Exploring the New Miura IC-602 Golf Irons

Miura Golf is the jewel of the Japanese Domestic Manufacturer (JDM) industry.

Miura has produced some of the finest, softest-feeling golf irons for decades. Their focus on building the best golf irons available means they use only premium materials and undergo a unique forging and hand-crafting process not seen in manufacturers.

Miura’s forging process is highly sought after, and mainstream manufacturers such as TaylorMade, Titleist, and Cleveland have relied on Miura’s expertise to build irons for their tour staff.

If you commit to buying a set of Miura golf irons, you buy something that only a few golfers will have experienced. Miura products are not mass-produced; new models only break cover every three to four years.

There is also a realistic chance that your set of Miuras was worked on by the company’s founder, who still actively participates in producing the irons that have given his company a cult status and following.

Miura Golf traditionally has opted to produce irons aimed at the better golfer. Their sleek blade designs and player cavities are built for the uncompromising golfer who covets feel and playability above all else.

However, in recent years, Miura has started expanding its horizons and building irons to benefit a wider variety of golfers. Combining technology with traditional forging methods has led to Miura’s latest creation—the Miura IC-602 golf iron.

Join us as we guide you through the fascinating world of Miura and the new Miura IC-602 golf irons:

• A Brief History of Miura Golf
• Miura’s Fabled Forging Process
• Introducing The IC-602 And The Technology Behind The New Iron
• Getting The Most From Miura With Custom Fitting

A Brief History of Miura Golf

If you are unfamiliar with Miura golf as a brand and are curious about why it has gained its reputation for producing some of the best golf irons in the world, we must start by understanding who Miura is.

The city of Himeji is 600 km southwest of Tokyo and has important historical provenance. For centuries, it was at the epicentre of Samurai sword production in Japan, with master artisans passing on their honed skills from generation to generation.

However, as we moved into the 20th century, the Samurai warrior was consigned to the history books; Himeji’s artisans turned their skills to making golf clubs, where they could utilise similar forging techniques they had learned from making swords.

In 1957, Katsuhiro Miura founded Miura Golf in Himeji, with a bold claim that his methods of forging steel would produce superior golf clubs compared to other manufacturers.

Miura is still based in the same factory, and Miura-san has been joined by his two sons. They are working to ensure that tradition in the form of hand-built forged golf clubs is balanced with innovation and technology, as highlighted in the Miura IC-602 irons.

Although Katsuhiro Miura is elderly, he can still be found at the factory’s lathes, hand-grinding the golf clubs that bear his name. How many golf clubs could you purchase today where the company’s founder is personally involved in producing the clubs in your bag?

Miura’s Fabled Forging Process

We’ve given you some clues as to the special nature of Miura irons. Still, it’s worth quickly covering why these irons have the reputation of being some of the softest feeling irons available in the market.

A Miura golf iron begins as a soft carbon billet cut to the desired length and width for the iron head Miura wants to create. The billet is then heated to 1200 degrees Celsius, where it receives its first stamp from the forging press, which flattens the billet, allowing it to be placed into the correct head die. From there, a second stamp is made, helping to form the golf head further.

A unique step in the process is where Miura cools the basic head shape before reheating it to a maximum temperature of 900 degrees Celcius. At this temperature, Miura engineers work to perfect the grain structure of the steel while defining the weight, density, and distribution of the iron head they are creating, which are all critical to creating the legendary feel of Miura golf irons.

Once the iron head is cooled down again, Miura craftspeople can create the scoring lines and grooves and add the distinctive stampings to help signify which iron model has been made.

From there, the iron head goes through another unique Miura process by having the hosel added through a process known as spin forging. The spin forging process melds the hosel to the head using friction from turning both elements at high speed and bringing them together.

Miura claims the spin forging process helps to create accurate lofts, lies, and offsets for each iron.

Once the basic iron head and hosel have completed the forging process, they will undergo a three-stage grinding process before undergoing final shaping and grinding, all done by hand. In some instances, these could be the hands of Miura’s founder, Katsuhiro Miura.

Once the iron head is perfected, it will go through a four-stage polishing process (there is also a sand-blasting process used if Miura is making a cavity back iron head) before a final surface treatment is applied to create the finished product.

