DIY Fishing Rod Paracord Grip

This is a short tutorial that shows one method of wrapping a paracord grip for a fishing rod. I am doing this Instructable as a scaled down version of a grip I made for a Tenkara fishing rod. My Instructable for making DIY Tenkara rods can be seen here: Tenkara (ish) Fishing Rod Build (DIY Tenkara Fishing Rod)

The main focus of the Tenkara rod build was on the cork grip with a mention of the paracord grip. I had some people asking about the paracord grip on my YouTube channel, so I decided to do a tutorial for making a paracord grip.

I have embedded my YouTube video for making a paracord grip in this Instructable if you would like to check that out. If you enjoy this sort of thing, please check out My YouTube Channel or Subscribe To My YouTube Channel so you can be notified as I put out new content.

Let's start making a paracord grip!

Here are the tools you will need:

Scissors, razor blade, heat gun or hair dryer and a lighter.

Materials used:

Paracord, Scotch brand permanent outdoor mounting tape, heat shrink tubing, acetone and a paper towel.

I would just like to again note that this is a scaled down version. I used small diameter paracord and a small diameter piece of a rod just to show the technique I used for making a full sized grip that can be seen in the intro section pictures for this Instructable.

Wipe down the rod with rubbing alcohol until it is clean and lint/dust free. Allow it to dry before applying the mounting tape.

The easiest and most effective way to apply the mounting tape to the rod is to wrap the tape in a spiral pattern. Once you have covered the area you want for your grip, trim the ends with a razor blade. Do not cut into the rod or you may weaken or damage your rod blank. It is important to leave some of the blank on both ends of the grip uncovered by the paracord so that the heat shrink tubing will have a surface to tighten up against. Once you have the mounting tape trimmed you can remove the protective plastic cover of the tape to expose the adhesive that will keep your paracord from moving on the rod.

Before wrapping the grip, heat the ends of the paracord with a lighter to melt it. This will keep the ends of the paracord from fraying. Now you simply cover the mounting tape with the paracord in a spiral pattern.

I used a little acetone on a paper towel to remove the print on the heat shrink tubing. On the full sized grip on the rod in my Tenkara Fishing Rod Build Instructable, I used a large diameter heat shrink tubing made for fishing rods that has a pattern on it and is thicker and has a different texture than regular heat shrink tubing like I used in this scaled down version. Either way, the important thing is that the heat shrink tubing has a large enough diameter to go over the paracord and is capable of shrinking down tight enough for a tight fit on the rod blank.

You will want the heat shrink tubing to cover at least three turns of paracord and still have enough length to give you about an equal amount of length on the rod blank so that it holds tightly to the blank.

I wouldn't use a lighter to shrink the tubing here. I would opt for a heat gun or hair dryer to prevent damage to the blank and melting/burning the tubing.

Use the heat gun and rotate the rod/grip to get a nice, even shrinking of the tubing.

That is it! Easy and quick...looks pretty nice too!

I like to roll the grip on a flat surface while under firm pressure from my hand to help embed the paracord into the foam and flatten it out just a bit. These grips look nice, are easily replaced if need be and have a nice feel to them.

Thanks for checking out my Instructable and please visit my YouTube channel for similar fishing related content.