I made my first grip from burl and cork rigs this week and with the help of some of the older post here they came out nice(one is posted to the gallery if you want to look. The one problem I encounter was that the burl cork sanded off slower, so then the cork in between ended up being slightly lower not much but some. I like the idea of giving the grips shape so i was unable to use a sanding block with much sucess. Any suggestions in dealing with this? Also has anyone every tried staining cork? Does it stiffen up and lose the cusheness that makes it comfortable?

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Ignorance is not a crime, let someone stay ignorant should be

Hi Adam,
The grip looks really good. To get rid of that "scalloping" between the pieces of harder burl, you can get a small block of wood and wrap sanding paper around it to help sand everything more even. Sometimes you have to resort to using a narrow strip and just "spot sand" the high spots while the lathe is spinning.

Take your time...you'll get it.

Andy Dear
Lamar Manf.

Adam, that's some good work you did. To answer your question, when dealing with two different materials, you not only have to use a block, but finer grades than you normally use and most importantly, a very light touch. Let the sandpaper do the work. It's not something you can rush.

Ditto the above. Applying too much pressure causes the paper to dig deeper into the softer materials. I do my shaping thru 120 with a block. You can use shaped blocks too. From 220 and up, just straight paper and a light touch. Let the paper do the work.



Better to have and not need than to need and not have.