A corky question

[flybyshot]

Do any of you 'experts' have any suggestions to the care of the cork on a fly rod. All of my rods have been used alot, especially my 4 weight, that I use for dry fly fishing. The cork has fish slime, fly flotant, and oils from my hand, etc., accumulated on it. Any ideas to preserve and protect the cork would be appreciated.

[DavidEdens]

Gudebrod makes a cork sealer. You will need to sand the cork to clean it, and then brush on the sealant. I use it on all my rods.
David Edens
Blue Ridge Rods

[BeeDub]

David - Does that sealer create a hard finish or does the cork still feel like cork?

[WDN FLY]

I'm not sure about the stuff david has but the cork sealer I have leaves a hard fnish. I sanded it off because I hated the feel. I simply scrub mine periodicly with a nylon dish scrubber pad and some dish soap. It seems to clean them up real nice and I keep that soft feel of the cork.

[Frequent Flyer]

I'm a dish-soap guy as well.

[BT]

Toothpaste works extremely well, it has just enough grit in it to do a good job of cleaning.

[BeeDub]

Thanks. I prefer the natural feel of cork, too, and will try the cleaning techniques suggested. We really messed up a couple of grips recently when we failed to notice that the aluminum rental paddles we were using had left black stuff on our hands. I got most of it off using fine grit sandpaper, but I would prefer another cleaning method.

[flybyshot]

Again, thanks to all those helpful hints. This board is a great place to find help.

[Frequent Flyer]

Black stuff from aluminum--nothing reasonable will dissolve aluminum oxide, but since it's just powder and loose at that, a good cleaning as described above should work.

[BeeDub]

Thanks. Tried your suggestions along with a Scotch-Brite pad and got most of it off.

[BeeDub]

By the way, a Scotch-Brite pad can be trimmed to fit whatever homemade flybox you have (Altoids tin, etc.) and works pretty well if you don't have foam.