Can someone email me instructions on building ventilated rod grips.

Thanks in advance

Mike
Mikes Custom Fly Rods

What are they???????????????????

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

Glue the cork rings on the fly blank with a little space between them. Then shape the grip.

Lane

Seems to me that could lead to cork breakout without any support between the rings, but I have never tried it though.

Ron Weber

I've never done one either but I think I read about it in The Lovely Reed.
Lane

it could be neat if you used some cork checkers missing some pieces in the gaps. it would make a nice pattern and give it more stablility to prevent breakout

Sounds like a receipe for an unhappy fisherman with a broken handle.
Roger

Many of the vintage bamboo guys love them. They say that ventilated grips are their favorite grips do to the comfort and that they allow the rod to flex into the grip better, I like JT's idea. That could make for a very interesting custom grip.

Lane

I would build and shape the grip as usual, then add grooves for ventilation.

George Forster
Fort Collins, CO

Interested in the ventilated grip myself, so took notes when I ran across it on Clark's board not too terribly long ago. One respondent said (from my notes, not verbatim):

"I own Martha Marie Young's Perfectionist made by her husband Paul Young, and it has the ventilated grip. Looking at it with a magnifying glass, you see where Paul Young set the cork, then trapped it using silk windings. The grip face only has the rear trapped, the next cork has both front and rear trapped with silk. I imagine he used some sort of spacer to set the spacing as they are all exact. The last cork is trapped by the all cork seat and butt cap (also cork).

"Glue on cane, slide cork down, wrap silk, more glue, next cork, push tightly against previous silk windings and spacer; repeat . . . not saying Paul Young did this for every ventilated grip he built, but he did on this particular rod. I'm sure there are different ways to approach this, since Bob Summers did this, as did South Bend, and modern maker RW Lancaster. Perhaps someone with a rod by Mr. Lancaster could give more insight."


another said . . .

"I just checked the grip on my Lancaster built in 1983, his interpretation of the PHY Perfectionist. Close inspection reveals the grip has been glued up with cork rings with nothing between them. Evidently he used a removable spacer when gluing the rings on to accomplish a spacing of approx. 0.7mm between rings."


I'll have to at least give it a try at some point . . .





– smc –