I have searched the archives (now going blind slowly), but I cannot find an answer to this...

Many of the cork rings I recently purchased do not have flat surfaces for gluing. The uneveness is not out of control, but it definitely exists. I come from a woodworking background, and gluing endgrain -- a risky proposition under the best of circumstances -- was unthinkable with surfaces that did not mate perfectly. I did not, however, ever work with cork. Does cork behave in such a way under gluing pressure that this is not a concern?

If you do flatten and square the mating surfaces, does anyone have a good trick for this? I tried planing the cork with limited success...

Thanks,

Erik

I think that cork is soft enough that when it is tightly clamped, it will compress and mate well

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!!

only done it once but i picked the best pattern match placed one on the clamp glued it up dropped number two on etc etc till it was over length then clamped it up tight sanded it to equal diameters then shaped it a cork clamping jig is a must have tool ( you can fashion them out of threaded bar and a couple of large washers or buy the factory made ones)

Allen

It won't matter if the face isn't square to the sides of the rings - you'll turn the side of the cylinder square later.

Now if the face itself isn't flat and true, you may want to square them up. But I've not seen many where this is the case. How far out of true are we talking here? Anything less than a 1/32nd inch probably isn't worth worrying over, but more than that and you could end up with thick glue pockets that could show on the grip cylinder. Again, I've not seen many cork ring faces that are this far out.

............

I've never found any that was so out of whack that I couldn't use it. I just clamped mine that much tighter. Cork will compress quite a ways, allowing the cork faces to mate quite well, even if they're not square.

Then, when you turn it, you can use sandpaper or a lathe chisel (parting tool) to square the ends.

Erik,

I think the main problem woodworkers have with gluing end gran is strength in the joint. When gluing a cork handle you are going to have the graphite blank going through the middle of the handle. This will prevent the joints from sheering which is what you worry about with end grain to end grain joints. If you are worried about the trueness...you can easily sand any imperfect rings to a make them square up better.

I like tite bond III the clamp the rings together and epoxy or rodbond to secure to the blank. I have never had a ring pull away from another.