Creating A Custom Fly Rod Grip 18Jun20

I'm building a new fly rod and wanted to kick it up a notch by building a fully custom grip. I first bought an appropriate assortment of cork rings; these all were .5" thick with a .25" center hole and 1.25" diameter and cost $.25-$1.00 each depending. My rod is cobalt blue so I did start the handle with a subassembly of a burnt ring then six "blue wave burl" rings topped by a thin divider ring @ grip mid-point. I assembled on a simple 1/4" bolt with fender washers and a wing nut. I put paraffin on the bolt so I could get the piece off after gluing all the rings together with Titebond III (I like the stronger bond and longer working time, learned when assembling speakers recently). I tightened down and let set overnight

Not too custom so for so let's get to some harder stuff. I envisioned an "arrow" design for the top half of the grip and I could achieve this with some sectioning and reassembly of some rings. I used appropriate jigs and a very fine jig saw to cut slices of rings as well as sections of rings. To hold glued sections together I used a zip tie around the circumference and pressed down with a fender washer to assure alignment. After drying overnight I cut off the ties and sanded the flat sides flat again.

I next freed the "blue wave" subassembly from the bolt and placed it on my .25" mandrel. Again I used paraffin to assure the grip would come free when needed. The mandrel is where I built up the top of the grip, compressed it after gluing, and will later use it in my rod lathe to fashion it into the correct handle shape. I used my homemade ($7) grip compressor assuring by measurement that both sides were of equal compression, and let the rings dry overnight.

Once solid I took the mandrel of glued cork rings and loaded them into my rod lathe... I did buy the tail stock and tool rest for the lathe and easily installed those (I can't say I used the tool rest much). I cranked it up all the way for turning cork (vs just winding thread). I prefer a full wells grip and had a design in mind & measurements I wanted at different points on the grip. I have a cheap plastic "micrometer" that is very useful in measuring along the way to a finished grip. I progressed in tool use from a Stanley scraper to a 4-way file to 100 grit sandpaper to 220 grip sandpaper during the turning process. I did try to catch the leavings with a vacuum while turning but clearly there was more cleanup required.

I was unsatisfied with the finished reel seat inset from my last build (when I used just a blade drill bit) - it was chipped and irregular from the bit moving in the center hole. I searched and found a purpose-built tool for this task called Crafty's Cutter. I epoxied my new ALPS RA7 reel seat with a carbon fiber insert and measured the diameter and depth needed for the inset on the new grip. I also taped the outside of the base of the grip to provide a little stability. I then used a vise and power drill with my new tool and cut the proper inset.

My first fully customized fly rod grip is done and I think it looks pretty cool. I've not seen a design like it and it'll mate to my chosen rod blank well. Some finish with water-proofing but that's not necessary - I like the naked cork feel anyway. I skipped the fighting butt on this handle as it's bound for just a 4 wt rod. More on that build in another post but the process henceforth will be similar to the drc #1.