I have been asked to build a spinning rod for a customer. He showed me a picture with rod with cork grips and the reel which seemed to he attached to the cork, without any hoods or rings. I'm presuming that there are hoods but hidden. The reel foot seems to be slightly recessed but the cork around the foot appears to the same dia. as the rest of the grip. How are these style of grips made and are the reels permanently fitted.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2005 10:04PM by Myles Boon.

Myles,
What type of rod is this, casting, spinning or fly rod? If you have the picture handy, e-mail it to me.

Ellis sorry spinning rod, no the picture was black and white I tried to take a picture with my camera and it didn't come out. I have seen one in a fishing magazine so I will try to get a picture of that.

I posted a pic of something very similar.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

In the picture, the reel foot looks like it was glued to the cork. I am looking at a 16mm Fuji fly rod seat. I can see where I could cut off a hood and bury it under cork, cut the graphite barrel and make one out of cork. That is as far as I have gotten so far. It is bedtime here (11:15PM) so I will play with it some more in the AM.

Just had another thought. I am going to try and make one but it will take me a while. On the knurl end there is a small peg where the hood rides in a groove. I will sand that off. That will allow the front hood to be glued inside of the foregrip and turn the foregrip to tighten it. The foregrip would have to be bored out far enough for the threaded barrel to fit in. Well, I will work on it some more in the AM.

I looked at the picture you emailed me with, Myles. I don't think there's any reel seat hoods under that cork. The whole reel foot is exposed. By the size of those curly tail grubs in the picture, that reel is not very big, so the cork diameter is not large, either. No room for hoods under there. Probably a second, false reel foot attached to the first (drilled, tapped, screwed & glued onto the reel foot-????). That, after dressing up the glued-in screws and glued-up false foot to reel foot could be just wrapped to the rod (and glued?). Just a guess, but the whole thing is such a small diameter over the reel foot size, that there can't be much of anything under that cork???

Just a WAG,

Putter
Williston, ND

Myles,

I also looked at your pic. Could what the gentleman showed you be made out of a black soft rubbery plastic. It could be those Fuji Speed Grip reelseats mentioned a couple posts down. I have a used one I can send you. You might be able to figure something out that way. The only thing it would cost you is the postage, unless you are coming to Charlotte then I could give it to you there.

Bill in WV



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2005 01:21AM by William Bartlett.

Thanks for the offer Bill, no it was deffinately cork and very similar to the photo, That post was made by a mate of mine, they are very similar and the style in the photo are very popular here. Thanks for the offer again.

The reel's a Sustain 1000. From Steve Starling and Kaj Busch's book on luring for bream. The reel foot is just glued into an cutout in the cork handle.

Ted yep that's the one, no I don't think it is, as the cork wouldn't hold up.

Ted is on the money. That is Bushy's rod/reel made by Ian Miller.
There was an article in a fishing magazine about this setup.
Reel was permanently afixed by two screws.
Martin

I've been told Bushie used self taping screws,it certainly got my attention when I read the book.
Otherwise Japan Tackle interesting grips but nothing that's completely cork.
www.japantackle.com/Rodbuilding/spinning_rod_grip_kits.htm
Regards
Chales Clayton

G'day Guys, it's good to see an Aussie invasion. Yes it is one of Ian's but he keeps it tight lipped. It is definitely screwed but by how many, there is only enough meat in the foot to take a screw in the leg. The reel is removal able so I was told. Ian I doubt would drill through the blank to connect to the reel. It wouldn't take much to do but I wanted the real picture behind it before I go ahead with the build. If I don't get an answer I will drop Ian a email. Charles I don't think this was the one Bushy screwed, I do recall him writing about it somewhere I think it was one of the ones that the reel was taped on with electrical tape he used.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2005 02:26AM by Myles Boon.

Myles, do you know whether or not, in fact, the reel foot is removable or bonded. Bonding just doesn't make sense to my old hillbilly brain. Tell us what you find out. The reel foot could be drilled from the top side into a suitable underlying arbor & drill sites cosmetically obscurred. Not a good solution for structual stuff but might work on a lightweight rod. I suspect the reel pictured is something like a Shimano 2000 and is somehow screwed into a suitable material that anchors it in that location. Stan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2005 03:00AM by Stan Gregory.

I never actually done this but if you beefed up the rod blank you drill though and glue in “standoff inserts” that are used in sheetmetal work. Alternatively a couple of inserts pressed into a metal plate could be glued to the blank and cork built over .
The problem you have is the local specialist fastening store probably wouldn’t be interested in selling you two stainless steel fasteners.
Regards Charles

Looking close at the pic, I can see what looks like a hole on each foot. You could screw directly into the cork, but I wouldn't think it would hold up very well for very long. If I were going to try something like this, the screws would go into wood and the cork in that area would just be a thin sleeve over a wood "grip". Preferably, a nut of some sort would be embedded into the wood, or even a thin sleeve of metal, tapped for the screws. At a minimum, I would want the screws going into some sort of nut embedded in the cork, and you could fill in the top parts for the cosmetics. Very interesting. I've never seen one like this.

I am thinking of a machine thread recesed head screw with inserts epoxied into the handle, maybe wood for a back up ? The recessed head screw would not be seen from the side. It would fit flush with the reel foot.

Ah, I see. Now what's left of my engineering brain has kicked in. A metal arbor, tapped in two spots, under the cork. Cork cutout recessed to the size of the reel foot. Holes drilled either side of the reel stem, countersunk to hide the screw heads. Screws pass through reel foot, mate with threads in metal arbors, and countersink hides them from side view. With a fine series machine screw, you only need a few millimetres depth for good thread engagement onto the arbors. That's hot, and pretty cool looking: sort of "floating" on the cork.

I was about to mount a small towel hook on the kitchen wall and figured I'd try it on cork first to see what would happen with two 3/4" wood screws. Seemed very secure at first, but loosened up very quickly with some wiggling. I was then able to pull it straight out of the cork without what I would call a great deal of effort. I would definitely want the screws going into something other than straight cork. A reel mounted this way, even on one of my ultralights wouldn't make it a full day of fishing. I think I would want machine screws into metal of some sort. Maybe nylon hardware would work though too, but I'm not sure how durable that would be after time.