Hey All,

I have been a lurker for a while and love this site. The knowledge on this site is absolutely incredible. I am new to the rod-building thing. A couple of months ago I built my first rod, a four piece 3 wht. fly-rod that I love. Since then I have done several repairs for friends. Mostly replacing tip-tops on rods that were shortened a bit by car doors or line guides that were “stepped on”. I am totally a beginner at this, but I must admit it is VERY ADDICTING.

Rod repair is very fun and rewarding for me. I have a small family and it is hard to justify spending $100.00+ on blanks and components to build a rod to support my habit. I already have 20+ factory rods in the garage. Hard to explain to the wife why I need another one. Rod repair lets me “play” with and work on rods with very little to no cost on my part. I don’t charge people because we make an agreement…I’m new at this, I won’t charge you if you understand that it may not be as good if you did pay someone else to fix it. My friends, being cheap of course, agree. Most of the rods are cheap big box types anyway. Some are not even worth fixing, but keeps me interested and helps expand my experience.

Well anyway to my question…On a recent visit to my brother’s I found a very nice All Star bait casting rod in his garage. He bought it cheap at a garage sale and never did use it. The rod is in great shape, except for the fore grip. Half of the fore grip (cork) is pretty much missing (left to right half, not front to back). It looks as if a rat chewed it off. I want to fix it, but I don’t want to tear the whole rod down (from tip or from the butt) to replace the fore grip. The wraps and other work on it are better than I can do at this moment. I was thinking I could slice the damaged part of the grip with a sharp knife and cut it off (lengthwise). Leaving the left side of the grip still on the blank. Clean it to the blank and get another fore grip of the same size. Cut the new grip down the center (again from top to bottom) making a half circle and glue it to the blank to fill in what I cut off. I know it will leave a line where they are connected, but I figure some sanding should be able to hide it pretty good. Will this work? Will it hold? Is there a better way (again without tearing the rod down)?

Thanks for your input.

It will work but will take some careful handiwork on your part to get it looking it nice.

Here's another idea you could try, and assuming that the grip on there now isn't too far to gone to at least use some of it. Turn it down to a smaller diameter. Go just below the level of the "chew" marks. Now turn or get another foregrip and bore it so that it fits over the old foregrip. If you plan ahead and can size the old foregrip so that the bore in the new one will slide over the guides on the rod, you can easily and quickly repair things to like new condition with very little muss or fuss.

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I think what I would do is completely remove the foregrip and scrap with a razor perpendicular to the blank (do not sand) any residue back to the blank. Then "marblelize" the section where the foregrip use to be. Plenty of instructions here on "marlelizing". In the end you will have a rod with two leading edge trends - no foregrip and "marblelized" esthetics.

harold

Not sure of the condition of the entire cork handle, I would remove all the handle, eyes and replace the cork handle with no forgrip and spiral wrap the eyes. Where the foregrip went you could build a ramp. Plenty of help on the site reference building ramps. For the most part I remove the fore grip on my bait casters and build a ramp. Give me place to place my finger on the blank to help feel the bite. You could even consider replacing the cork entirely and going with graphite tubing. My 2cts.

I would replace the whole forehandle. taking a foregrip in similar shape, drill the hole out to the diameter of the blank and cut that in half with a razor blade and adhere it into place. this won't be easy to make it look nice.
BTW do you need a corck foregrip? if not you could either turn the foregrip down and overwrap it with threadwork. just a thought.

I agree with Steve I would remove the fore grip and wrap with white thread and marble over the thread. The marbeling looks very nice and very easy to do. If need you can email me direct and that is one thing that I could help you with.

Brent Keever
Building friendships through custom rods

I happen to agree with Bruno. And if you send me the size (length, dia, and shape) of the foregrip I'll even cut one of mine in half, and then send it to you.

Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods

Just a thought if you don't want to remove any guides. Cut off the remaining cork, clean it up the best you can and add cork tape.

Walt

Wow!!! The responses have been GREAT. Thanks everyone. Now I feel like I have others to talk to about my new addiction with that understands. I guess like AAA for rod building. My friends and wife are sick of hearing me talking about rods I want to build or repair projects I’m working on.

Mr. Kirkman, I understand exactly what you are saying. Never even thought of that. No wonder you are “The Man”. I don’t think it will work on this one though. About a quarter of the grip is gone down to the blank. The line guides are pretty tall and I don’t see how I could get it to fit over them and still fit on the remaining piece of fore grip.

