I am making a cork handle for a bass rod. I have two burl rings that are 1/8" wide and they are also 1.5" in diameter. My other rings are only 1.25" in diameter. Wil I have trouble sanding the larger rings down to the size of 1.25? Will they chip while sanding. Any suggestions. Thanks for your help

You should not have any problems, just take it slow. If the other cork is standard cork, what you might have some issues with is keeping them both the same size as you sand to the final size. You should use a block behind the sandpaper so they will stay at the same level.

You shouldn't have a problem. As Mike said, the burl cork is denser than the natural cork so it is harder to sand. Using a block helps keep things even.
Sam

Jose,
I just came in from my garage, where I was shaping some grips, made of regular cork rings with burl cork ring trim. I used dry-wall sanding screen, cut into strips, to shape everything. I held the strips against the spinning cork to get down to my working diameter. For the actual shaping, I did not use a sanding block, because I was trying to make some compound curves, in a 2" glue-up. I just used the tip of my finger, pushing the screen down on the spinning grip. YOu do have to pay attention, because as the others have noted, the burl is much denser, than the cork, so that cork is removed much faster than the burl. Once I had the shapes, I used the same techinique with increasingly finer sandpaper (180, 220, 320, 400) to smoothe things out. Don't push too hard or it'll get real hot!!!! My grips came out great.

Jose,
If at all possible, always use a sanding board when finishing grips. A board really helps to stabilize the sand paper and keep the handle uniform.
If you want to do shapes and curves, just use narrower boards, and narrower paper.

When ever you use different type handle material - where part of the handle is harder than another part of the handle, the board is really necessary to avoid sanding away the softer material before getting the harder material sanded to size.

Take care
Roger

thanks for all responses... yep.. i do have regular cork with burl trim rings. Thanks for the advice of using a sand board..

Its my first time with burl and noticed quickly that it is denser while i was cutting the trims.. thanks again....

I use a Stanley SurForm tool to get my grips to shape and slightly over size. This will handle different hardnesses of materials and different sizes of materials with ease.

Then 80, 120 and often times 220 grit papers on blocks.

220, 320 and 400 grit papers by hand.


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Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

When shaping a combo type grip I use a a few differnt size/shape files to do the majority of the work. for final sanding I will use a cut peice of a pant stur stick and wrap some sandpaper around it. It is small and easy to handle, I can switch different paper in seconds when needed.