Wood Fly Rod Grips...

[Buddy_Sanders]

It’s been mentioned here several times that using all wood for a fly rod grip will result in a slippery when wet grip.

It ‘can’, but it doesn’t have to.

It all depends on how or with what you finish the grip.

On the few of these I’ve done (for others so far, I personally like cork), I’ve used Tru Oil to finish the grip. I looked at lots of finishes first. but this one has several advantages over others that I like.

It’s durable. It’s made to be ‘handled’. And it does not get slippery when it’s wet.

Tru Oil was made for finishing gun stocks. It was intended to protect fine wood stocks from the elements AND from things like skin oils and chemicals. Since many huters use their rifles and shotguns in wet weather, it had to perform when it’s wet.

Properly used, Tru Oil can give you anything from a nice matt finish up to a glass like gloss. It won’t be slippery, regardless.

Other fly rod bulders are using other finishes, though, and the ‘slippery’ tag is not something I’ve seen from someone who has actually used an all wood grip. My only real complaint about them is that they are heavy.

I’ve also seen, and ‘used’ briefly, a couple of the newer expanded polyurethane foam/graphite cloth covered and epoxy finished grips. Lighter than cork, stronger, but feels kind of like a cross between cork and a solid wood grip. Even with a gloss coating of epoxy, though, they were easy to hold and didn’t get slick even when wet. Really pretty, too, if you like that look.

Cork is slowly leaving us as a grip option. With what used to be considered just decent quality cork now being sold as ‘flor grade’ for well over $1 (some up to $2.50) for a 1/2 inch ring, what’s left will soon be too expensive for the home builder to buy. The large manufacturers probably ahve good sized stocks on hand. How long that will last, we’ll just have to see. THAT should be interesting.

At the hobbiest, small rod shop industry, there will be lots of experimentation, and we will see lots of inovative solutions. I think that golf club grip technology is in our future, but I expect many to want to hold onto (pun intended) a natural look

(Odd, if you look at it objectively…there are several generations of, for lack of a better description, ‘holding onto stuff technology’ out there. Golf clubs, tools, firearams, etc. All have tried to advance both ergonomically and in materials, over the years to make their items work easier, more efficiently, more safely. Yet, we fly anglers seem to desire, as a group, the highest technology in our rod blank designs, but still want to use centuries old materials and stylings where we ‘hold’ the fly rod…seems a bit of a dichotomy to me…)

Wood, rattan, what cork is available. Something unseen yet…we’ll just have to see.

Buddy

[kglissmeyer]

Buddy, one of the first rods I built was a sweet little 3-wt for my wife. Wanting swomething special I ordered a maple reel seat and matching maple handle. I ordered these from Cabelas but have not been able to find them since. The handle seemed to be as light as any cork I’ve worked with and it turned into an incredibly beautiful rod, with no signs of wear and no complaints of being slippery (I’ve fished it often myself). Wish I could find those style handles today, really loved them. BTY, transfer of line activity seems to be intensified through the solid handle, i.e., subtle takes while nymphing a tight line, etc.

Here’s a pic:

Kelly.

[sagefisher]

Here is a company that has wood reel seats and another company that makes custom wood handles.

http://www.acidrod.com/fly_seats.html

http://classiccustomwood.com/

Larry —sagefisher—

[Sully]

@kglissmeyer

Buddy, one of the first rods I built was a sweet little 3-wt for my wife. Wanting swomething special I ordered a maple reel seat and matching maple handle. I ordered these from Cabelas but have not been able to find them since. The handle seemed to be as light as any cork I’ve worked with and it turned into an incredibly beautiful rod, with no signs of wear and no complaints of being slippery (I’ve fished it often myself). Wish I could find those style handles today, really loved them. BTY, transfer of line activity seems to be intensified through the solid handle, i.e., subtle takes while nymphing a tight line, etc.

Here’s a pic:

Kelly.

Buy a CORK grip and shape it to the size…etc…you like. Go to a wood working store ( such as Rocklers…or ??) and buy the wood you want. With both under your arm…go to the vocational school and talk to the “shop” teacher. Some of the people in vocation school can make what you want.

