Has anyone had any luck with a cork filler that is waterproof and blends into and adheres to the cork well? What is the material?

Mack,
I hate to let the cat completely out of the bag yet, but we are finalizing the details on a product specifically for this purpose. It will be the industry's first dedicated product SPECIFICALLY designed for filling pits. We aare workingvery closely with a company that specializes in wood putty type products to manf. a paste that is over 50% natural wood pulp, is extrememly durable and water resistant, as well as a near perfect color match.....oh, and it is really reasonably priced as well. I am really excited about thisproduct.
I'll post details as to the release date as we get closer to the final product.

Best Regards,

Andy Dear
Lamar Fishing Products

Mack for one of my first rods i bought a pre formed grip. i decided athough nice it needed some inlay to make it more costom looking and proced to inlay different corks int the handle. good so far. Then it needed sanding and i had sanded cork before so still no problem then i cleaned the dust away and PROBLEM!. It seem that preform grips are filled and i remoove my grip material exposing many holes pits and gouges. After consulting the expert of the day dale clemons explained to me how to fix this. Now its just normal for me and i forget its not normal to everyone. Fist you ssand some very fine white cork the best junk pieces you have. I now save it when sanding grips to save time. then you mix in in a bottle with glue. I use water safe wood glue. Make a slurry with the glue and dust from the sanding. Coat the rod grip with it pushing it into any holes and grooves and fround them above the surface so the actually stick up beyond the surface. Allow this to dry overnight. When dry gently sand with 600 grit or even 1000 git sand paper very gently just taking it down so the filler is flush with the rest of the rod. Its timeconsuming and the big trick is to know when to stop. Then just to assure a color blend i usually seal the cork with cork bond. Good luck mack enyprobs my email is broderick6@comcast.net

OOOH, Andy, the hits just keep on coming!! All the same, it's not much full to mix up epoxy, cork dust and white pigment for filler. Matching the shade of your cork is simply a matter of adding the pigment a tiny amount at a time as you mix. Sand flush with fine grit sandpaper ( I take it down with a file first), then put your choice of preserving finish on. Remember that the filler sometimes will still go darker than the cork, so your filled spots may show a bit more.

The cork sheeting rings I cut and use to glue up grips is altogether a lot tougher, and better looking in my eyes (nice fine grains). Even after shaping with a file no material rips out, so no filler is needed. It also sands well and takes up Tru-oil to a beautiful shade.

Ted;
What kind of sheeting do you use to cut rings? I am always on the lookout for something innovative. I use gasket material now, for accent, but the stuff I can find is all too thin to use for much more than that. It would be nice to find some thicker rubberized cork.
Thanks
Steve Broadwell

The sheeting used for cork floors. Comes in tiles approx 12" x 12", and about 1/4 " thick. I'll put up some pics.

Ted,
Your post about using cork sheeting is something I've been using. However, the thickest I've found is 1/8" thick. I'll check out the floor cork. Thanks for the idea. The sheet cork does, indeed, have a very pleasing appearance and doesn't have voids. A lot of effects can be obtained with it and some of Andy's exotics, EVA, gasket material, etc.

Stan

Thanks, Ted. I have wondered if those would work, but never tried them. I'll have to stop by Home Depot in the next couple of days and get a couple to try.
Steve Broadwell

Do it. Trust me, the cork looks great. I've seen your pics Stan. can't remember what finish you used on them, but it was really shiny. I prefer the Tru-Oil: it darkens up nicely and 2 coats is all you need.
You can usually get the best quality stuff from specialty flooring companies. The ones I'm using right now are from a 25 pack of 4mm thick sheets: I'm guessing these were for cork notice boards or backing for kiddie size whiteboards. I cut my rings with a 1 1/4 inch hole saw, which also gives me a centred 1/4 inch hole. It's a royal pain to glue up all those rings, especially for longer sections. So far I've done split grips and skeleton seat inserts, but also an 8" full reargrip (glued up 3 short sections, then glued them together). I power ream them at slow speeds with a hand drill: hand reaming is a pain because the stuff is very tough, but if you power ream too fast it burns. Same if you try to cut too many rings with the hole saw before clearing them out. If your reamers do drop some grit inside them, be sure to clean them out properly (blow them out and use a bottle brush), because the binder plasticizes when it burns and traps particles.

Ted,

That's exactly the material I used to make the composite cork rings, using the same technique you described. I really like the rings made of this stuff. For finish, I used 10-12 coats of Tru-Oil.

I've been cutting the cork sheets into two sections and gluing up several sheets to get appx. 1/2" thickness. The sheets are glued using TiteBond III, weighting everything down with plywood boards on each side and topped with weight for gluing pressure. I use a drill press and 1 1/4 " hole saw.

Stan

You guys need to be careful with the cork flooring....I used to work for Home Depot in the flooring dept. and most if not all cork flooring contains what is called an "anti-curl" treatment , it is also sometimes referred to as an etching agent. It can in many cases prevent a proper glue bond if you try to glue the material to itself, w/o removing the surface treatment first.


Andy Dear
Lamar Fishing Products

Andy, what Ted and I have been using is actually the "bulletin board" composite cork sheets which is about 4.8 mm in thickness and 12" X 12".
It glues up well with TiteBond III. It's not the flooring cork material as far as I can tell, but more akin to cork gasket material but thicker. Your eoxtic cork materials look very nice with it. Stan

Gotcha Stan...except that's basically the same stuff, but not manufactured in the same density. I don't know if they put an anti-curl on that material or not. You wouldn't be able to tell by looking at it, but normally if it's a sizeable sheet they do add an anti-curl to kerp the sheets from bowing. The gasket material does not have anti-curl, as the rubber matrix is extremely stabel that you don't have to worry about it. I have seen the pics of your grips, and they do look great!

Andy Dear
Lamar Fishing Products

That's exactly it. I have a sample of the thicker floor sheet, and I was warned it is treated with the anti-curl, and that some glues won't bond. The bulletin board stuff is not treated, and that's why I use that. I find the stuff I have is quite dense, more than dense enough for my use. Thanks for the tip for the sheets Stan. I've been using 2 part slow set epoxy (Araldite) to glue my rings up, and I couldn't imagine mixing up enough to glue the sheets together. Titebond III, being one part, may well be easier to do tha with. Unfortunately I've not seen it available here in this part of Australia. 10 to 12 coats explains the really shiny finish. I only use 2, much preferring the darkened natural look.

I tried to fill my cork a time or two, but quickly decided that I didn't like the extra work, and the fact that the filler never was exactly the same color, and the fact that it fell out after awhile.

So, I just started buying higher grade cork, and showing off the small imperfections. Now, I turn my cork, add a couple coats of tru-oil to it, and call it done. The tru-oil darkens up the imperfections, and gives the cork a little bit of an amber coloring, which gives the piece an overall "antique" look. But, you can't do it with poor or mediocre cork, as you end up showing off ALL the imperfections.