A Few Custom Grips

This grip is made with Stabilized maple Burl on the ends with Birchbark in the middle trimmed off on each side with some black and white acrylic. The seat and fighting butt are also Maple Burl. This went on a stripped down CTS 6 weight.

Can you tell I have a thing for bark grips?

Notice the burl pattern on the fighting butt. Kinda looks like a fish. I thought "what are the odds" when I was turning it








Here it is up close. I put it up facing the angler














A matching maple winding check instead of the old boring metal ones!!!

















This is another bark grip but with Stabilized Black Ash Burl on the ends. I still have to turn the matching seat.

Latest Grip

This is one of our latest grip using Birch Bark, Stabilized Birch Burl and acrylic. Ive got a few more that are just in the process of getting some finish on them. Ill try to get them up when they are done. The blank is a Dan Craft 9" 7 WT

Fighting Butt and seat turned from Stabilized Birch Burl with a Burl end cap

Burl Wood

I've recently started taking stock of turning blocks which are stabilized. I will be putting them up on the site ASAP. Some of the species I will be stocking are Birch Burl, Maple Burl, Black Ash Burl as well as some different types of stabilized horn such as reindeer and moose. I will have bigger sizes for grips and smaller sizes for reel seats

Stabilized wood is the way to go for a grip/ reel seat application. It wont split, crack, warp and its saltwater resistant. It polishes to a high finish without the need for a "top coat" of sealer.

These blocks in the photo are some cross cut birch burl. For those of you who don't turn your own I can supply you with a custom grip or seat made to your specifications
If you have any questions or would like to obtain some of this wood contact me scott@solwaycustomcomponents.com

A Trio!!!

Click on the Photo


Peter Mulbjerg was kind enough to forward me this really great photo of his grips made with our birchbark. These are some truly custom grips. Looking forward to seeing what else he comes up with.

Ebony and Bark

Rodbuilder Peter Mulbjerg of Denmark was kind enough to send me a photo of his latest grip made with our Birchbark. A job well done and truly a custom rod. I really like working with this natural material. The dark ebony really gives a nice contrast to the light coloured bark. Again well done Peter

Finished Grip Assembly on CTS 9' 9WT

Today I finished off installing the grip. I decided to change the fighting butt and went with all Box Elder Burl with some trim rings to match the fore grip. I also cut down on the length of the FB to balance it up a bit more. I installed the reel, taped all the guides on and ran the line through it. This gave me the perfect placement for the seat (with this reel anyway).

Over all I'm pretty pleased with it.

Please feel free to make a comment and let me know what you think?

A blue piece of Corian for a cap to match the cobalt blue blank!!!












A shot of the finished Black Ash Burl seat and REC anodized pewter aluminium hardware.





I made a white winding check out of Corian to match the trim rings. I like making my checks as opposed to just using a plain old metal shop bought one. I usually make them out of wood but took a notion and tried something different.

You can see the radius on the winding check. I Polished it down to 6000 Micro Mesh paper.

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

Grip Making Part 4

The materials I used in this grip are relatively heavy compared with natural cork. So I want to lighten it up a bit. After all I want it functional as well.

The first thing I do is bore it out to 20mm with a pistol drill and a spade bit with pilot on the end end. This keeps the hole I'm going to bore concentric with the 8 mm bore that's already in the grip. I start from the reel seat end and bore up to but not through the front side.

Notice the material that been removed

Ive removed approx 30 grams and the grip is now 60 grams. Not too bad as its still rough on the OD with some material to be removed

Next I have machined a brick foam arbour to fit the 200mm bore Ive just made. You can see the pencil mark which is its finished length

Check for nice snug fit!!

Double check that's the 20mm is concentric with the OD. This photo was taken while spinning at 1000rpm. Not bad, no major run out.

I'm going to use Ultimate Gel for this part of the job. Its thicker and stays where you put it. Very easy to mix just eyeball equal part A and B on a piece of card and mix for about three mins folding like cake icing

Smear the brick foam with adhesive and insert it moving it around and back and forth so as to fully coat the inside of the grip. Insert the mandrel to keep everything straight and once again clamp with light pressure.

Next its the fun bit THE TURNING and SHAPING!!!