I hadn't thought of staining the whole grip, but that could be a nice way to color match the reel seat. I was shooting for a way to add accents to a plain grip. Just another way to make things a little sharper is what I was looking for.

I was thinking of spirit dyes like used for leather. Those would be similar to stain.

How did the stain take for you? I would think it would come out fairly dark. I have a cigar shaped grip I can try it on that I got somewhere. If it comes out double ugly, I can wrap it with rattan.

Stain a grip so the ends match your seat and then wrap the center with rattan. That could be really sharp.