Here are the unfinished handles thus far....

[Mattfish]

Here are some pics of what I'm working on. The sizes and shapes are all custom fit for my grubby hands and fingers, especially the finger grooves in the upper grip.


The upper grip is marblewood (which, as I found out today, smells identical to horse manure when cutting/sanding).

The lower grip is lignum vitae--- the wood that was once used for roller bearings in marine applications. This is among the heaviest, hardest, most resinous woods on the planet. Intentionally selected as the butt end to make a nice counterweight.

The lower grip is also about 6" shorter than the factory butt since I'll be using this rod in the hand about as much as in the rod holder.

The rod, not pictured, is a Tidewater 66 "trolling rod" broomstick. I have all the grips stripped off'n it and need to sand/clean it up before epoxying it all together.