Has anyone tried a product called Syncork? Had any luck with it?

Mark Warnke

Black Swamp Custom Rods

Good stuff, has it's own learning curve, but it not that big a deal and the supplier is great at helping you out.

Try this: [www.rodbuilding.org]

Mark,
Syncork is a very good tough product for nearly any sort of rod.

However, this product is not a good product to use to form a grip, if one builds the grip on a mandrel and then goes to transfer the grip to the blank for final gluing.

The reason is that the glue is just fine for gluing the rings together, but the joint is not a terribly strong joint. As a result, it is pretty common for a person who builds a syncork grip on a mandrel experiences a grip failure as the grip is moved from mandrel to the blank.

However, the product is nearly fool proof, if the syncyork is reamed for a tight fit on the rod blank and then the individual syncork rings are glued to the blank and to each other at one time. This assembly technique then requires that one uses a full length rod holding lathe so that the entire blank, grip and reel seat can be all turned at the same time - on the blank.

This is a non issue if one has the ability to do full length rod blank turning, with the grip material glued to the rod blank.

Many of us have built many many rods with the grip material being glued directly to the blank and then the rod, grip and reel seat are placed on the full length rod lathe and the entire blank is spun as the rear and fore grip are both shaped at the same time while the full length of the rod is spinning.

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This is one example of a full length rod lathe that I rigged up on a temporary basis to do one grip on the full length rod lathe.
[www.rodbuilding.org]

This is another example of a 24 volt dc surplus drill motor that I stripped down and put in a mount that I use now and then on my power wrapper, when I need to do a bit of touch up on a rod grip that I need to work over while working on a new or old rod.
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Hey Thanks guys!
I had won a sample kit of syncork awhile back and just decided to try it out.
I decided to mix it with some cactus 2 burl cork to make full wells fly grip and fighting butt.
Roger thanks for the detailed info for working with it, but I don't currently have the capability
to shape it on the rod. So, I went the route of gluing it up on a waxed mandrel. My thinking was I would
heat the mandrel to make it easier to remove it. Unfortunately, several of the joints failed as I was trying to remove the mandrel.
I was able to shape the grips using the typical tools for shaping cork, but the syncork is considerably harder than even the burl cork.
Currently I am in the process of re-gluing the grips together on the rod blank after having reamed the rings of the grips.
So far it has worked well re-gluing them on the blank since I was able to get them lined up really close.
There will be minimal sanding to make this work. I do like the feel of the syncork, but I don't feel I will be using it again
since it turned into twice the work with my current set up.

Thanks again for the help!

Mark Warnke

Black Swamp Custom Rods

Mark,
Your issues about the toughness of the syncork, is exactly why this material is favored by hard core users of fishing rods. i.e. a very tough grip material that just simply works and works well.

But, as I had pointed out earlier, if the rings are glued to the blank all together when the rings are unturned, the extra adhesion of the syncork to the blank material completely obviates the delamination that you experienced.

But, as you pointed out, it does require a full length rod lathe so that the entire blank can be spun as needed when turning the grip. But, if you have the facilities and abilities to do this - it makes for a wonderful tough long wearing grip material.

Best wishes.