I purchased foam cores from NFC to build my own CF grips, but the ID of the foam core is a little bit too big for the rod blanks I"m building on. Any thoughts on how I can arbor the blank without tape? I'm building a euro nymphing rod, so sensitivity is incredibly important (and one reason why I'm using CF grips!), and I fear adding tape arbors would dampen the sensitivity.

Thanks!

The secret to these grips isn't the carbon skin - it's the rigid foam core. But you can salvage what you have by shimming with thread or fine cord. Spiral up the blank, and down again if necessary, smear the thread or cord with epoxy and "screw" the core in place.

You didn't say just how much space you need to take up. If it's more than you can easily fill with a spiral or two of thread or fine cord, I'd consider getting some foam arbors with the correct diameter to fit the blank, and then turn these arbors down to fit the ID of the grip's foam core. That way you effectively have the same material all the way through, just like you'd have if the cores had been supplied with smaller ID to begin with.

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Are the cores bored to 3/8" like the grips?

Yes, 3/8th like their grips.

Tom Kirkman Wrote:
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> The secret to these grips isn't the carbon skin -
> it's the rigid foam core. But you can salvage what
> you have by shimming with thread or fine cord.
> Spiral up the blank, and down again if necessary,
> smear the thread or cord with epoxy and "screw"
> the core in place.
>
> You didn't say just how much space you need to
> take up. If it's more than you can easily fill
> with a spiral or two of thread or fine cord, I'd
> consider getting some foam arbors with the correct
> diameter to fit the blank, and then turn these
> arbors down to fit the ID of the grip's foam core.
> That way you effectively have the same material
> all the way through, just like you'd have if the
> cores had been supplied with smaller ID to begin
> with.
>
> ................

It is very awkward to disagree with an inventor of a product, but I believe you are selling the importance of the skin short. In any core/skin composite, it is my understanding that both elements impact the entire structure. A third element is also very important. This is the distance between the skins, which in the case of these grips is their inner diameter. The job of the foam-core is mostly to maintain this distance when stresses are applied. In composite boats the skin is often seen as more important than the core. It’s just important that the core keeps the skins a constant distance apart. Even inflatable boats are a skin/core composite with pressurized air forming the core material.

You can make a foam core grip work without the graphite skin, an example of this in a commercial product is the Pac Bay grips.

The importance of the carbon skin is to protect the foam core. It reduces sensitivity, of course, because it adds additional weight. But it was the best thing we could find to protect the core for the least amount of weight added.

The carbon skins used for these grips is not substantial enough to simply be the grip itself - so the core isn't there just to maintain a distance from the blank to the skin - it is the grip. The core is what provides the strength, crush resistance, etc. If you wanted to use the skin as the fundamental grip and have it provide similar strength and crush resistance, you'd have to use a much thicker one, which we found resulted in a grip that was heavier than the foam skinned with the thinnest carbon sleeve. Note the thickness of the carbon Tennessee hands that are centered with arbors or bushings. They're quite heavy compared to the same grip made with a foam core.


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We are articulating this differently but aren’t that far apart. Crush resistance is also maintaining a constant distance between the skin surfaces. The bonding of the skin to the core helps prevent sliding and deflection which adds much more to overall strength than sum of the either the mass or strength of the two materials.

We have used these cores without any carbon skins, just paint, and they're fine in most circumstances. The skin or flock, or whatever else you may wish to cover them with doesn't really add to the crush or indent strength of the core.

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