I am toying with trying to make one of the foamed core carbon skin grips for a fly rod. My question is how stable is the unit? In other words, if I use this in very, very cold weather, or later in very, very hot weather, are the carbon and the core likely to separate if one shrinks or swells more than the other due to the temperature change? I figure these have been out there long enough now that somebody would have had a problem along these lines if such a thing can occur. Just being careful before I invest the time and effort. Thx.

I have the very first such grip ever built on a fly rod that has been actively used year 'round since early 2007. To date I have no evidence that anything has shrunk or expanded, at least to any degree that has caused any problem with the grip. Frankly, due to the way the skins are bonded to the core, I can't imagine the sort of normal seasonal temperature changes we experience would cause any issues with these type grips. Keep in mind that there are many such assemblies on rods, including standard grip mounting, reel seat to arbor to blank, etc. This sort of thing doesn't appear to be an issue.

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Ed I have lived in south florida and Soldotna Alaska. In both places I have used the carbon skin on a fly rod. Never had any issues with stability. It gets really stable once its on the rod if applied right. Now there is different weights of foam and each one is more dense then the next. It is weight of one square foot. IE 8# foam is 8 pounds per square foot. That all depends on what your fishing for. The higher the number the more it weighs and the less air which translates into strength. The only draw back I see is they can get slippery when wet and they tend to be cold. Especially in 40 below steelhead fishing in February.

I think you mean per cubic foot.

I've never had a problem with mine getting slippery. Generally they are more tactile when wet than dry. But I don't know what type top coating you're working with.

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I have some ice rods and never had a issue. No worries.

Lone Wolf Rods
"Keep your powder dry and your lines wet"
God Bless

I have a number of carbon skin ice rods here in MN. Let me tell you, if they can survive a few years of -35 deg (f) on the ice followed by 95 deg in the garage in the summer and survive just fine they will survive anywhere!

As others have stated, no problem. From my experience the most likely mistakes for a newbie to carbon fiber are: 1. Not getting enough epoxy on the foam core just before sliding the carbon fiber tube over the foam core. Let your epoxy get a little viscous and put it on thick so that when you "squeeze" the carbon fiber tube there will be plenty of epoxy to really wet it and provide no opportunities for voids under the fiber. and 2. sanding too deeply so that the sanding gets into the fibers and causes an ugly dull gray area under the final glossy finish. Build up the epoxy coating adequately, and be careful with the sanding. I usually use 3 coats of epoxy before I sand. Don't worry about weight; each coat on a fly grip will be only be a few grams and some of that will be sanded off.