I bought a Jet mini lathe when I started…but I never turned any wooden grips. ( I did get poisoned turning exotic wood reelseats and had HIVES for more than a year…that was fun!!..NOT)

[Buddy_Sanders]

For those that want toget into ‘turning’ grips from something more than cork…

You can ‘turn’ cork (or the expanding polyurethane foams) with just a drill and operated system, and many power rod wrappers have a ‘grip turning’ capability.

But, if you want to play with wood grips, you’ll need a lathe to make your own. Lathes can be had for not much money…Harbor Freight sells a ‘mini’ style wood lathe for around $120…you can get a full size wood lathe there for $60 (I was just there on Wednesday, both were ‘in stock’ at my local HF).

You can get higher end lathes from other places like Penn State industries or even major retailers like Sears or Home Depot. Used lathes can be had at various prices.

The big ones are harder to use for small parts like grips, but still very servicable…the minis are perfect…most have a variable speed and work well with cork and any type of wood you may like to use. Either type of lathe will need some additonal parts to make them ‘rod making friendly’…tailstock chucks for reaming/boring…a four jaw headstock chuck for holding wood and mandrels makes this all much easier…and these have associated costs.

Wood turning is fun…being able to turn your own grips and reel seat inserts is a blast, and the results can be spectacular. It’s not for everyone, but if you like to play with the artistry of rod building, doing your own turning can be very rewarding.

Buddy

[dave_potts]

I’ve made several wooden grips over the years on both flyrods and spinning rods and really like their looks. I have a hobby woodworking shop and turn the grips on a Shopsmith. I finished a rosewood grip by just burnishing with the shavings. On walnut handles, I finish with polyurethane or spar varnish. I haven’t notice either being overly slippery although I kind of thought they might be.

Cork is getting expensive but may actually come down. It’s my understanding that the wineries buy up all the top quality cork but they are rapidly going to screw caps and synthetic corks. So, that may be beneficial to bringing down the cost of cork.

I still use cork on most of my rods though as it just seems to be the traditional way to go.

Dave

[Buddy_Sanders]

Dave,

What I’ve heard about the cork supply is this, and it’s only what I’ve been told, I’ve not tried to ‘verify’ any of it. The folks that told me should ‘know’, but may have their own agendas:

Cork takes a long time to grow, like centuries. New methods of ‘forcing’ the cork trees to grow into producers faster have not been very successful.

Wineries have long been the leading purchasers of cork, and they have always had the ‘dibbs’ on the best quality cork.

Wineries aren’t ‘switching’ because the cost of cork has gone up, but because they are having trouble getting cork. Even more than fly rod purchasers, wine buyers tend to be ‘traditional’ when it comes to their purchases. Wineries will continue to use cork on the ‘best’ wines until they can no longer get it.

There have also been some vague ‘rumors’ of contamination of wines from some cork sources…might be true, or a way to make non cork stoppers more platable to wine buyers…

We are ‘running out of cork’…although the ‘lack’ of it may be exagerated, it’s still a ‘concern’ that will allow those selling cork to the rod making industry to keep the price climbing steadily. How long what is still available will last is not really known, but the price won’t be likely to come down any.

That’s the ‘issue’ as I’ve heard it…

However, I think that we still have the option of cork grips for the next lifetime or maybe more…if you look at the ‘cost’ of cork, even at a large order wholesale purchase price of $3 per 1/2 inch ring (that’s about 10 times what it is today, give or take a few pennies either way)…a typical fly rod grip is around 8 inches…16 rings…that’s only about $48 for the grip…plus the labor to glue up and turn it…figure $75 ‘cost’…that would make the ‘grip’ the most expensive part of the rod, as far as materials were concerned…but on an $800 to $1,000 rod (and we are fast heading into that range for top of the line rods), certainly manageable.

If a company believed that cork would be a ‘selling point’, then they’d probably spend the money for it and pass the cost on in the price of the rod.

