Instead of the heat shrink I have used the stretch wrap plastic used for wrapping pallets. You can buy small rolls of the stuff at a good hardware store, at Fed-Ex/Kinkos or at a U-Haul store.
This is a thin stretchy plastic that clings to its self. If you use multiple wraps it provide quite a bit of compression. It doesn’t require a heat gun and it’s very easy to remove when finished.
I find lots of uses for this product. It’s great for clamping odd shaped projects while the glue sets up. I also use it as a protective wrap for off season storage of my tools, for bundling my skis together over the summer, etc.
That’s pretty much what the rod manufactures use to bind up the CF scrim before baking the raw blanks on the mandrels.
I think surgically replacing just a couple a of the cork rings looks like it might be the best way for a small damaged area of cork. More than a few rings worth, might be a different story however.
Tom Kirkman did an article ( or articles??) a few years back about what you suggest. Cutting out a portion of a grip…taking new rings and cutting then in half and then gluing the halves back together on the black in the spot where some cork had been removed. If one has access to a lathe you then chuck it up and turn ( sand) the new rings to the proper shape
