Offered here is a matching set of Butchart Nichols BTN irons 2 thorugh 9, Reg No. 2411. This is a ladies set with a 37 1/2” 2-iron and 33” putter (9-iron),.  The shafts in each of these clubs combine seven lengthwise pieces and a lot more work to create than a hickory shaft.

Cuthbert Strachan Butchart received both a U.S. patent (No. 1,598,049) dated August 31, 1926, and a British patent (No. 264,348) dated June 7, 1926, that covered the shafts in this set. These shafts are made with a hickory core enclosed by lengthwise strips of “hard wood such as green heart, bamboo, black palm, and the like." The hardwood strips appear to be greenheart (the dark strips) and bamboo (the light strips). According to Butchart’s patent, his shaft could: "be made more slender than the ordinary shaft of a golf stick and that consequently it will be subjected to less wind resistance than a shaft of larger cross sectional dimensions."

According to an advertisement in the August 1928 issue of The American Golfer, Johnny Farrell won the 1928 U.S. Open using Butchart-Nicholls clubs, and a number of other golfers using Butchart-Nicholls clubs placed high in tournaments that same year—Tommy Armour won the Metropolitan Open, Al Espinosa won the Mid-Ameriea Open. Billy Burke won the North & South Open, Gene Sarazen won the Miami Open. Leo Diegel tied for the Long Beach Open, and Willie Macfarlane won the Shawnee Open. At that time, Butchart-Nicholls shafts were made from “five segments of bamboo and one segment of hickory” (The American Golfer. Aug. 1928:39). This shaft was patented in the I S. (No. 1.626,477) on April 26.1927. by Gilbert Nicholls and assigned to the Swingrite Company, Inc., of Providence. Rhode Island.

Although made for only a short time, the shafts  in this set, with their alternating light and dark segments, are among the most attractive shafts ever produced.

See TCA2 v2 p646-647 for more on these shafts.