Oiling a cork handle

[Ian Woods]

Really…. Mine are full of it. It is a very good colour match but you can see there’s a lot of filled holes

To be honest, I was surprised at how little filler is in them, maybe they had some decent cork at the time.
It looks much better than the cork on my daiwas!

 

[Richard Isaacs]

looks much better than the cork on my daiwas

I’d have to see that to believe it because there’s no comparison when I look at mine
The acolyte handle doesn’t remotely come close to the Daiwas in terms of cork quality. The daiwa ones I have here don’t have any filler in them whatsoever.

 

[Alec Hague]

I’d have to see that to believe it because there’s no comparison when I look at mine
The acolyte handle doesn’t remotely come close to the Daiwas in terms of cork quality. The daiwa ones I have here don’t have any filler in them whatsoever. View attachment 32332

The only handles of late Richard which I have seen which compares well to the diawa is, amazingly, the middy quatrix feeder, nicely tipped both ends with a bit of burl. I will put a pic up this morning. Not quite the arm lock but similar.

 

[Alec Hague]

The only handles of late Richard which I have seen which compares well to the diawa is, amazingly, the middy quatrix feeder, nicely tipped both ends with a bit of burl. I will put a pic up this morning. Not quite the arm lock but similar.

no I wont, shapes great, but yes there is filler. Doh.

 

[Ian Woods]

I’d have to see that to believe it because there’s no comparison when I look at mine
The acolyte handle doesn’t remotely come close to the Daiwas in terms of cork quality. The daiwa ones I have here don’t have any filler in them whatsoever. View attachment 32332

I can clearly see the filler in your acolyte rod, but in your picture the other/daiwa handle next to it looks to have just as many cracks but with no filler added?
The daiwa handle appears/looks as though someone has used a nail brush or something similar to clean it and removed the filler. I'm not saying that has happened, but that's how it looks?

 

[Richard Isaacs]

I can clearly see the filler in your acolyte rod, but in your picture the other/daiwa handle next to it looks to have just as many cracks but with no filler added?
The daiwa handle appears/looks as though someone has used a nail brush or something similar to clean it and removed the filler. I'm not saying that has happened, but that's how it looks?

your looking at the darker tarnished parts of the cork which all qualify corks have and they get darker throughout use.
You must of handled enough rods to know this.
These are not cracks nor are they remotely deep enough to warrant filling they are literally just under flush.
They are not great big holes like on the other handle that have been filled and sanded.
I’ve got a number of custom built rods that are identical and I spent a lot of money on them ensuring the best possible cork was used which again had no filler used and the shallow imperfections have gone darker it’s normal.

I’ve got a maver rod which was very cheap and medium quality. Like the acolyte it’s covered in filler to the point those darker tarnishes can’t be seen. It’s the big holes that are the difference.
I’m surprised you can’t clearly see there is a massive quality difference there between those to handles.

 

[Richard Isaacs]

I don’t have a problem with the acolytes handle. I’m quite impressed with the colour matching on the filler and the fact it hasn’t fallen out.
The rod is at least £100 cheaper than the daiwa was and it was probably made somewhere in the far east but to high QC standards.
I wouldn’t expect grade A cork. It could very well be worse. Free spirit cork used to be terrible even on £300-400 rods.
I’ve got that standard built float rod which I will strip at some point. There’s no filler in it but there’s some big holes that could have done with some.