Finished Fore Grip

I took a half an hour break today from preparing this shed load of birch bark and finished turned the fore grip.

First thing to do is to make the O.D concentric with the I.D which I did with a round nose scraper. Your not looking to shape the grip just take enough off so you see no "wobble" when its spinning. If you try to sand it before truing it up your sandpaper will only follow the out of round grip and it will turn out somewhat egg shaped.

The ends were just lightly scraped with a parting tool so they are at right angles to the grip and again there is no wobble. Next shape the grip starting with 60 grit paper to rough it out and work your way down to 600 for a nice "velvety" feel.

One coat of Danish Oil on the ends to bring up the grain. No need to seal this wood as its stabilized and wont crack, split or shrink. This is why stabilized is so good for a fishing grip application.


Notice the foam core on the reel seat end. O.D is concentric. You will never see it once it is inletted for the seat hood. It did a good job of removing the weight and the grip now weighs a total of 39 grams. Not bad considering the grip is burl cork, wood and corian