The Making Of A Custom Grip

Over the next week or maybe two I'm going to run through how I go about making a cork/wood grip. Now I don't consider myself a wood turning guru or anything. I would just like to share how I go about it and hopefully the project will turn out to be functional and aesthetically appealing.

A bog standard cork grip is perfectly fine but I prefer to have something different on my rods.

The first thing I want to do is turn some of the rough squares round. Some guys glue their grip up with square material but I don't have a belt sander to rough it round prior to chucking it on the lathe.

The first thing I have to do is centre drill the end of the square to accept the live centre.

Now with 1/2"roughing gouge I can take the corners off. I dont worry at all about the finish. That will be taken care of next.

With a round nose scraper I smooth out the piece so the diameter is uniform and its mostly smooth. Ive squared the end with a bedan tool so when I flip it around I can push this face against the chuck so it keeps it running fairly true. You wont have to bother knocking it around.

Its then flipped and centre drilled again to accept the live centre. You can see the jaw marks on the square that left. Once again its roughed out with a gouge and then scraped to match the dia of the rest of the piece. I dont worry if its not running perfectly concentric at this point I just want to get it round so I can part it off.

Now its round on the whole length.

I want a couple pieces about 3/8" thick so I have marked it off slightly longer. I will use a 1/8" thin parting tool to part off a "coin".

Heres the "coin" @ slightly thicker than 3/8". I need some material left for the next step!!

You can part the piece off until only a small nub remains in the middle. You just have to stop the lathe and break it off.

Ive saved the chips in this bag for another project. You Rodmaker Magazine subscribers will know why. BUT thats for another project. Stay tuned as next time I'll be boring and preping these wood pieces for glue up!!