I have been doing more handle custom work now that I have made 1/4" mandrel press. I don't have a lathe yet. I have been shaping my handles by hand and inlaying foam, wood and burl rings. Lots of elbow grease but I have the time this next two months. Problem/question..... is the nature of burl cork such that it simply won't take as smooth a sanding polish as regular cork? I progress down to finer and finer cork sanding when I have the handle all shaped but I can't seem to get a really smooth feel to the burl. Any suggestions? Will this smooth surface be a lot easier to produce when I get say a Grizzly mini lathe? Thanks Steve

What burl cork are you using?

Coat it with some kind of clear. Will give it a nice shine

I haven't hand sanded one, so I guess I can't really answer your question... except to say that with the Grizzly I'm using, I like the 'feel' of them once I'm done sanding them. Feels nice prior to adding a coat of whatever over top.

Anytime different densities (foam, normal cork, burl cork, woods) are used together in a handle, it creates more time, thought, and work to get it all smooth and at the diameter/shape I'm shooting for. That's the challenge part of it and it's fun to be able to overcome it and solve it; rewarding as heck for me!

Putter
Williston, ND

Steven
You should be able to get an even smoother finish than regular cork with my burl because it is much harder and denser. Your problem is that you don't have a lathe....all the elbow grease in the world can't match 2500 rpms on a lathe! Here's another tip, Do NOT press harder to get a smoother finish....rather use more speed and work through numerous grits of sandpaper. I like to shape handles around 2000 rpm and usually end up at 320 or 400 grit sandpaper.
Shaping BURL CORK by hand is certainly one way to do it, but you'll never achieve the speed, accuracy, versatility and over all finish quality that you will with a lathe.


ANdy Dear
Lamar Mfg.

If you have a drill press. You can make a makeshift lathe

In fact, if you have a hand drill, you can mount it upside down on some sort of stand, chuck your 1/4" mandrel into it, and run the opposite end of the mandrel through a stable block of wood. It becomes a make-shift lathe, and will do great to turn cork. Turned my first 4 or 5 grips this way.

Grizzly sells a set-up that is a slightly more refined version of what I just described. It's pretty inexpensive, but well worth the money.

You're gonna' have trouble with burl just hand-sanding. It's just too dense.

Steven

If you have a hand drill --- you have a lath

Steven, I use a jet mini lathe to sand my burl cork, and use a surfoam rasp to take is down to size I want ,and start with 60 grit, 100 grit, 220 grit, and 320 grit, then to get a smooth finish I wet sand the cork when on the mandrel if you are using a drill or whatever,with 400 grit sand paper, it helps float off sanding debri, and also brings out the highlights of the burl cork, if you are using only one color, or multiple color cork rings, after I get the finish , let it dry then I either use cork seal, or you can use tru-oil, which will enhance the look and also put a nice finish on it. But anytime you sand something round you should use a revolving motion to keep it even and also with the accent rings it will help keep them level with the cork. good luck

Check out the photo page under equipment and you should see some home made laths. Give you some ideas.

Most people seems to stop sanding cork at 400 grit. I give the final touch by sanding with 1000-1200 grit watersandpaper and water naturally. This is carried out using longitudal strokes by hand and I think that the result is very nice. On a regular cork the result is so smooth that you can barely put down your rod after that. ;) Have not tried that on burl yet though. Just my 2 cents.

Steve , just one more thing, the finer the sandpaper that you use, the more obvious the cork seams will become, if you want the cork to appear to be almost like a one piece of cork, in my experience, the finer the grit sandpaper , the more obvious the seams will be. If you are using alternating colors, then the wet sanding and finer sandpaper with the lengthwise sanding strokes all the better. You can refer to Andy dears, DVD, and it will explain this. I consider him an expert with the lathe and cutting reelseats, and sanding cork.n Burl Cork in itself, is made up of larger pieces, or in otherwords a composite. So these things will show up. I like the look of the burl cork better than regular cork and it gives so many options.

An expert? Wow...now you put pressure on me. I'm just a Redneck workin' out of a barn in South Texas.


Andy