Has anyone built a rod handle made from Birch Bark Rings?

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I had never thought about using this material before, but I suspect that it could be a pretty good material to make grips.

I am just wondering if anyone has used it and if so; how does its weight compare to cork or other materials, and how does it machine to other materials?

Thanks for any help.
Roger

Hi, Roger
Birch bark makes beautiful handles, I am not sure about the weight and don't care they look nice. They turn on the lathe fine. I like to use rod to glue them together.
Be careful to clean the thin paper like layers off the back side of the bark. When I didn't my handles kept breaking apart between the rings if the turning tool caught to hard.
Go for it they look great.

Mike Brune

Mikes Custom Fly Rods

A LOT of builders here have used birch bark for grips. Do a SEARCH here for Birch Bark and select ALL DATES and you will get a lot of info!
Here are 4 pages of pix of birch bark in grips from the photo page [www.rodbuilding.org]

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!!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2008 09:09PM by Mike Barkley.

Roger
I posted a pic in the pictures area. When I picked up the handle it's really not that heavy.

Mike Brune

Once again, it's all been very thoroughly covered in RodMaker Magazine, including an in-depth article and full "how-to" photos.

Volume 9 #2.

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It was a good article to. The thing I learned from it that was interesting was that you can't glue up the entire grip at one shot. You have to do it in stages and then glue up the short stacks to make the full length grip. Beautiful stuff. I plan to make one some day when I have more time.