We’ll all be able to tell when cork becomes ‘too expensive’ or just plain unavailable to the main stream fly rod manufacturers…the advertising will begin to extoll the virtues of whichever ‘substitute’ the manufacturers choose to offer us. We’ll see an advertising blitz to rival the push to imported hooks of a couple of decades ago…and they’ll do it basically the same way…we’ll be informed that ‘cork’ available now has ‘quality’ issues, that even though it’s of poor quality, it’s still being used by some because it’s inexpensive…and ‘now’ they have a ‘newer, better’ grip material that will make us cast farther for longer with less fatigue and more control. I could write the copy today, just insert whatever new material into it…

But I’m told I’m cynical about issues like this…could be true.

Buddy

[yonks311]

Here is a photo of a rod I recently built and also posted on the site. Handle is made of Curly bubinga.

I build almost all of my rods with wooden handles. I dont really see much of any down side to them. Even a sweet piece of wood typically cost less that the equivalent length of top quality cork, and in my opinion a properly finished wood handle looks much better.

Yonks

[aged_sage]

Part of the cork “story” lies in the fact that the trees have to be a minimal age before their bark can legally be harvested; and in the fact that, again legally, they can have their bark harvested again only at 10 year intervals. Their cultivation and harvesting of their bark is apparently highly regulated by the Portugese government. (Reminds me of the USDA regulation of cotton cultivation in the South during the '40’s 7 '50’s.) They are apparently a reasonably fast grower and their cultivation is fairly simple.

aged_sage

[Mojo]

This is why I buy crappy cork and wrap rattan

[kbproctor]

The rattan does make a classy grip. Wood does too, though.

I went to http://classiccustomwood.com/ and there is a big notice across the page that wood grips are not currently available.

I like the idea of turning my own. I could turn in basswood and wrap with rattan or in the more exotic woods and turn the matching seat insert at the same time.

[bobbyg]

That’s a fine rattan handle and reel seat Mojo!
Perfect with the Hardy Featherweight!
Nice pic also!

Bob

[baitwaister]

I have been making wood, wood/cork, and wood/antler handles for quite awhile now. I too use Tru-oil to finish and have never had a problem with slippery feel. Wood doesn’t have to be heavy. Many woods are fairly light and if they are heavy they can be bored out and add foam or cork arbors in to them. I have also made them from the bark of red fir and bull pine. Those are a little more difficult to deal with but come out very custom looking.

Also those grips that Cabelas used to offer were made by Steve Moran out of Spokane WA. He still builds custom rods with the wood handles and you might be able to buy one from him.

[kglissmeyer]

@baitwaister

I have been making wood, wood/cork, and wood/antler handles for quite awhile now. I too use Tru-oil to finish and have never had a problem with slippery feel. Wood doesn’t have to be heavy. Many woods are fairly light and if they are heavy they can be bored out and add foam or cork arbors in to them. I have also made them from the bark of red fir and bull pine. Those are a little more difficult to deal with but come out very custom looking.

Also those grips that Cabelas used to offer were made by Steve Moran out of Spokane WA. He still builds custom rods with the wood handles and you might be able to buy one from him.

Thanks, baitwaister, I’ll try and track him down. Would love to do another custom with a wood handle.

Kelly.

[kglissmeyer]

@baitwaister

I have been making wood, wood/cork, and wood/antler handles for quite awhile now. I too use Tru-oil to finish and have never had a problem with slippery feel. Wood doesn’t have to be heavy. Many woods are fairly light and if they are heavy they can be bored out and add foam or cork arbors in to them. I have also made them from the bark of red fir and bull pine. Those are a little more difficult to deal with but come out very custom looking.

Also those grips that Cabelas used to offer were made by Steve Moran out of Spokane WA. He still builds custom rods with the wood handles and you might be able to buy one from him.

Thanks, baitwaister, I’ll try and track him down. Would love to do another custom with a wood handle.

Kelly.

[baitwaister]

here is the link to Steve’s web page.
http://www.stevemoranscustomrods.com/rods.html
If he can’t help you, I can build you handle. You can e-mail me at dickross@hotmail.com.