The Birchbark Grip Part 1

The Backstory….

There are always trigger points for what I want to make, and the birchbark grip was no exception. I’d been thinking about a new rod and specifically a rod for one of the beats of a fly fishing club that I’m a member of after I’d battled my way through it for the first time this summer, it was overgrown, low canopy, steep banks and barely a few feet wide in places.

That brutally hot August day I fell over, got stung by nettles, attacked by brambles and had to find my inner mountain goat just to scramble my way down and then back up the bank, it was hell! However, once in the river it was a delight of pools and riffles and rising wild trout, and like the silt I’d disturbed as I made my first steps into the water the hardship of access soon washed away. I had with me an old 8’ 4# rod that I’d built probably 15 years ago, a rough and ready affair made up of odds and ends, basically, an unloved utilitarian rod that had somehow managed to survive years of bushwhacking and the odd memorable fish, until today that was, when it took one impact too many with the overhead branches and 4 pieces became 5.

Somewhere down there is a little trout stream

An oasis of calm after an intense battle with head high stinging nettles and razor sharp brambles

The Grip…

So having just received a new stock of S-Glass premium blanks, it was the ideal replacement rod for this stream. I’d been thinking about an alternative to cork for a while, and after searching about on the net I saw on the rod building forums a birchbark grip that I instantly knew was what I wanted for the glass build.

As someone who doesn’t throw away anything that might be remotely useful, I have a good stash of wood, including a huge amount of seasoned silver birch, with its bark nicely coming away from the seasoned wood. Having harvested the flattest and soundest pieces I cut out what must have been one hundred 35 mm squares of bark on the band saw and then centre drilled the pieces for mounting on a mandrel.

Next job was to apply glue to each side of the bark squares and mount on the mandrel, I’d read on a forum post that it was good practice to make the bark grip up in sections due to its fragile nature, so I planned on glueing up three separate sections.

The mucky business of glueing the bark sections together and clamping tightly for the glue to fill any voids.

After clamping the bark tightly, any excess glue was wiped off and then the section was left for 24 hours to cure.

Three days later and three sections have been made up and glued together

Starting to look like a grip

Initial turning went well and the birchbark stick is roughly turned down.

To be continued…