I really like these products and now I find that I always want to build a fly rod grip with plain cork combined with with the designs that burnt composite cork and burl cork offer. Who came up with this product?

The Zebco Pro-Staff rods which came out around 1974 or so were the first rods I'd ever seen any burnt cork on. Another manufacturer might have proceeded them but that's the first one I was aware of.

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You can actually build your entire grip out of burl cork. I do it all the time. It's slightly harder than conventional cork. I no longer like the super spongy feel of regular cork, and neither do those people that I build for.

Torin, I agree that regular cork feels spongy compared to composite cork. I had a full wells on my nine weight disintegrate at the front from casting heavy lead core. I replaced it with a grip made with burl in the wear areas.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2010 01:33PM by Greg Foy.