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
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
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
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
I took a half an hour break today from preparing this shed load of birch bark and finished turned the fore grip.
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
I spent the better part of the preparing these for glueing. I figured I had better get at it.
Center hole drilled out with a brad point and clamped flat between some thick washers I machined. The quick grip clamp is a handy tool for keeping the squares flat. Each side is sanded flat prior to installing on the threaded rod. There is approximaetly 50 pcs which will do for a 7" grip once I add some wood and corian.
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.
