Amongst others yesterday I discussed with two rod building experienced friends how they make their cork grips and fit them to the blank. They told me that they usually bore the grip just cylindrical with a diameter little less than the smallest blank diameter under the grip section (tip side). Than they put epoxy glue on the blank and press the grip in place. You don't need to much strength to do that because the grip glides on the glue. So the cork fits good on the tip side and is bulged on the butt side.
I usually file my bore conical to fit the grip as perfect as possible to the blank. But it’s much more effort to do that and I'm no longer sure if I need to do this effort.
How are you doing? What are your experiences?
Sorry, but my English is far from perfection an I hope you understand what I mean.
Best,
Stefan

I think they're going about it slightly wrong. Cork doesn't stretch and conform to the extent that EVA or Hypalon does. You don't want to stretch it or make it "bulge." You can easily bust or split the grip doing that.

I would taper ream the cork grip until you can slide it within at least an inch or so of its final desired resting place. Then apply your adhesive back up the blank and bring the cork down over it, turning and spinning the grip to coat the inner surfaces with adhesive. Then bring it on down into position. One mistake many make is in applying adhesive to the blank too low - you need to place it up above where the grip is going to sit to ensure that the grip is coated on the inside and that adhesive gets between the grip and the blank. Go too low here and all the cork will do is just "squeegee" the adhesive off the blank. (This is particularly likely when installing EVA or hypalon, although they don't need to be reamed to fit nearly as closely as cork does. They stretch and conform. Cork doesn't.)

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

i use blank sections with grit glued on to somewhat approximate the taper of the blank i'm building onto. this, theoretically, will help match the inner bore of the cork grip to the taper of the blank.

eric
fresno, ca.