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As we've alluded to in other articles, making your own grips from cork rings is an important part of building a custom rod. "Staying with the cost-effective strategy, I decided to try and build my own cork lathe using common materials and a drill." Read more of Jon Jenkin's article.

There are two basic strategies for building a cork grip for a fly rod. The first involves gluing the rings directly onto the rod blank and then shaping the grip. Another way involves gluing the cork rings together off the blank, and then shaping the grip in a lathe setup before reaming and fitting to the rod blank. That process is described by Bob Petti in this article.

How Ib Olsen builds his beautiful rods ...and some elementary notes.

Jim Burchette restored an old glass rod - stripped and rebuilt it - and it came out as good as new

A couple months ago my wife said she had found the perfect gift for me. She had arranged for me to take a bamboo fly rod making class.