Taking the fore grip off completely…would like to do that, but it is my brother’s rod. I don’t think he would like it like that. He is traditional and if I gave it to him like that he would be “Well gee…all you did is remove the grip and put a finish on it”. He would not be impressed. Plus I don’t want to damage the butt wraps or label (again new at this).

Bruno and Uncle Russ, I think that is the way I will go. Makes sense to use the whole new grip because matching the existing cork with new would definitely be noticeable. One side would be all clean and new and the other dirty and used. I can see were that would make it pretty obvious how I fixed it. I think if I cut the grip smoothly and put the seams on the sides, you probably won’t really be able to tell, unless you look REALLY close at it.

Uncle Russ your generosity is amazing. Thanks (I may take you up on this one). That was my next mission, finding a grip that is the same size and diameter. Since it is not a custom built rod, I figured it used a pretty standard fore grip size. Will measure it tonight.

Walt…cork tape? Do you by chance have a link so I can see this stuff? Can you sand it to shape? How thick is it (though I guess you could do multiple wraps)? Will it unwrap with wear and use? That one is a new one to me. Never knew it existed.

You guys are not helping this addiction. Again thanks so much for the help. Hope you don’t mind future “beginner” type questions from me.

You could remove the old grip completely, prepare a new one to fit that area of the blank, split it on one side only so that you could pry it open just enought to get by the guides and then only have one opening to deal with.

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Tom Kirkman Wrote:
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> You could remove the old grip completely, prepare
> a new one to fit that area of the blank, split it
> on one side only so that you could pry it open
> just enought to get by the guides and then only
> have one opening to deal with.
>
> ....................


Not sure how well it would work with cork (depends on blank diameter) but you could always add an EVA fore grip. That would work well.



Regards
Dave

Fishing is Life the rest is just Details

Harold,

Cork tape can be purchased from Mudhole and several other suppliers, I believe it comes in one sixteenth inch and one eigth inch thick. I use it all the time on surf rods and it's very tough, I think it would work fine for your foregrip, but I'm not sure what it would do for the aesthetics of the rod. If you don't want to buy a whole roll, send me a message with how much you need for your foregip and I'll send you some.

Walt



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/06/2007 08:09PM by Walt Davenport.

OK here are the measurements (of the fore grip). 2-2 1/16” from front to back. About 1-1 1/16” outside diameter. 7/16-1/2” on outside diameter of blank right in front of grip. Basic forward taper.

Will be shopping tomorrow, first choice…sponsors on this site.

One other question…I will be ordering the magazine for me this Christmas as a nice gift from my wife to me. I will tell her later, is it monthly, quarterly…?

Harold,
You found the right place to feed your addiction. The magazine is bi monthly and is the best thing going. You might want to add a copy of Rodbuilding guide by Tom Kirkman to your gift! It will be the best $15 you will spend!! Your e-mail address is hidden. If you e-mail me I will shoot you some stuff that will feed your addiction!! mbarkley@wowway.com

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!!

My e-mail should be uncovered now. Please...I have two young kids and a wife!! I need to spend time with them, But....bring it on.

You may as well hang it up!! Now that you've built that first rod, life as you presently know it is over!!!

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!!

I've done the single split that Tom mentioned, and it works well though it takes some patience. Then you just have to match the "finish" of the foregrip and rear grip.

Rodmaker is a great publication. bi-monthly and while some issues might not contain anything that pertains to you at the moment, the information is certainly worth learning and holding onto. This is a mag that you don't throw away. I subscribe to a lot of mags and Rodmaker is one of two that I put into binders for reference that always comes in handy.

Something you may try for the grip is to actually "break" it instead of cutting it. I accidently stepped on a piece of cork that I needed and broke it into 3 pieces right down the middle. A bit of rodbond later, you couldn't tell that it ever happend. The random break hid the glue line perfectly. If you want to see what it looks like, I will snap some pictures tomorrow and post them.

The very simple and quick thing to do is to cut off the back grip, cut off the reel seat, cut off the fore grip.
Clean up the blank by scraping a razor blade perpendicular to the blank.

Fit a new fore grip, a new reel seat, and a new back grip to the balnk.

Glue up, clamp and call it done.

Easy, quick, and it is the way that it would be done if the rod were returned to the factory for repair.

Take care
Roger