Presently, I have a older 6wt 9ft moderate fast graphite fly rod, with lifetime warranty that I like how it casts. That rod came with a exposed hood, graphite, up locking real seat. I am entertaining the thought of removing that stock reel seat, replacing with a hidden hood reel seat. A hidden just looks better. What I have seen for hooded reel seats length options are 3.5" and 4".

Is it best to remove existing reel seat by cutting with dremel tool or heating with heat gun?

But more importantly, what are the options for hollowing existing cork handle to fit a hidden hood reel seat, with existing cork grip installed on rod blank? Can hollowing be done?

It occurs to me existing reel seat length is pertinent information. Just measured, existing reel seat is 4". That means replacing with hooded 4" reel seat would require adding one cork ring to existing handle?

That cork ring could be hollowed to fit hood before glueing to existing cork handle? This sounds like a best case scenario for this project? But, If using a 3.5" hidden hood reel seat, hollowing existing cork handle would leave at least 1", possibly 1 1/8" of rod blank for fighting butt installation?

Another thought: a loomis 8wt of mine has a 3" hidden hood reel seat. If I replaced existing 4" reel seat with 3" I would have to add 1 cork ring on front end to cover hood, and would have an extra 1" of rod blank to attach a fighting butt? End cap for cork fighting butt could be eva glued to cork, like how a preformed fighting butt would come?. What I like about options leaving rod blank for glueing fighting butt too, is that adds least amount of length to butt section of 2 pcs rod. Would end up looking.more like factory than after market add on.

I should mention that many years ago, I fabricated a fighting butt for this rod using a 4", solid piece of tapered fiberglass rod that slides firmly into butt end of rod blank.

What to do?

You're making me dizzy :-)))

I think you first must decide what you want. The idea of adding a ported ring to grip would work. Dremel and screw driver to pop off seat. But you do knoe that you are voiding your warranty that you love.
Herb

You're making me dizzy :-)))

I think you first must decide what you want. The idea of adding a ported ring to grip would work. Dremel and screw driver to pop off seat. But you do know that you are voiding your warranty that you love.
Herb

Hum. I'm with Herb and thinking if it ain't broke don't fix it. You're risking voiding the warranty, expense for a new seat, plus time for what you describe an aesthetic only enhancement.

If you just got to replace the seat, and if it were me, I'd purchase a new 4" seat, matching fighting butt, and cork ring already inlet to accept the hood. Then epoxy the inlet cork ring to the grip, and turn the inlet cork ring to fit the existing grip, which will extend the grip about 1/2". You might or might not need to cut the butt of the blank to accommodate the fighting butt plug. Frankly, I got lost reading thru your options of varying length seats. I would be very hesitant to do would be to reduce the butt length more than 1/2" so as to make the butt section with fighting butt mounted the same length as the other sections.

Trying to inlet an existing cork grip on the rod is fraught with problems ! First as already mentioned, voiding the warranty, secondly the almost impossible task of removing the cork to allow the recessed hood to fit inside without damaging the rod or grip.

If you are OK with voiding the warranty, go with adding an already inletted cork ring.

Basically, there is a 4" reel seat butted to cork handle on existing rod. If I were to remove that reel seat there would be 4" of exposed rod blank to work with, not including porting. If wanting to add a ported reel seat and fixed fighting butt:

1) How would I hollow existing cork to properly fit a "ported ring" with 4" of rod blank protruding from center of handle?
2) Having 4" of exposed rod blank to install a ported reel seat and fixed fighting butt, is that enough room?
3) What length ported reel seat would I use? What is minimum length of rod blank needed for fighting butt installation?

Wayne,
If you want to make a big change in a rod, just use a dremel tool and slice off the existing reel seat, take a pair of slip joint pliers and crush and grab off the current cork grip.
You can remove all semblance of cork grip and reel seat in under 5 minutes. Use a bit of heat to soften any remaining epoxy and use a sharp knife or razor blade held perpendicular to the blank to scrape off the heat softened epoxy to do the final clean up.

Now, that you have the butt of the rod clear, work to your hearts content to put on a different reel seat, a different fore grip if you want on and a different butt grip. Do all of the installation from the butt of the rod. Just use masking tape to create a constant diameter arbor so that the entire length of the butt section of the blank will be a constant diameter so that all of the grip and reel seat components can be slid on from the butt of the blank.

