I am confused about how to shop for cork handles or rings. Is there a guide somewhere that gives the length of handles or styles for various types of rod blanks, such as spinning and fly rod?

I am in the sameboat myself, but I have a ton of production rods, so I usually just measure the grips and placement of a rod of the same length and style and build accordingly. To me ALL production rods are made with handles that are a bit too short so I add a couple of inches to make up for that and the fact that I am 6'4".

I am beginning to rethink the use of foregrips on casting rods as well, shortening them a great deal or leaving them off entirely.

Hope this helps.

Derek

If you want typical handle measurements, check out Pacific Bay's site, they list sizes and measurements for each of their handles.

2 cents,

Tim

Length of the handles is totally up to you and who you are making the rod for. Not everyone likes the same length on handles. Same thing goes for the diameter of the handles. I know on the St Croix website, I think they list what the lengths of the cork used for each handle design they have, might give you an idea to go by. For myself, I tend yo make some of the handle a bit shorter than what is on production rods, but that is my preference.

Grip sizes/shapes,etc. is one of the things that we can do to a rod that is probably the most immediately noticed by a customer. All factory rods are built for that "generic" angler. Some like them shorter, longer, thinner, thicker. I always build my grips specifically to the user and application. What the rod is being used for has a bearing on it also.
Don't get locked into what is "normal" on factory rods or traditional. In many instances, the factory rods follow the custom rods. I see where many,even high end, factory rods are going with split grips, little or no fore grips and using small fly type ceramic guides on spinning rods. These things have been in use by custom builders for a long time.


Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

For fly rods there are lots of different styles, but the dominant are the ones you are familiar with. Cigar, full wells, half wells, western, etc... I know that Tom has several grip templates available in the RB backorders too, some of which are 'non-standard' but very nice.

If you want standard sizes to work from, that's a crapshoot as there isn't really a standard. The best thing you can do is to look at the dimensions of grips made by the major players. Pacbay has there dimensions published, and if you hit up the C&D cork suppliers website, they too have their dimensions posted. To be honest I'm usually making my 'normal' grips around 1mm smaller than what they claim is normal, and so far folks have been pretty close to that in terms of the comfort and feel they want.

But I also have to re-iterate Mike's comment. As a custom builder, you can make the grip to the exact specification of the user. It takes a while to get the demo grips built up to do so (or to build a fitting system), but once you do, you can really make a difference in the comfort and fishing enjoyment customers will have with your rod. Experiment, have fun, and don't be afraid to buy cheap cork and experiment!

-- Cheers
-- James