Just finished up a CF full wells grip for a new 7 wt fly rod build. These carbon fiber grips are perfect for fly rods as they are very rigid. The reason eva foam is not good for fly grips is because they are to soft and make for not very accurate casting. High quality cork is very good for fly grips because of how dense it is. The composite carbon fiber is even more dense than the most expensive cork. Another cool thing we noticed this winter is how warm the grips are. Once you hold the grip for a few minutes they absorb heat from your hands and you can put the grip up to your face and its warm! They get tacky when wet and can never be dinged or scratched. They are extremely sensitive and transmit vibrations from the blank much better than cork. Cork actually absorbs vibrations from the blank! With this grip you have a graphite blank going right into a graphite grip so the maximum amount of vibration from the blank is transmitted into your hand. They are also around 15-20% lighter than high quality cork depending on who makes the grip.



They are far from traditional but for those who want the most performance out of their rod you should try one out. If any of you guys ever come down to Orygun and would like to test cast one I can arrange it. Should have a 5 wt and 7 wt done in about a month to play with.

That's great! Carbon fiber is amazing stuff. It really looks good too.

First the Storm Troopers were forced to give their's up for gear rods, now appears Darth Vader is also wandering the galaxy, dickkless.

Very nice.

Fish on...

Todd

This idea is interesting. I'm wondering if grips are available for other than fly rods??

Is each one custom made to fit a specific rod blank? Are they made with a standard arbor diameter and then reamed out for different rod blanks? Or?

How is that aspect of manufacture and fitting addressed?

Sg

Even better than very nice...

They can be made custom for any rod. They are reamed and shaped to fit each individual rod blank. We normal just build them for our personal rods and customers rods that ask for them. Probably all I would need to make one for someone else would be the OD of the front and rear of where the grips would sit on the blank. Here are some examples of other types of rods with these grips.

A 10-30 lb, 10'6" salmon float/mooching rod with a full carbon composite grip and a 10-30 lb, 8" back bouncer with a split carbon grip. Nice thing about the full grip is that it will never get messed up from rod holders.





A side drifting steelhead rod with split carbon grips.



A steelhead plug rod.



These are very different from regular carbon tubes you see on many production rods. Those use a rubber fitting to match up the blank with the tube. Problem here is that the rubber absorbs a lot of the vibrations from the blank and the carbon tube is only making contact to the blank in two spots the front and rear.

The grips above are a solid, rigid composite material that is in contact with the blank throughout the grip.

Looking good. That's what I'm planning on doing when I finially get around to building up my blanks.


Thanks for sharing.

Do I dare ask what those cost?

Have not tried selling them to anyone. To busy making them for myself, friends and those who have me build rods for them. We up charge $30 on custom rods for them from traditional cork grips. So they would probably be around $50 depending on grip size and length.

Can these appied to existing rods or only during the build stage?

Is this your brainchild or Jon's at NFC? If you're actually making them "one off", you should be commended for your efforts.

I find it more than ironic though that the companies touting the benefits of these grips, are the same that already have the tooling, ability and neccessary "in house" materials to manufacture them, cheaply.

I wonder when purchasing a new vehicle how many consumers would opt for "upgraded", plastic/metal combination tires (from the vehicle manufacturer), as opposed to traditional rubber type?

Star Wars oar shafts and foam filled floats would be cool...really.

These are different than what nfc is using. We build exclusively on nfc blanks and they make amazing blanks! I believe they are actually making their new grips the same way they build their blanks. I think they are using mandrels but I'm not sure. We are using a different technique. It will not be used in mass production because of the time it takes to make them. I cannot take credit for the idea of these grips but the way we build them and figuring out a way to make it efficiant is the difficult part. Also making the grips look perfect takes a lot of practice. Some builders make them on the east coast but they are rare.

Those are pretty sweet. I'm sure you've done your research on these enough to know that one of yours, custom fit to blank OD, seems to cost about as much as the hollow tubing setups most people are familiar with. I've been building on the hollow tubing lately, and I like how light and crisp they are. They slide onto reamed graphite arbors which don't dampen vibration. As billed, yours look like solid graphite fiber, but that sounds heavy. How heavy is one of your grips like that, compared to non-burl conventional cork? I love how they look. Nice innovation,

Brian

Those grips are a composite foam covered with carbon fiber sleaving. I believe they are somewhere in the range of 10-30% lighter than nb conventional cork.

The only carbon tubes systems I have seen are the ones that use EVA foam to mate the front and rear. A graphite arbor like you are using would definitely work better.

These grips are made from a rigid, dense material that you can shape like cork. Once the grip is shaped graphite is wrapped around it and epoxy bonds it to the grip. On average they weight about 10% less than high quality cork but I am all about light weight so I have been pushing the limit. I can get them lighter but then you are messing with the balance of the rod. All of the new North Fork Composites HM blanks are so light that you can use a split carbon fiber grip and get the balance point about an inch in front of the reel seat which is pretty amazing. My 10'0" NFC HM blank has a split carbon grip and balances an inch and a half in front of the reel seat and that is with my stradic ci4 reel. With a regular spinning reel the balance point is an inch or less.



I use a full grip on some rods that are going to be in the rod holder a lot.

uh huh.....sweet

Nice last pic as well.

S-Stalkers and Daniel,

You guys are doing some killer work. I'd be interested in a consult some day,

fb

Any time! Thanks.