How to make the concealed seat handle

[hydro]

Here are some handles that I have made in the past. They split at the reel foot and are held together by a screw through the butt cap. I’ve done different cutaways to allow the rod blank to be in contact with my finger but after lots of fish I think it’s just as good to keep the handle simple and feel for bites through the cork. The fore check and end cap material is cocobolo wood that I turned and polished with an oil/beeswax finish. It has proven to be resistant to water over the years.

Here is a handle disassembled to show how it goes together. Note the nylon butt cap screw that engages mating threads inside the rod blank. That’s my original drawing, circa 1982, that I used to make the first handle. I still use it today for reference, although the dimensions change with the sizes of the rod blank, the aluminum tube, and the reel foot dimensions. You will need some tools to do this, specifically a wood or metal lathe, a ¼-20 tap, and a selection of drill bits. Beyond that, normal rod building tools will get the job done.

Now, let’s get down to how to make this handle. Here I have a new blank and I have turned a wood core out of walnut (any hard and close grained wood works here and I just had a piece of walnut handy). Once turned, I routed the core almost flush to the blank to bury the reel foot as far into the handle as possible. The core is then reamed out to match the taper of the blank and to slide back to the position where I want it for final assembly. There is a second wood core inside the butt assembly that accts as a spacer. The small tube will form the rear portion of the grip. The larger tubing has been filed out to fit over the reel seat and hold it snugly to the seat core.

Here I have the seat assembly roughly fitted to the blank and the reel foot, ready for the final tweaking. I will want the front sleeve to fit almost to the center of the reel foot when done.

This is how I like to leave the seat sleeves prior to making the rest of the handle. It allows the cork to mate together and hide the seam.

In this pic I have the cocobolo fore check and butt cap fabricated and fitted to the assembly. Also, for this rod I turned a threaded insert out of 6061 aluminum and epoxied it into the end of the blank to accept the screw. You can also just fill the end of the blank with JB Weld, then drill it out and tap it to make the threads. My mock up used an Allen head cap screw, but I will fit a standard slotted nylon screw later in the process so that I do not need a special tool to take it apart in the field. I have also fitted the first two cork rings onto the front half of the grip and one onto the rear and epoxied these in place. Be sure to pull everything apart before the epoxy sets up hard, just in case some squeezed out inside the assembly (experience!)

The rest of the rings covering the seat assembly are fitted and then epoxied in place, until I have a very slight overhang on both ends. The epoxy is used because of how thin the cork will be over this part of the handle when it gets the final shaping. Be sure to fit the cork closely to the aluminum sleeves and not leave any big gaps. If you leave gaps they will be soft spots when the handle is finished.

Here is where it gets interesting. I have an engine lathe so I used it with a die grinder and stone to turn and grind the cork concentric to the rod blank. This saves me a lot of time but you can also do this by hand with a file and sandpaper. Leave the cork a little larger than you want it when finished to allow for some final shaping. It is important to pre shape the cork at this stage because you can still see the aluminum to gauge the thickness of the cork.

Once the center is turned, you can assemble the rest of the cork, using standard tools. I use Pliobond adhesive on the cork here because it is fast and easy. Last, the fore check and butt cap are epoxied in place. At this point, I put the assembly back in the lathe and turned it round with a slight taper at the front and rear, for later final shaping with sandpaper.

Here it is, finish sanded and ready to wrap the guides onto the blank. On this handle I am trying out a “reel forward” concept where I have placed the reel close to the front of the grip. The idea is to be able to place my finger on the blank just in front of the fore check for added sensitivity.

[Brad B]

John,

Great tutorial but could you explain how and what you make the aluminum tube out of that goes over the wood reel seat. I understand the aluminum in the end of the blank or the JB weld option but what about the main tube.

[hydro]

Brad,

The tube is just aluminum and you can find it at the box stores, the metal dealers in Minneapolis, or even the tube from a lawn chair. The inside is filed to fit the reel foot.

[Billy 40]

IMPRESSIVE!! I've wanted to make a grip like this for the longest time, there have been others who posted pics but they required you to instal teh material over the reel seat. YOu made your own seat, AWESOME. And to share this...imo is crazy. YOu should patent it and try selling it to a Rod Manufacturer.

Great job