Wood Handle

[Killdeer]

I would like to put a wood handle on my new G-Loomis HSR 9000s. Is this posible? If so were would I go to have it done?

[upnorth]

Are you building this rod yourself? If so there should be a few vendors out there who have wood handles.

[Killdeer]

I am not building it. I got it from Dick's and just want a wood handle on it.

[blueroof]

I believe to get the handle on correctly, you need to strip the guides off the blank and redo the entire thing. Otherwise you probably would need to use some sort of glue/filler to get the blank seated into an oversized hole drilled in the wood handle. In the process, you'd probably ruin the sensitivity since the graphite wouldn't be in direct contact with the handle like the cork was.

[Killdeer]

Thanks for the info... I know nothing when it comes to rod building but am thinking about taking a class. That or I'll just have to have one built for me.

[upnorth]

You can remove the old handle, clean everything up and drill the hole in the handle as close to the size of the butt end of the rod and then create tape bushings for the handle to sit on. There are some who say that is inferior, and I will say it is not a good as a well fitted handle. But if you make sure you completely seal the tape with epoxy glue to keep the water out you will be OK.

[unfrozen]

What type of wooden handle would you like, baitcasting or spinning and what is the diameter of the rod?

I've turned a number of them for myself using basswood, pine, walnut, aromatic cedar and some beautiful exotic woods from Rockler.

So that the foregrip and butt grip both match, the process involves removing the existing grips and the reelseat. A new reelseat would be added when the wooden grips are mounted on the rod. The line guides do not need to be removed...everything above the fore grip stays intact.

If you want to discuss further let me know.

Thanks,

Unfrozen

[crazyice]

Sensitivity is not lost but probably gained with a wood handle, and as upnorth said, if you get a good seal on the tape there really is nothing to worry about.

[DinkADunk]

another way of installing the wood handle would be to;

1) Strip off old cork handle, seat, foregrip

2) Assemble wood handle, new seat, foregrip onto a threaded rod (wax it, etc.) and glue up

3) ream the assembly with a constant bore.

4) slip assembly over the butt section of your rod

5) center and afix the very front of the foregrip so that it's centered (tape)

6) mix up some 8lb urethane foam (stuff used to make rod grip arbors, etc) and pour it into the space between your new grip assembly and the rod blank.

7) let the urethane foam expand, push out the back and cure. This stuff grips well, probably better than rodbond epoxy.

The result will be a well mounted handle on a lightweight, sensitive material. You'll need a good winding check up front and a plug for the rear but if you do it correctly you should have a very strong, sensitive, assembly.

Just a thought