I have been wanting to make a walnut grip for a bait casting bass rod, for awhile. I have the grip turned and finished and am ready to install the urethane cores. It is an 8" walnut grip.

I have retread the article in Rodmaker several times, and it was geared towards using exotic cork, At the end, of the article, it said to use the same techniques for wood. I am wondering that since the wood is pretty rigid, (in my mind similar to a texallum tube). The grip is about 26 mm overall, and I am have it bored for 20mm arbors. Is there any reason to use full length arbors? Why not put 3 or 4 one inch arbors like the tubing uses? It would reduce the weight further, which is a plus?

Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Bert Nagy

You can certainly do that, although the arbors are so light I doubt there would be very much weight savings. The real weight savings is in getting rid of more wood. Can you bore to 22mm and use those size bushings? If so, you'd probably want to go full length with the arbors as the thinner the walls of the wood are, the more support is needed. Again, the key is getting rid of as much wood as you can. Obviously, there will be a limit to how far you can go owing to the shape of the grip.

Either way, what you have now probably doesn't require a full length arbor, although the weight savings from using two or three short ones would likely only be very slight.

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Bert,
Before boring the grip out at all, just tape the grip to the blank where you intend to have it mounted. Then, tape on the reel seat and reel and see how the rod balances. You may find out that the slight extra weight of the wood does a wonderful job of balancing the rod.

Fine and dandy to ream / drill out the grip to what every dimension that you wish. Many times a bit more weight near the butt of the rod makes the rod a much better rod.

Good luck

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 04:01PM by John E Powell.

Thanks for the replies. I have usually built spilt wooden grips. This is my first full length wooden grip to try coring.

Tom, the largest Forstner bit I had is 20 mm, and I bought 20 mm arbors. Making the grip thinner is not an option for this grip. I appreciate the thought that thinner is better.

Roger, I was thinking that the rod might balance better. I am still worried about the weight.

John, the grip is already made and finished. I bored it first, and turned it between centers using a jam chuck and live center. Light cuts and sharp tools work well. After that I finished it with tru oil. The grip seems really rigid, and solid

I will post pictures when I finish to rod.

Bert Nagy

I think you'll be okay and you'll certainly realize a nice reduction in weight compared to a fully solid wood grip.

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