Tell Me About Carbon Fiber Handles

[J.W.]

My rod blanks I ordered from NFC back at the beginning of June just arrived this past Friday. I guess they were backordered and had to be built. I was looking at different handles and reel seats, trying to make some decisions about what I want to put on these blanks. One will be a frog rod and the other a BFS type rod.

My experience with building is zero as of yet. These will be my first two builds.

In terms of fishing, here's my experience with different handles:

Cork- this is what I prefer out of the handle materials I've fished with.
EVA foam- cheap feeling. Not a fan, but I actually prefer it over the rubber Winn grips.
Rubber- seems heavier and "dead" feeling to me. My son has a lot of Carbon Lites with these types of handles. I know a lot of people love them, and they are grippy, but I can't warm up to them. Nothing wrong with them, but I don't care for the feel.
"Open" Carbon Fiber (like Cashion, etc)- I'm not sure if these really have an "open" weave or not, but they look that way in pictures, so that's how I'm describing them. Zero experience with these. In pictures it looks like these would have a fairly grippy texture and light weight.
Resin-Filled Carbon Fiber (like ATC and others sell)- Zero experience. In pictures these look slicker than the other type of CF handles, but they may not be.

If the carbon fiber handles are close in weight to cork (or lighter) and offer more sensitivity, I think I would like to try that route, but like I said, I have zero experience either CF handle type. It seems like the type of foam core used in the CF handle would be the major determining factor in sensitivity and weight, but there's so much I don't know. I'm just speculating.

Any advice/experiences with any of these?

[Capt. BassinLou]

All my custom rods are carbon fiber grip. Love em. There's nothing wrong with cork. All my commercial rods have cork grips. But given a choice. CF all the way for me.
I have had 0 issues and complaints with CF grips. Plus, I love the look!

[Capt. BassinLou]

I'm sure FD will chime in at some point and offer more information.

[J.W.]

Thanks Lou! I saw the one FD built for you on the C6O2 blank, is that the texture/finish you prefer for CF? I'm trying to understand if there's a big difference in either texture or sensitivity between these two styles of CF handle material.

[Capt. BassinLou]

All my custom rods are carbon fiber grip. Love em. There's nothing wrong with cork. All my commercial rods have cork grips. But given a choice. CF all the way for me.
I have had 0 issues and complaints with CF grips. Plus, I love the look!

I must correct myself. I said all my my custom rods have CF grips. I was incorrect. Several do. But not all. 2 of them are made of Winn Grip.

[Capt. BassinLou]

Thanks Lou! I saw the one FD built for you on the C6O2 blank, is that the texture/finish you prefer for CF? I'm trying to understand if there's a big difference in either texture or sensitivity between these two styles of CF handle material.

My CF Reel grips consist of either, the "wet look" or matte look.



 In my opinion its more of a "look" for me than anything else. I enjoy both. Does either look effect sensitivity? Not to me. The materials used on the NFC blanks are the cats' meow. You can feel everything on those blanks.

[FD]

The open weave look is CF over a polyurethane foam core.  Super light, very sensitive. I sometimes coat them with a very thin coat of epoxy and leave a little texture or several coats for a "slick" look.  Either way they are still very grippy.



The AT G2 handles are also very light, but are somewhat of a pain to build.  They do get a little slick when wet, but I wear gloves so that doesn't matter to me.

I've got that job thing again today.  I'll post some pictures later.

[J.W.]

Thanks guys!