Make any sort of covered or exposed grip that you want along with any sort of covered or enclosed reel seat that you want and you will be good to go fishing.

Not at all hard to do or difficult to do.

If you want to hollow out a cork grip, the easiest way to do it is to make the new grip from individual cork rings and use a rotary cutter to create the size on the inside of each ring that you desire. Then, glue all of the rings to together.
Finally, build up an arbor so that the arbor is a perfect fit for the inside of the new cork grip and slip the formed arbor and raw grip onto your lathe. Use your lathe to shape the outside of the grip. Then, after removing the new grip you can slip it right over the section that you want covered. Finally glue the new grips and reel seat in place and you will be good to go.

Roger, I did think of that. But before going to town on existing cork handle, which this rod and components are 25 years old, but in new condition. I don't mind the cigar shaped cork handle, and cork is in excellent shape. Rather, if little cork needed removal to complete task, that is what I would like to shoot for. If cork was of bad quality or damaged I would remove handle.

I am considering layout of components for ported reel seat and fixed fighting butt with 4" of exposed rod blank. If 4" is not enough, how much cork handle would need removal to make room for one cork ring predrilled for ported hood, reel seat, fixed fighting butt?

Furthermore, what is more desirable, a fixed or removable fighting butt? I am imagining a removable would leave options for: A) Loosing it once removed.. B) Falling off if not checked for tightness. C) When removed, uncovered threaded hole allows for sand, grit, grime on threads or enter rod hollow rod blank?

On the other hand, does a fighting butt get in the way when casting? Angler wishing butt was removable?

Oh dear. If the existing grip is a cigar, you might have issues using a pre-inlet or any inlet cork ring to accept a reel seat hood. The problem could be the amount of cork remaining after inletting might not be enough to permit turning down the outside of the new cork ring to the taper of the existing cigar grip. It's not that it cannot be done, but it will be very close. Take a close look at the rear of the existing cigar grip. It probably gently tapers down to the reel seat hood and is proud of the hood about 1/16" to 1/8", which is not a lot of tolerance for error and really complicates adding another cork ring for an inlet / recessed hood. Generally a reversed half Wells or full Wells are the grip shapes of choice for reel seat hoods to be inlet into the grip.

If you follow Roger's advice, you can have most any seat, fighting butt, and grip length you desire.

You might want to re-think the idea of a fighting butt for a 6wt rod ! This addition is complicating your choices, and is not really common for a 6wt.

I know of no way you can inlet an existing cork grip on the rod. Two choices that may make sense, 1) add a 1/2" pre-inletted cork ring after removing the existing reel seat. 2) Remove carefully the last cork ring on the existing grip and replace with a pre-inletted ring. The length of the reel seat depends upon your choice of reels.

I have removed a couple of damaged fly rod reel seats and replaced them with hidden hood uplocking reel seats. After removing the damaged seat and cleaning things up, I used a couple of cork borers to inlet the existing handle. Using a small diameter borer that fit snugly over the blank butt I twisted the borer into the grip the length of the hidden hood. This cut the cork from the blank. I then built up the blank with masking tape to serve as a bushing to keep the hole nice a straight. The OD of the tape bushing was the same as the ID of a cork borer that had an OD the same as the hidden hood of the reel seat. I twisted the borer into the cork for the length of the hood. For one handle the cork plug came out when the borer was removed. For the other handle I had to chip out the cork plug. After removing the tape bushing and shimming the reel seat it fit perfect. Cork borers are not a common rod building tool and I have had mine for about 30 yrs, but you can get them at Lab Supply outlets. I have posted a link showing what they look like if anyone is interested. You can google cork borers and get different sites and different prices. They are sold as sets and a set has several different sizes, and you can get almost any size you want. Hope this helps.
[www.avogadro-lab-supply.com]
Norm



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/2017 09:39PM by Norman Miller.

Donald A, I was wrong about cork handle type........a full wells is on the rod.

