I am thinking about making some small Tennessee handles out of the graphite arbor foam material with the woven graphite skin over top. I plan on attaching the reel with the graphite slip rings. Is there any reason to be. concerned that the arbors will deform from the reel foot over time? It seems like the graphite foam materials is rigid enough to hold its shape over time. Thank you for your input.

I built a centerpin rod with a Tennessee handle of carbon fiber over a foam core with slip rings. The carbon fiber gives it lots of strength. No deformation from the reel foot. I used the CFX grips from Mudhole. I know that you asked about graphite so I'm not sure how that would compare to the carbon fiber.

The foam core grips are far more rigid than cork, which has been used effectively for decades on Tennessee handles. You have nothing to worry about with the arbors deforming.

The one thing of concern is the graphite slip rings. Because the foam core grips are more rigid, they won't compress like cork does when the graphite rings are slipped into place. Because of that the rings alone may not be enough to keep the reel in place. I usually wrap my reel to the carbon fiber grip with thread and finish. If you don't want to go that 'permanent,' you can wrap with a few rounds of strapping tape on each side of the reel foot and cover with shrink tubing. While no longer a Tennessee handle, I wrapped a plate style seat onto the grip section on a rod for my brother-in-law. Of course, there is the option of traditional taping as well.

The handle will be fine, but I'm not a fan of slip rings and cut them off a factory rod that had them because they did not hold the reel securely. Electrical tape neatly wrapped looks ok and is more secure.

I am tempted to epoxy the front ring in place permanently and make the rear ring fit snug by tweaking the thickness of the epoxy on the carbon fiber. My thinking is that I am going for a super light X-ray ds721 rod and since I like size 18 or larger seats (smaller sizes hurt a tendon that goes from my wrist to base of thumb), this is a good way of getting a light reel seat. I like the size 18 NPS and the pac bay GBS size 18 as well. The GBS is more comfortable but the NPS allows better placement of the pointer finger on the blank ahead of the reel seat (if mounted in a down locking position ).

Hockey tape works best.

Why not try the new NFC carbonTex IPS reel seat grip? It is extremely light, comfortable, looks great, and comes with polyurethane foam arbors, Eva winding checks and butt end. The OD of the reel seat and grip at the point you hold the reel is 27 mm (1.06”), larger than your size 18 reel seat, and about the diameter of many Tennessee handles, but holds your reel more securely. You can use the standard reel seat hood, or the SK2 graphite hood, or the SK2 hidden thread hood, with the AT G2 matte 3K fore grip sleeve, which is a perfect match for the NFC 1K grips. If you don’t like the EVA foam winding checks you can use the AT G2 aluminum winding checks, which fit perfectly. I have done about 8 rods using these grips since they came out and I really like them. I’m also retrofitting my personal spinning rods with them.
Norm

On all of the tennessee grips that I have built on many different kinds of rods, I have never used a slip ring to hold the reel in place.
I also ask any clients who may use the rods to do the same thing.

i.e. Use tape to hold the reel secure.
I just keep a reel of electrical tape in the tackle box and when I secure the reel to the grip, I use about 4 wraps of electrical tape on the back and on the front reel foot. Never have had an issue.

Note:
If one is using tape with a CORK - tennessee handle, then, one wants to make a slight modification to the attachment method.

Locate the position of the reel to be placed on the cork grip. Then, make a small mark on the handle to mark the front edge and the back edge of the reel foot.
Then, on the bare cork, take tape and make a double wrap of tape on the cork - before attaching the reel to the cork.
Essentially, this double wrap of tape underwrap on the cork grip becomes part of the grip. Then, when a reel is attached and removed with tape on the cork grip - do not disturb the double wrap of tape under the reel seat foot.

The reason for this is the sticky back of the tape will adhere very well to the bare cork. But, because it adheres very well to the cork, if one removes the last layer of tape from the cork when the tape has been on the grip for a long time - there is a reasonable chance, that the tape will take some of the cork grip with it when it is removed. So, to avoid that possibility, just leave the tape underwrap of the reel foot on the cork and when changing reels - only remove the tape over wraps of the reel foot and you will be good to go.

No reel foot rings for me. Only tape.

I will also not use Hockey stick tape for this job, because for me - it is too sticky. But suit yourself.

Take care