I recently purchased over 130.00$ worth of cork rings. The grade I selected is one rung down from the best. At first inspection, they looked great. As I'm now applying them, I have concluded that 25% of them, cross-sectionaly, are riddled with tunnels and holes EVEN THOUGH, the outside looks almost perfect. Under magnification, I can clearly see that filler has been applied. Filler to make them look like a high grade. Filler that will also sand off! I take it good cork is hard to find these days. This situation of "doctoring up" cork rings is unsat. in my book, especially for the price I paid. I feel like boxing up the 25 % and send them back for a refund. Whats your collective advice?

If you can't use them send them back, unless of course the supplier won't take them back.

I wasn't aware it was industry practice to fill cork rings. I think you will find that if you stain and seal your cork grips with Miniwax, say Golden Pecan, you will like them a lot more, holes and all. I had gone almost exclusively to rattan, but this tip has brought me back to using cork on occassion.

The rings I have bought has stuff filling the holes but I always interpreted this to be the dust left over from the process of cutting the cork into rings. And, of course, the supplier not making an effort to remove the dust certainly does not hurt the marketability of it! As you say, it looks a lot better in pictures. The best cork I've seen came through my friend Mike Naylor. I think he got it from a Maryland decoy carver and cork importer and paid a lot for it but it was at least near-flawless inside and out. I guess the supply of good stuff is really drying up.

If you can't accept the holes, and I agree for good money it's hard to accept them, consider going to wood or Exotic burl rings from Lamar Reel Seats. Or, as Don suggests, accept the holes, don't buy the top grade, and fill and seal them for durability. As far as wood goes, I have bought a few handles made of Australian cypress and Teak. They are barely heavier than cork and they look and feel fantastic. And they will 10 years from now too. I really like the Exotic burl too.

Steve

Unsure of the supplier/s of product in the USA, but when I bought all my rings, which came from the USA supply chain, either the supplier, or the factory applied artificial "blonding" white stain to fool the consumer into thinking all the rings were pristine, nice and white, and generally of high quality.

This blonding stain filled all the minor flaws and pits in the rings. No extra filler was used on the rings, just this white paint. There is a huge Florida importer that used to do this.... unsure of they still do.

My experiance with the rings was identical to the thread-starter; the rings were beauty on the outside only, and any sanding whatsoever would reveal all the pith holes and major flaws in the rings, not covered up by the paint.

And, upon shaping for a grip, every color of the cork spectrum popped right up: a brown ring, a pink ring, a burl type ring, a soft ring, a hard ring, etc.
As cork's attraction is in the eye of the builder or end user, I really struggle with a nice grip, wrecked by a couple of ugly, off-colour pitted rings that kinda just showed up.

Don't laugh: if you are planning on keeping rings, or just to ridicule the supplier when sending back, throw the rings in the washing machine, and run them through a wash cycle, with a tiny bit of laundry detergent. All the blonding should now be gone, with the flaws and true colours of the cork revealed.

Ken, they are for sure doctored up in some fashion. It does'nt look like paint or just dust. If I was a bettin man, I'd say its dust mixed w/something to provide adhesion that covers the cracks. I just resent paying top dollar for something that really is'nt as advertised. But hey, thats where the country has gone- misrepresent and profit... I know one thing for sure, as someone who's been out of rod building for awhile, I'd like to buy the developer of Rod Bond a drink sometime. Damn thats a good product.

I have been sanding what my supplier calls "bleach" to keep from getting white glue lines. Now I have dark glue lines. If I use regular rings again, they will be washed. Trying Andy's stuff next week.

The thrill is not in the kill

I have been purchasing natural, unbleached cork rings direct from Portugal for some time. Basically, what you see is what you get. The quality does vary from one shipment to another but It is relatively easy to separate the rings with pits and dark streaks from the best in the bag when you're building that special project.

I've switched almost exclusively to wood and burl for the reasons in the original post. So much so that an all cork handle looks odd to me. Especially one that has been coated to look "perfect". They look too sterile and featureless to me now. When I do have to use cork I cut the rings down to 1/4 or 1/8 widths. imo, it helps to break up the bigger flaws/cracks that ran the entire 1/2". The narrow rings also imo add a different, distinctive look. I also have started using Tru-oil, usually on thin coat. If the flaws are going to be there anyway, might as well make them look like they are adding character.

You can usually return it, IF you return it all. You cannot sort through it and send back two dozen rings that you feel are suspect or not of the correct quality. Remember, as of right now, there is no standard in the industry for cork grading. (There will be in about 30 days, however.)

I would think that any grade you buy, of 100 rings, will have about 10% that run a little better than the average, and 10% that run a little worse. If I got 80 rings out of 100 that conform to some sort of standard (realizing that no such thing exists, yet) I guess I would feel that what I got was about average for cork these days.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a published photographic standard for rings showing what each grade should look like? That way the people who sell cork would be held accountable to a standard and you would know what to expect before the cork ever reached you. Hang on for another month and I think something will be out that will greatly help situations such as yours.

.............

this grading system sounds great. but how can it be enforced? let the wallet do the talking? this would be voluntary i imagine unless we're getting the government(s) involved. but then, the rod building suppliers i've dealt with over the phone while placing orders all seem like good, standup people.

just taking the devil's advocate stand here

eric

(oops, one slipped by, sorry)