Anyone tried using leather for a grip - leather braided as used on bullwhips? Wondering how durable it'd be and what type of finish (if any) should be applied to the leather.

There are some very creative minds that frequent this board; I'm not one of them. I've often thought about using leather. I think the right leather applied the right way could be extremely attractive. However, I've never come up with an application that I think would last beyond its' first trip to the river. There are few times that I fish that most everything doesn't get wet. I wade a lot or fish from a canoe. Also, I am excellent at making it rain. I have friends that invite me to go fishing when we're in the grips of a drought just so that the water tables rise. If I show up with fishing gear the rain clouds won't be far behind.

Water is is one of leather's worst enemies and there aren't too many ways of completely shielding it from moisture without destroying its' attactiveness. The one thing that I'm in the middle of that I hope yields success is this: I've applied a layer of very thin snakeskin leather over an acrylic fly reel seat and then sealed it in with several thin coats of LS Supreme epoxy. My thinking is that the acrylic won't let moisture seep in on the underside of the leather as would be the case with wood or other porous materials. I also was certain to let the LS supreme extent beyond the edge of the leather to completely seal moisture out - the same way that you should allow your epoxy to extend slightly beyond the edge of your wraps for the same reason. It looks good but it needs several good soakings and dryings before I can evaluate how it may hold up over time.

Maybe you or someone can expand on my idea or better yet, someone may already have done it.

[www.fishingphotos.net]
Here's a link to a photo of some VERY nice leather grips.
John
[www.fishingphotos.net]



Got Fish ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2005 10:04PM by John Dow.

Those pictures on Fishingphotos.net are very nice. The handle covering I was considering is braided strips over the rear grip. From looking at some pictures on the web of Bullwhips it looks like they could be woven over either cork or wood. It may well be a rod that needs some sort of special care, but... think I'll give it a shot.

I have used real leather for the fore grip on off shore rods and it stretches when wet and becomes loose. Use synthetic leather or the material they wrap tennis racket grips with. You can cut up the "leather" steering wheel covers and it works well as it is synthetic. Back in the early 90's I bought a half a steer hide [90.00] at a leather store to make my own strips and still have most of it. Go to a sporting goods store and buy the replacement grips for tennis rackets is your best bet. Three to a pack for about 5.00. Jesse

You can buy the leather grip material that is used on golf clubs. You can get real leather or a synthetic, it is available in most golf club repair shops, is relatively inexpensive and water will not be a problem. Golfers have been playing in the rain with leather grips for a couple of hundred years.

Could the leather be coated with some thing like Tru Oil ?

Go to Google and enter "Waterproofing Leather." You will get 197,000 hits. Have fun. (Actually, this is better for a wintertime activity, I'm pretty busy fishing right now.)

I just thought I would ask, It's 100 with the heat index here.