Carbon fiber grips

[Roach11]

Thinking of building a spinning rod with carbon fiber grips . Any pros or cons to these? They are sold at Mudhole and Get Bit..

Thanks,
Roach

[JJohnSind]

They are growing on me. As a cork guy, they seem just as comfortable and not any more slippery when wet (cork is only slippery when dirty and wet). They are definitely more durable, easy to clean, lighter and the most sensitive (sensitivity sometimes irrelevant when the reel seat design doesnt allow holding the grip). I think the only con is the price, and maybe the look (if you like the look of traditional cork). They are warm when left in the sun, but that goes away as soon as you grab it (its never so hot you can’t handle it). North Fork Composites sometimes have some great prices on carbon fiber grips (but don't plan on prompt shipping - if you’re willing to wait, you can save a lot of money on quality grips).

For spinning, I can only think of the VSS or the IPS as designs that allow you to be touching the carbon fiber when fishing the reel (mounted downlocking), but there may be others. I prefer the weaved carbon fiber over the smooth carbon fiber (including “soft touch versions”). For some reason, weaved comes out lighter than smooth, unless you leave a lot of sections hollow, but not sure if hollow transmits sensitivity as well. Even the smooth versions aren't as slippery as you’d think they’d get when wet (of course, any dirty, oily grip will change that).

[willwork4fish]

I've built a few with the soft touch grips, both split and full. They feel fine but it's subjective, some people may love them. John, I don't think the soft touch are any more sensitive than cork.

The split woven are ok but my preference is cork. I do like the woven in a full grip, especially for like a swimbait rod because they are significantly lighter than a full cork.

Carbon on a spinning rod would be mainly for looks and maybe a tiny bit of weight savings though that depends on how you build. My preferred handle on a spinning rod is a couple of cork rings behind the seat, epoxy ramp in front of it and then 4 cork rings for the butt so I'm not saving much weight that way going with carbon vs cork and it's $6 in cork vs probably $22 for carbon in that same style of build.

The foam cores ream very easily so you have to watch out, easy to ream too much especially if you're chucking your reamer up in a drill.

[Roach11]

You may have heard this before, but my friend who got me to start building rods uses Caseys Birchfield gun stock finish on cork. Doesn't make the grip slippery and protects the cork from
deterioration. ......... Was looking at something besides cork........ which have been all my prior builds.

Thank you,
Roach

[DrewFlu33]

I haven’t had a chance to try any of the soft touch grips yet (mostly because I’m too cheap), but I absolutely love the raw carbon fiber grips. I leave them raw (I would strongly suggest not coating them as I think that takes away every good quality except the aesthetics) and have found they hold up great, are super lightweight, grippy when wet or dry, and at least as sensitive as any other option. I have three different rods as old as 4 years old (maybe older?) with them and all have been used extensively. They all look exactly like they did the day they were built.

The one con I’ve found is that they can get a bit hot in the summer sun. Nothing that would burn you or anything like that, but hot enough to notice when you pick one up. They cool back down quickly though.

What willwork said about reaming them fits with my experience. Adding to that: the foam core tends to be a bit abrasive as well, so you need to take care not to scratch the blank when sliding them into place.

[Spoonplugger1]

Actually a gentleman made identical 9 inch grips out of cork and eva and compared them to the CFX carbon/foam core grips sold as noted above. The CFX grip was not the lightest, the heaviest by 6+%. The factory production grips had the use a different foam than we rod builders have used when making our own because mass production on duplicator machinery requires it. What was true in the beginning when we poured and skinned our own is not true today.

[DrewFlu33]

I have only used 1 set of the CFX ones -- you're right, the cores on those are different. They remind me much more of an EVA foam or something like that. It doesn't surprise me that they would be heavier. They also don't ream as quickly as the others.

NFC are the ones I've used the most; they have a different foam core that's lighter, reams very quickly, and is more abrasive. I was fairly confident I snagged one from Mudhole that was the same that I put on a spinning rod build I did with an aluminum reel seat, but it appears that they don't carry it anymore if that is indeed where I got it.