Well, the other day I posted a question regarding using no grip at all. Well, I could not do it. I could have, but there was not enough material there for casting. It would have been ok for palming the reel though. I ended up putting on a 3.5" piece of foregrip cork, which is pretty thin to begin with. Anyway, the blank feels great between the skeleton. 3 fingers on the blank will be no problem. The whole rig weighs in at 10.5 oz., which is 30% lighter than my most comparable salmon/steelhead rod (factory St.Croix Avid).

Here is my first shot at a photo post. Hope it works.
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Thanks to those that offered suggestions - and those that called me a fool.

Drew

looks good Drew.

i think I could probably get by with a little shorter cork, but it aint my rod.

good stuff there, I'll be giving it a try myself

I use a similar set-up on all my casting rods, except that I cut the center out of an ECSM seat. It looks just like yours, except that I have a trigger butting up to the cork.

I've found that 2.5" of cork is plenty for me.

You're right--it's a really good way to cut weight, and increase feel by putting more fingers on the blank.