# Carbon fiber or cork?



## Fishcrane (Oct 5, 2004)

Thinking about having a rod built for wading and I want it as light as possible, the builder told me carbon fiber is lighter than cork for the handle. What do all the custom builders have to say? Thanks


----------



## Plumbwader (Jan 17, 2009)

I just built this one for a customer and I will say CF is definitely lighter than cork but not by an incredible margin.


----------



## Fishcrane (Oct 5, 2004)

Thanks for the info. Just wanted to know.


----------



## PBC (Dec 12, 2018)

Some cork is really heavy. Some is very light. Depends on what they are using. If my customer wants a custom cork grip that's that's 1 off it will be a little heavier because of they type of cork rings used. If they want plain cork then those are light.

Carbon fiber grips are light. They use a hard foam core for the shape and thin layer of carbon fiber over that. They work and I have built several rods with them. They are light but between them and real cork it's a very very small difference.

Pics below.... different carbon fiber grips and some custom 1 off grips. Depends on what you want


----------



## PBC (Dec 12, 2018)




----------



## squid013 (Jan 8, 2016)

Since going to carbon, ill never go back on my personal rods

Sent from my SM-G996U using Tapatalk


----------



## spoonplugger1 (Aug 11, 2015)

Those pretty burl grips and the ones with acrylic will weigh around 3 time more than a graphite grip, or more.


----------



## MikeK (Dec 11, 2008)




----------



## spoonplugger1 (Aug 11, 2015)

Not surprising your results, there is a considerable difference in foam density between my hand poured grips and production versions that are shaped on duplicators quickly.


----------



## spoonplugger1 (Aug 11, 2015)

*My hand poured grips have a foam density of 6, or 8 lbs., depending on how much abuse I think they will take since the graphite skin has very little strength. Rod building history shows that graphite skinning originally was done to improve the appearance of poor quality cork that was lying around. The foam in commercial grips appear the be in the 18 lb. range from questions I have asked over the years, if you look in the Pac Bay catalog you will see they sell them pre- shaped and that they show many ways they can finish them without using a graphite skin.*


----------



## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

MikeK said:


> View attachment 4605691


Interesting, thank you. Do you happen to have EVA shaped and bored to the same dimensions? If, please post it here.


----------



## MikeK (Dec 11, 2008)

Whitebassfisher said:


> Interesting, thank you. Do you happen to have EVA shaped and bored to the same dimensions? If, please post it here.


Not that particular grip but did something similar with cork and EVA. I'll see if I can find it.


----------



## Whitebassfisher (May 4, 2007)

MikeK said:


> Not that particular grip but did something similar with cork and EVA. I'll see if I can find it.


It would be interesting. Probably because high quality cork gets so expensive, I tend to use EVA.


----------



## spoonplugger1 (Aug 11, 2015)

Eva doesn't need to be bored as precisely as the others, is has some give in it, it will stretch a bit to the position you want to place it, without changing the outside size, or shape at all. The carbon skin has to be cutback enough from the size you ream it so so the hard edge doesn't scratch the blank finish. It has to be cleared inside just like all grips so any grit from the reamer isn't left to scratch the blank.


----------



## Nino10 (10 mo ago)

Cork


----------

