Has anyone tried dying accents into a plain cork grip?
It is VERY difficult to get dye to take on cork. Just soaking it won’t work. The closest you will get to a good penetration is with vacuum pressure.
No idea what your trying or wanting to accomplish…but Ive STAINED cork before with wood stain…straight out of the can.
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. :lol:
Stain a grip so the ends match your seat and then wrap the center with rattan. That could be really sharp.
??? Not sure what you mean by “accents”?? But I have done this… Mounted a cork grip on a mandrel…and “turned it” ( spun it) with the lathe and using a fingernail file ( emery board)…“ground down” a VERY SHALLOW area of “X” width ( length??) that I later on wrapped with thread! A “thread band” as it were
Use a couple of those cork rings for test pieces…for your staining…etc.
Cork actually stains a lot like wood. You can make it as dark or light as you want by controlling volume of stain. After staining, play with variuos grits of wet / dry paper, steel wool, or final burnish with the back side of the wet / dry. Very neat effects are possible. I finish off with a coat of U40 cork seal.
That thread wrap thing is a cool idea, too.
I put the U40 Cork Seal on the first rod I made and it tooka rather blah piece of cork with very little to it that was interesting at all and really brought out the burl. The difference was like night and day.
I have a whole bunch of rather plain cork grips and wanted to dress them up a bit. That’s what got me thinking about this. I have, on occasion, used spirit dyes to tint leather carvings. I was thinking it might be possible to do something similar with cork.
Anything to dress up the normally blah grip.
Kevin,
“Cork actually stains a lot like wood”
What about using a wood burning tool to make your accents?
Another good suggestion. That would allow for some pretty wild stuff. Hmmmm…
I just got an idea I have to try. I should have something to show you folks in a few days.
So I lied. Couldn’t wait a few days. It will take a little practice, but this kind of thing could be cool.
I have a question for the guys who have stained cork grips. Did the stain leach out of the grip onto your hands during a hard day of fishing? How about if you got something like bug repellant on the grip - would that cause the color to run?
Thanks,
Tom
I always hit it with the U40 cork seal afterward and have not had any issues with bleed off. Not sure if left in just the stained state.
It doesn’t bleed from wood. Most stains seal as well as stain to prep for the varnish, polyurethane, or other wood finish. Of course, there is nothing saying you couldn’t put a light coat of tung oil or similar on to seal it a bit further.
The leather spirit dyes work really well. Cherry Minwax wood stain did not work that well. I got some color out of it, but it took repeated coats. Walnut Minwax did really well. The leather dye was fantastic. I used some cordovan dye which is close in color to cocobolo or darker rosewood or deep mahogany.
Once this stuff is dry, it does tend to rub off and needs to be sealed. Working with leather, I would use a very light clear lacquer. Tandy Leather’s brand name is “Neat Lac”. I used a couple of coats of wipe on poly on this grip and it did not seem to change the way the cork looked anymore than U-40 Rod Seal would. It did not add any sheen to the grip, either.
Pics when the rod is finished. 