Introducing The IC-602 And The Technology Behind The New Iron

The new Miura IC-602 golf iron uses the same forging process outlined above. However, it features technology that offers outstanding distance, more forgiveness on off-centre hits, and the same feel and feedback as a traditional Miura iron. Miura has created a multi-material, hollow body design for the IC-602 to achieve this.

The body of the iron is made from soft but durable 8620 carbon steel. The faces of the three-to-nine iron are made from Chrome Molybdenum (Chromoly), creating a highly responsive and thinner face that helps to deliver optimised ball speeds. The pitching wedge and gap wedge faces are made from S35 carbon steel, producing a softer feel to help golfers get the maximum responsiveness from the IC-602’s scoring irons.

The centre of gravity within each iron is perfectly centred to maximise launch and spin in the long irons, producing a higher ball flight and predictable and consistent ball flight in the medium to short irons. To achieve this, Miura has strategically positioned a tungsten weight within the cavity of each iron.

For some golfers, hollow-body irons produce a sound and feel that they struggle to get used to compared to solid irons.

Miura has placed a compressed polymer insert within the hollow that helps to ensure that from three to nine irons, the IC-602s dish up the same feel and sound golfers would experience in any other Miura iron.

Miura has also incorporated its new Miura Versatile Sole (MVS) into the new IC-602. Inspired by previous wedge sole designs, MVS creates the perfect balance between bounce angle and sole width to optimise clubhead speed and turf interaction regardless of lie via the distinctive step on the trailing edge of the sole. The leading edge is also crafted to aid compression, launch, and spin on the golf ball, which helps the IC-602s perform.

Miura has constructed its most technologically advanced iron while maintaining classic looks. The compact head has minimal offset and a medium to thin top line, which means this iron would not look vastly different from picking up any other Miura iron, lending itself to the possibility of creating a blended set.

Getting The Most From Miura With Custom Fitting

Any golfer looking to change equipment should get their golf clubs custom-fitted to ensure that whatever club they go with is tailored to their specific requirements.

Miura golf irons are no different, and when you add in the price factor - an individual IC-602 iron is £380 ($475), you don’t want to take any chances in not getting the correct specs.

The Miura IC-602s are accessible to a wider variety of golfers, and with that comes the possibility of a bigger selection of shafts that can be fitted to match the varying swing speeds of players who could use this iron.

The custom-fitting process at Nine by Nine Golf uses GC Quad technology to accurately record any golfer’s data, making it easier to recommend the correct shaft that will complement the performance of the IC-602 irons in terms of both distance and accuracy.

Being properly fitted for your golf irons also ensures you have the correct lie angle and length, which aids ball striking performance and accuracy. We see many golfers come in where their existing set of golf irons does not have the right lie angle or is not cut to the correct length. The golfer has to make compensations in their set-up and swing, which ultimately leads to inconsistent distance control and inaccurate shots on the golf course.

Through a golf iron custom-fitting, you also open up the ability to create an optimised blended set. As mentioned, the IC-602 iron looks similar and has been engineered to provide the same feel and sound as any other iron in the Miura golf range, adding continuity to whatever golf iron you opt for within a blended set.

A better player might appreciate the enhanced launch and trajectory of the IC-602 long irons and switch to the classic pure-bladed head of the MB-101 in the medium to shorter irons for ultimate shot shaping and trajectory control.

Another golfer could be fitted for the IC-602 longer irons and then move into the CB-302 irons, which offer a little more forgiveness compared to the bladed models.

Custom fitting takes the guesswork out of what would work best and creates the optimal set of irons. So, if you are looking to make a serious investment in your iron game and want to look at the IC-602s or any other Miura iron, your best option is to be fitted properly for them.

At Nine by Nine Golf, we have been lucky to work with Miura Golf’s products for many years. We are highly experienced at fitting Miura irons for golfers of all abilities.

If you want to experience the performance and legendary feel of a Miura iron in the shape of the new IC-602s, you can book an iron fitting session via our website or by giving us a call.

You can also explore the range of Miura products on the Nine by Nine Golf website, where you can build your ideal set of irons by exploring the custom shaft, lie and length options available, and when you have what you want, place your order directly with us.

We would be happy to help if you have any other questions about the Miura IC-602 golf irons or the benefits of being custom-fitted for your next set of golf clubs.