I've been trying various methods of transitioning the end of the cork tape of the rear and fore grips to the reel seat; then trying to wrap a nice neat wrap over the transition points, however, no one method seems to be working out very well.

Any advice?

Cork Tape rods usually do not have a reel seat but there is no reason you can't use one. You can cover the ends of the CT with shrink tube, a Turks head or a Cord Wrap if you like.

I just figure the right angle using a piece of paper cut it and start it right tight to the Seat finish up the wrap and come back and do a Thread wrap to secure (wrap toward the seat as close as you can) 1/4" is fine

My first attempt at doing a thread wrap over the transition was to take the color of my wrap and put an underwrap down as a base layer. What I found out (mainly because I also used cord in the tape) was that the base layer was not flat enough and usually had some 3-D effect of the tape or cord coming through. To fix that and give myself a nice flat surface I put a light coat of finish over the base wrap. Then when that was dry I had a flat hard surface to wrap my final wrap and if you do it right it gives you a nice ramp up to the reel seat.

I will wrap a piece of tape around the end of the CT to keep it from lifting up at all. Then I will make an epoxy ramp creating the transition from CT to reel seat. I will wrap a piece of tape around the CT where I want the ramp to end. Then I will wrap some tape around the edge of the reel seat to keep epoxy off the face of the reel seat. I will mix the epoxy up and apply it to the area between the tape. By the time I have the epoxy built up, I will take a craft stick and shape the ramp to have a straight line between the 2 pieces of tape. The epoxy I use for this is very fluid. Once it starts to thicken up I will remove the tape while it is still turning on the dryer. I let it cure over night. Come back, wrap the ramp with thread as you see fit and finish with thread finish. Works for transitions in front of reel seats when no fore grip is used as well.

michael stein Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've been trying various methods of transitioning
> the end of the cork tape of the rear and fore
> grips to the reel seat; then trying to wrap a nice
> neat wrap over the transition points, however, no
> one method seems to be working out very well.
>
> Any advice?
i use these
[www.mudhole.com]
i wrap electric tape over the end of the cork tape and fit these over the cork tape with epoxy or goop. most of the time the eva will cover the tape and the reel seat on the butt side. on the tip side i just butt it against the reel seat. you can turn them down and open them up just like a regular grip. some times i use cork or eva front grips on the front. [www.mudhole.com]

Michael, I have an article from the July-august 1983 Issue of Rodcrafters by Dennis Riley about cork-tape grips. I don't know if it will help you but if you would like I could either e-mail or fax a copy to you. Let me know. Randy