Sometimes chips or chunks are broken out of cork grips, especially full wells fly rod grips. A durable and attractive fix is to take #220 grit sandpaper and create a quantity of cork dust by sanding a real cork stopper ~ 35 cents at a hardware store. The "grade" of the sanded cork doesn't matter a bit. Mix enough Rod Bond epoxy to fill in the missing cork, pour in about one part (volume) of cork dust to two parts of the mixed Rod Bond, and stir the cork dust into the Rod Bond to mix it thoroughly. Sand or scuff up the crater in the damaged cork grip and use a spatula to fill the crater in the grip. Keep cool - you have hours to complete this repair. Pack the cork dust/Rod Bond mixture into the crater with a spatula and form it to shape, leaving a LITTLE excess material to fill the gap in the damaged blank.
Wait 12 hours. No need to turn the grip or get excited. Then gently using #220 grit sandpaper turn the grip to remove excess epoxy/cork dust material. You will be pleased with the result

Hi Phil,

I've done this but I use the exact opposite ratio of cork to rod bond and it turns out well. I'll have to try varying amounts.

Good tip at any measure and a good way to fill voids if you use less than stellar quality cork.

Terry

Phil,
Another hint:
For those folks who do this fix and find that they end up with a glue line or a hard spot where the rod bond is located - try a different glue.

Rather than using rod bond - or epoxy - use Model Airplane cement or celluloid cement. Basically this is a quick drying -- one part cement that has been used for ever for building model airplanes.

Another brand with the same cement is Duco Household cement. Again, the same quick drying cement.

The reason to use this cement for this type work as opposed to epoxy is that celluloid glue has the same sanding rate as cork.

Thus, no raised glue line, ridges, or even an appearance of glue.


But, this glue dries fast, so you need to mix and apply the cork dust elusion before the glue begins to set. You have about a minute to do the fix.

I like the Rod Bond because when it's mixed with cork powder it has an elasticity, tacky feel, and look very close to solid cork. Especially the elasticity.