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cork tape: love it or hate it?

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feltman

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i recently bought a new rod (9' ron arra, thanks tim) and had it shipped to my office. one of the partners walked in, picked it up and said "nice rod, too bad it'd got those skinny f-ing tape grips. i hate those things." i argued that i had small hands and actually preferred them.

 

anyway, we got into a whole debate about the issue and it got me thinking, "why do surfrods pretty much exclusively have thin cork-taped grips?"

 

i posed this very question to the 'ask al goldberg' forum and was told that because originally these long rods were so wide at the butt, a thinner profile grip was needed, it became something of a tradition and now most manufacturers use them on premium rods, however the practice has been taken to the extreme on some of the smaller thinner rods making them uncomfortable.

 

i was just wondering if anyone else had any opinions on this issue. what do you think of cork-tape?

 

-feltman

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Felt,

Most of my custom rods have cork tape and I love it. The last few years I have been using 2" "mooseskin" grips from Merrick tackle to put on the ends of a the reel seat. Makes a nice transition.

Also on the lite 7ft or 8ft rods I double wrapped the cork tape to build up a bit. Did a 9ft lami graphie spin rod for a friend that was tall and double wrapped the cork tape for him. Works great!

WOOSTABOY

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I like the feel of cork tape and I like that fact that it is relatively easy to replace. There are 2 different thickness available. I believe they are 1/16" and 1/8". Depending upon the blank I've sometimes used a double layer of some combination of the two to get just the right thickness.

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3M saftey tape is great and I also like the rubber shrink grip stuff both work good even when wet I seem to moving away from cork hard to clean and can get slippery when wet I have converted most of my rods by now with just a few more to go Hey Feltman how do you like your new ron arra ? they are perfect for Jbay jbaybass%20.jpg

 

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Whether you use cork tape or any other type of grips, the diameter of the grip is critical for comfort and performance. This is tough to do on a production rod but is a necessary step in fitting up a custom rod.

 

Specifically with cork taped rods, i do the same in double wrapping them to get the proper OD for the grips.

 

 

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i have that industrial shrink tube, that's indestructable. pretty happy but can't get reel taped on solidly. may go to wrap on reel seat.

 

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tophat.gif

Fishin' ain't easy, but it sure is fun.

No more skunks. Maybe you didn't hear about it, you been gone a long time. 

 

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when you double up, how do you smooth/round the transitions by the reel seat and grip top?

 

Use a larger size reel seat, you can usually get the tape to fit perfectly with the seat.wink.gifsmile.gif

 

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Dubs a.k.a., Charlie

SOL #25

 

Dubs

AKA: Charlie

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Or bevel it with a razor and smooth it with epoxy.

 

jbaybass.jpg

 

????

[This message has been edited by richs (edited 05-31-2002).]

 

[This message has been edited by richs (edited 05-31-2002).]

No more skunks. Maybe you didn't hear about it, you been gone a long time. 

 

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