apparatus that they marketed as a ‘wooden shaft straightener’. Measuring 14 inches long and 2½ inches in diameter it could hold a maximum of six hickory shafted clubs.

         Spalding patented their design on July 24, 1928. Quite simply, the idea was to place the bent wooden shafts into the two sets of grooves and then tighten them in place with the two heavy fabric straps. After a few days the shafts would straighten.