Tom, if you use a sharp metal item to clean the grooves, I suspect you will cut the metal and widen the grooves, making them illegal. the best thing is to use a brass or plastic brush and water to keep them clean. Eventually, the grooves edges will wear down as you hit balls. The pros, I'm told, change wedges several times in a year. I had mine plated with hard chrome and they last much longer.

Thank you Fred. I'll be a cleaning freak!

Great wedges but they won't last forever unless you only play once a month and practice minimally. They will last thousands and thousands of balls though. Just as was posted before, the best thing is using a softer metal brush or stiff nylon combined with water. I've caddied for pros and one absolutely expected thing is a wiped down, clean clubface with every shot.

A friend of mine bought a groove cleaner/sharpener off eBay made by groovesharpener.com. He uses it every 12 or so rounds and swears it restores his Vokey wedge grooves to like-new. It is supposedly legit to use. Not an endorsement, just an FYI.

Thanks Parthur! trying this one as well - great stuff!

Thank you Cathi. I certainly do not want to create a set of illegal wedges. I'll continue to keep them clean and wait until it is obvious that they need sharpened - hopefully many, many rounds from now. Shot a 78 yesterday and the wedges were the heros again! Absolute best sticks in my bag.

I would suggest keeping your towel wet and add wipe in a bit of hand soap to it.  Helps to keep the grooves cleaned if you wipe your clubs after every shot.  Clubs that are clean seem to last longer and help confidence for me.

TT

I have personally found that if you clean your clubs after every shot, there is never a problem.  Generally a wet towel can accomplish this using the corner of the towel to get and tough spots clean.  Sometimes, I may have to resort to the bottom of a wooden tee to get and stubborn dirt off.  I do this not only for my wedges but all of the clubs in my bag.  It goes back to "the more you clean it, the easier it is to clean."

I have mentioned this before and have been hit with comments on how slow it would make somebody's play if they were to clean their club after wach shot.  Really?  I can keep my clubs clean when walking and still play in under 4 hours easily.  It only takes a couple of seconds after each shot but your clubs are always clean and ready to perform.  You can even hold the club and clean it when your partner is hitting if you think this will slow down your play.  I always chuckle when I see somebody with a bunch of built up dirt on their clubs (which I see all if the time).  How do people believe their clubs will perform to spec if they are not perfectly clean for each shot?

Thanks Ken. I have started to carry a wet towel with me during the round to wipe the wedges down after each shot.

Maybe its placebo - but my wedge game seems to be even better with the consistent cleaning. No more laziness when it comes to club cleaning!

Check out this site. I purchased this tool last year and find that it really does a nice job if the brush isn't working for you. Importantly too, it doesn't ruin the integrity of the grooves. 

http://par70.com

Ok - this is very cool! Thanks Des. Great stuff.

Ordering this week for sure!

Tips - keep a brush in your back pocket or if you have a d-brush, keep it in your front pocket.

Why? - When you hit your wedge, you accumulate dirt and sand in the grooves - if you don't clean it out, then you are blasting sand and dirt against your golf club face when you hit a ball - and your club will wear from that friction.

The SM4 does a great job of maintaining spin after constant use.

But to keep that spin top notch, take a break and use a brush - a d-brush is an easy answer - it's very small, fits between your thumb and index finger, and does the job unobtrusively. It's also good to have a wet towel around - the d-brush can only do so much.

Greeeeaaaaat.... I have now officially become obsessed with cleaning these puppies after every shot and when finished.

Thanks...  lol...   if my wife sees how often I clean my clubs I'm a dead man... she's convinced I have no clue how to clean anything... gonna be hard to hide this new found skill!