I have a new customer that is ordering a fly rod.This customer lives far from me and he has sent me a tracing of his casting hand. Does anyone know where I can find info on sizing a grip for this fly rod? I do turn my own grips. I saw the small bit of info in the last issue about the 19%. I'm guessing that would be the dia. of the grip?

Thanks

The information you want is in the Volume 10 #3 issue of RodMaker - Grip Ergonomics. What you read in the recent issue concerned a grip for a physically challenged individual.

If you measure from the tip of his middle finger to the bottom of the heel of his hand (first wrist crease) and figure 11% of that number, you'll have the diameter of the grip that most bio-mechanical studies have shown to be proper for the adult human hand. This will be a tad larger than what you're accustomed to seeing on most fly rods but it will be far more comfortable and less fatiguing than what is generally offered in fly rod grips

And remember, you can always remove more cork and go smaller, but it's almost impossible to put any back on.


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The formula you give here Tom would give me a grip of 0.853", or 22mm diameter for my hand at 200mm from the tip of my middle finger to the first wrist crease at the heel of my hand-would that be for the minimum diameter of a full wells grip or would that be for the maximum diameter of the grip? At 6'5" tall and generally thought to have big hands (very few XXL gloves fit my hands), I find that dimension small for me...most of my own grips all turned by me are about 1 1/4" diameter at the thickest part of a full wells grip and are usualy 71/2" in length. All my current fly rods are saltwater models. For other types of rods that I use such as deep jigging, trolling or big game popping, I have a hard time finding EVA more than 11/4" diameter for good grips.
I agree totaly that most grips are too thin for the average person to get good support to lessen fatigue, and that seems to be true of most types of rods.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2010 11:12AM by Earl Hamilton.

Thank you for your reponse. I will turn it a tad larger and if he wants it smaller then he gets it smaller.

Find out what he generally uses and if the handle is too small or what ever. then make the new rod accordingly.

if you can get him to grab a hold of a few dowels of different sizes maybe at a home depot, and possibly let you know how large of a size he likes or feels good to him ?

Bill - willierods.com

Earl,

I'd recommend you read the article. It will answer all your questions.

You certainly wouldn't want to go any smaller if you're wanting to stay within the findings of the better ergonomics studies. By the sasme token, if you were to buy any preformed full wells grip on the market today, it wouldn't be anywhere near that large in diameter.


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Earl,

You may want to look into the carbon skinned foam grips as well. It's not at all difficult to get any size you want and they are far tougher than EVA. After doing my homework, I measured out my expensive framing hammer handle and made a mold to those dimensions. Pop the foam out of the tube, turn out the non-gripping areas to round, and there you have it. A perfectly sized and contoured grip. At 6'5", you can probably stand a bigger grip than me, and mine are 1 5/16" x 1 1/16". The shape is as important as the size. A round 1 5/16" wouldn't be anywhere near as comfortable. I'll try and get a picture up soon.

Jason Cosby
Cos Rods



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2010 06:58PM by Jason Cosby.

Hi Tom.
I would love to read the article, and many others. Sadly to get the magazine to the Philippines is just to expensive or unreliable on a regular basis. Perhaps I should order several issues and have them shipped, I could do with the reading.
Jason. I have never yet done any carbon skinned grips. I would like to, but unfortunately the materials are either not available here or are prohibitvely expensive to import. I will get round to it some day.
I have a project at the moment where I have shaved and formed a rear grip for an overhead deep jigging rod to try and improve some of the fatigue issues I have in the hand by designing in support for the palm and finger placement with a trigger seat. I used clay to form the model and then copied and modified that in hard EVA. I don't know if it works well yet, but it looks promising-I will try to put up some photos soon.