I'm going to build a 2" fighting butt for a 7 wt. fly rod, using cork rings. To protect the butt's end from beach rocks and barnacles, I want to add an end cap of either EVA , or composite cork. Which material is toughest? My searches have not found any comparisons of the two.
Thanks in advance. :)

The cork will be heavier than a high grade, dense EVA material. You could eventually tear or dent either one and I'd say in the durability department, it's pretty much a wash.

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

I would do the composite and apply a couple of coats of polyurethane.

On a different application we use composite cork and then put a couple of coats of rod finish on the cork for ice fishing rod grips which get a LOT of abuse. That grips set up lasts forever.\
I have only had one grip break in about 200 ice rods. That one was run over by an ATV in a parking lot.
Buzz

What ever you build it out of it would be wise to put it on a turner and put several coats of Permagloss or LumiSeal on . that stuff drys hard.harder then finish

Bill - willierods.com

John,
If you want a tough butt for a rod handle, use a common rubber chair leg cap.

I used to use these caps all of the time for rod butts and will still use them if I need the toughest butt to hold up to banging around.

I select a chair leg cap so that the outside of the chair leg is a bit larger than the butt to be capped. I verify that the inside of the chair leg cap will still be a tight fit on the rod butt if the rod butt is turned down a bit.

Then, working from the finished size of the rod handle, I put the chair leg cap on a manderal in my lathe or on a drill and spin the cap. I use various grades of sand paper to turn down the rubber chair leg cap to ge the shape that I want and the outside diameter that I want to match the finished size of the rod butt.

After getting the end of the cap shaped and the size to the correct length, I will use a sharp knife, while the cap is spinning to execute a clean trimmed length on the rubber chair leg.

Finally, I will chuck the handle and or rod in my lathe and cut a tenon into the end of the rod handle, so that when finished, the turned down chair leg cap fits nicely on the end of the rod handle.

When you pick up the rubber chair leg cap, pick up several in case you have to start over due to turning down too much. The caps are very inexpensive, 25cents to $1 each depending on the size.

Pretty tough to beat these caps for durablility and they are very attractive as well when finished.

Roger

John,
When you turn a rubber chair leg cap you need to get the speed up to get a nice look. I use either a 2800 rpm drill or a 3600 rpm motor to spin the cap.

Also, when doing the initial shaping, I start with very coarse sandpaper. I typically start with either 36 or 40 grit paper. This coarse paper cuts fairly quickly but due to the nature of the rubber cap, does not get particularly scratched up during the process.

As you near the final shape and diameter of the cap, reduce the grit of the paper to 100 and 200 grit paper. It is normally not necessary to use sandpaper finer than about 200 grit paper, because finer paper generally just heats up and really doesn't do much to the rubber cap.

Also, when turning the cap to length, just hold the sharp knife on the downward turning side of the rubber so that the knife is thrown AWAY from the rubber in case it catches and not INTO the rubber if it catches.
I also make a pont to slightly angle the knife so that the inner part of the cut will be angled slightly toward the end of the cap. The result of this slight angle on the cut of the rubber is that you get a nice tight fitting cap on the end of the handle with NO groove showing at the end of the cap.

Conversely, if you tilt the knife slightly out toward the bottom of the cap while cutting the cap, you will end up with a slight groove between the end of the rod butt and the cap. This is because the cap will get tight on the end of the hanle on the inside contact point of the cap, before out outside edge of the cap touches the rod butt.

Good luck if you use this technique.

If anyone has questions, I could always set up a couple of caps and take pictures and post them as the process is being conducted.

Roger

I have used both EVA and composite on my bass rods and l believe the cork is much more durable as far as tears and cuts go. Haven't used rubber yet but that seems like it would work well.

For my take, as far as durability goes, I would have to give it to the composite. I have eva caps that I have had to redo on account of them getting torn up. I have both on my personal rods and haven't had a problem with either....