I build my grips from regular and burl cork on the blank and then turn the grips down on a rod lathe.. I do not build a grip on the mandrel and then transfer it to a rod. HOWEVER, I now have access to a laser engraver. Has anyone tried to put some laser engraving on cork? I am thinking regular cork may be too soft but burl cork with a couple of coats of rod finish might look cool. To fit in the machine I would have to put the grip on the mandrel, turn int down, engrave it, then ream it to fit the blank. Any feedback on your experiences would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Buzz

I build all my grips on mandrels. Bore the rings to fit a mandrel that is just barely undersize of the blank OD where the grip will reside. This way you have only a tiny bit of taper reaming to do in order to get a good fit.

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

Ray Cover would be the real person to answer your question. But from my experience the burl would possibly be to dark for any kind of design to really stand out. I have had some laser engraving done on different kinds of wood and the lighter colors show the designs better. You also might ask the person with the laser what their opinion about the cork would be, see if they can do a small sample of each kind of cork. After engraving definitely cover the cork with some kind of finish whether it be guide finish or True Oil, others can tell you what kind of finish they like on cork.

I have a friend that tried that on a few of my preformed cork handles, it took some adjusting to get the laser right. After burning some up he did get it dialed in right and it looked ok, he just puts his name on his own handles now. But he can do it on the assembled and finished rod. I havent been to his buisness to watch him do it, I guess I should check it out.

Mike Thompson
Thompson's Custom Rods

It is impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are so ingenious!

Thanks for the vote of confidence Tim,

BTW, I almost have the second installment on those reel seat instructions ready to send you.

As far as how the burl cork would laser engrave I really don't know. Probably the best thing to do would be to glue a half dozen pieces together turn them into a cylinder and try it. I don't know a lot about Laser engraving all my stuff is cut by hand but I would think that it would look good if you bottom of the laser cuts were colored somehow for contrast.

I have thought about using one of the decoy carvers burning tools to "Engrave" the cork. That would leave a burnt bottom in the "cuts". Those wood burners for decoy carvers come with some pretty fine points for detail work.

Ray

I have seen several regular cork handles laser engraved and they looked great. The guy who done it did them for himself on fly rods and his only complaint was that where he had it done is in contact with his grip on the handle. He said he would do it again but in a different location on the cork. They really did look nice.

My Idea is a little extra work but I think it would show up nicely. I recently took a cork grip that I had made finger and thumb grooves in to fit my hand and put four coats of birchwood casey walnut tone gun stock filler on it. After it dried I put a coat of cork sealer. It is beautiful and has held up very well so far.

That being said, If you could laser engrave it and rub one to two coats of filler in over the engraving, then let it dry, and sand the area lightly with 800 to 1000 grit sand paper, it would remove the filler from the main area of the grip around the engraving and leave it in the engraving. then coat it with sealer and it will be there for the duration. I think it would look very nice, if I had a laser engraver I would try it.

Thanks to everyone. I am going to do some testing on some regular cork and burl mock ups. If they turn out decent I will try and post some photos.
Buzz

Have you tried anything yet? I was anxious to see your results.