I have had various degrees of tendonitits in my casting arm (elbow) for about 9 years. It has given me a much higher sense of what feels good and does not stress fore arm, wrist, and hand. After trying a lot of handle options, none even come close to the comfort of the old Tennessee handle with the reel taped on.

It fills the hand, and does not have lots of edges and bumps like a reel seat. Still the best!

If we could come up with an easier way of mounting reels, I think this grip could make a comeback!

Have a great day,

Marc

If you can find an old Fuji LSH or USH, you may find you like it even better than a TN handle.

........

Tom, were these the rubber type handles that totally and seamlessly hid and held the reel foot?

Yes. They had a core of, hard, rigid plastic, with a covering of rubber to hold the reel foot. Still the most comfortable handles I've personally used on spinning rods.

..........

You might also find the system developed by JP Timberlake to be very comfortable. It was featured in a past issue of RodMaker magazine ... Volume 12, Issue 4.

I haven't used a Tennessee handle in years, but I wondered if anyone's tried heat shrink? Maybe even 2 layers?

Marc, I too favor Tennessee handles and most my rods have em', except for the two rods I have posted a photo of in the misc.files.The rod on the top has a very comfortable grip that I use to throw finesse baits with. The bottom rod has an old Fuji-Lew's SpeedStick handle mounted to a UL bank fr trout fishing.I know you have a painful condition in you hands and I think that if you built a Tennessee handle and after mounting the reel with either electrical or Tommy tape, you can completely heatshrink the handle giving it the same feeling as the speed grip. Take into consideration the heatshrink covering when shaping the handle.Cut it a little thinner by about 1/8" so as not to be too bulky. Oh, and by the way, as far as I'm concerned, The Tennessee handle will always be my favorite spin handle.

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

Fenwick's new "EliteTECH River Runner" rods have what appears to be a combination Tennessee handle and uplocking "hidden hood" reel seat design that is seemless like a TN handle, but is shaped like a fly rod handle. Haven't seen one in person, but they're interesting looking and would combine TN comfort with ease of reel attachment.

Dan

I make a spinning handle that is a compromise... split seat and hidden hood... the seat is split and a cork insert is used, and the hood is covered in cork also.... there is only about 1 - 1-1/3" of the seat threads exposed, 95% of the 15" handle is seamless cork... the exposed threaded portion of the 16" seat is so small, your hand basically rides over the threads and you feel mostly cork... and if you reposition your hand after your cast to the fore-grip, from the reel stem up it's all seamless cork.

Marc,
Consider the use of the Americal Tackle Aero reel seat. A very comfortable reel seat with a nice palm filling hump. The rear grip is adjusted so that it fits nicely into the back of the reel seat and creates a seamless transition to the reel seat from the back grip.

Take care
Roger

p.s.
Most of my clients who are given choices of reel seats almost alwyas choose the aero seat for comfort.

My last three customers requested TN handles.

_________________________________________
"Angling is extremely time consuming.
That's sort of the whole point." - Thomas McGuane

I love Tennessee handles. I take it a step further and make them from a foam core with a carbon skin. The carbon skin grip gives you a rigid surface to tape the reel to instead of taping it to cork. I also find that by making it a split grip I can taper back side of the handle down and end up with a handle that is way more comfortable than any other one that I have used. Here is a picture of some of my spinning rods including a new dropshot rod I am working on.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Another thing you learn when you get serious building light rods is how heavy reel seats are. Most seats weigh full ounce or more, that may not sound like much but on a really light rod it can weigh more than all the other parts combined. A 5 inch long carbon skinned grip section weighs about 90 percent less than a conventional reel seat.

Never knew the Tennessee grip went away

Might consider reading RodMaker Vol 10 Issue #4, and Vol. 11 Issue #1
For a viable , comfortable option to mounting reels to Tenn. grips.

Hello Everyone.

I have used a carbon tube Tennessee handle with a plate type reel seat wrapped and epoxied onto the tube.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

American Tackle's Vetre Matrix Handle is extremely comfortable. The hood screws up all the way on most reels creating very smooth, uninterrupted lines.

Marc,
I have to agree with Roger. Whenever given the choice and opportunity to hold a handle by far the customer almost always chooses the Aero seat by American Tackle.

Todd

Regards,
Todd Vivian
Mud Hole Custom Tackle

todd@mudhole.com