Phil E, it seems from pictures of 5 and 6 weight fly rods that 6 weights are more likely to have a fighting butt than a 5. It could be that a 6 weight with fighting butt has Salt water components? Rod I am considering a reel seat swap, and possible fighting butt add on does have 2 stainless with ring inserts stripping guides, followed by all stainless stripping guides. Reel seat is graphite with stainless straps covering graphite front and back hoods. A Fuji reel seat?

If removing a cork ring or two, this would be an opportunity to add a colored ring or two.

Ooooooh, what have we here? This could be the cats meow right here. So, no problem passing cork borer over rod blank?

What length ported reel seats were available during your search?

What reel seat was used as replacement to damaged seat?

I don't see a measurement for inside of bore tool that passes over rod blank, could you provide that I.D measurement?

No picture of actual cutting head, curious what that looks like?

Wayne, cork borers are hollow and stack one in the other. Since they come in sets it's just a matter of picking the borer of the right ID that fits over the blank or the size you need. I have a bunch of borers, the largest ID I have is about 23 mm and the smallest is about 3 mm, with every size in between. I have a number of duplicates for most. The length of these are 4" - 4.5". These were designed as a laboratory tool for cutting holes in cork or rubber stoppers to which one would fit glass tubing for distillation or vacuum purposes. They are also used for taking plant plugs for grafting purposes. The cutting end of the borer is just a sharpen edge. You can buy a sharpener for these or just use a file. Like I mentioned above I have used these for over 30 yrs and most are still in great shape. Basically you can make any size inlet you want by choosing the appropriate OD that's the same as the reel seat hood. You can use a tape bushing on a mandrel or blank to keep the hole centered. If you wanted to make your own you could get brass tubing at hobby shops with various IDs. Hope this answers your questions.
Norm

Wait! I have been sittin here looking at a online picture, thinking "how I would make one of these cork moler" ..........errrr cork borer.

Then, it occurs to me that the "wing" end of tubes are handles, round tube end is borer/cutter/grinder. Same basic tool used to cut holes in Porcelain tiles for installing glass shower door hardware.

Difference being: tips of Porcelain tube/hole cutter had diamond particles attached to outside tips that ground through, instead of being bevel sharpened for cutting. This changes everything!

I am surprised the Cork borer is bevel sharpened from inside out, shape is like a pencil. In this manner, borer is cutting smaller diameter hole than outside diameter of cutter tube. Must be more efficient for core size to be same as I.D. of cork corer, rather than stuff a larger sized core inside a smaller I.D. corer tube while in cutting motion?

When hollowed out cork handle is complete, does hood of reel seat fit snuggly? Or, should hood come back out without much effort, meaning light prying to remove? Some hoods have a decorative ring that is slightly larger than actual hood size to cover up a slightly oversized hole, and would act as a stop. While some hoods do not have this oversized ring, so cork hole depth acts as hood stop.

Who has reasonably priced ported reel seats. Black anodized aluminum or aluminum hardware with grey woven graphite insert for around $10.00?

A cork borer will easily cut into cork for about 1.5 inches after that becomes more difficult to cut much deeper. It does a half inch fairly easily which is about the depth of the hood. I believe the reel seats I used were Batson seats with a wood insert, do not remember the particular size. The cork borers I used gave holes in which the hoods fit snugly and I tested the fit by first cutting a hole in a piece of card board, so you are correct in saying ID is better than OD, my mistake. I have only done this twice but both times it worked well. If you mess up you can alway remove the old grip and replace it with a new inleted grip. Good luck in finding a $10 reel seat with a graphite insert.
Norm

I have seen reel seat with wood inserts for $30 - $40. As a base price for graphite or all aluminum reel seat: Woven IM6 graphite insert, ported hood, with all aluminum anodized hardware for 13.50 shipped. All aluminum batson, ported reel seat is $18.00 shipped.

I would surmise that a wood insert would not be a good choice for durability in any long term wet environment. Refinishing a wood insert, is that normally done? Given a choice though, wood seems ornamental.

Quite the contrary, a properly finish stabilized wood insert will endure the elements for many years

Ron Weber

No more "ornamental" than a trim wrap! IMO a custom rod deserves custom touches.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2017 08:57PM by Phil Erickson.

I certainly like stabilized wood inserts. They not only look good but are also very durable.