Source of Trekking pole handle
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I am attempting to make my own trekking poles using golf shafts. Does anyone know of a source of this type of handle? I love the feel of cork….
Thanks for any input.
Paul,
Contact Gossamer Gear and ask if you can buy the grips they use for their poles. I did this last year and have been very happy with the results.
http://caseyandemily.com/Backpack/2006/2006_10_Poles/Poles.
htm
I made a set of trekking poles from carbon fiber golf club shafts from 5 wood metal drivers from Goodwill.
I sawed them off with Dremel tool cut-off disk.
I made handles from a kid's toy modeling clay-like product called Floam (TM). This consists of tiny polystyrene beads in a water-soluble binder.
I found the Floam on the kid's craft aisle at Wal-Mart. There were two cups, one orange and one silver. Net weight wet is 3.5 oz (100 g). You can see the finished orange handle in the photo. On the bare shaft, you can see the holes (about 3/16") I drilled in the to give the Floam some tooth to grip to. Each cup has just enough (about 1.75 oz wet) to mold one grip.
To mold the grip, I first kneaded the Floam to mix thoroughly. I formed a sheet and wrapped it around the grip. I then alternated squeezing with each hand. This made a symmetrical grip that I could use in either hand. If you'd rather, you could make one for your left hand and one for your right. Since my shafts were slightly different lengths, I opted to make them so either would fit either hand. I can then use the long pole on the downhill side of the trail. ;) It helps to spread your fingers apart slightly when molding. The Floam shrinks a bit when it dries. I hung the pole handle end down to dry. Every 30 minutes or so, correct the shape since it can sag a bit. It takes several days for the Floam to dry completely. It never hardens completely but dries somewhat spongy, very comfortable in the hand.
The Floam is not waterproof and might start to disintegrate if soaked in water. For this reason, I coated the handles with silicone sealer diluted with paint thinner (just like seam sealer). This didn't attack the Floam. The sealer gave them a nice grippy feel, also.
Finished weight was about 4 oz per pole before sealing. I'll try to get a more accurate weight and some field test results over the next couple of weeks.Robert
Here is my second attempt at making a custom trekking pole handle for a carbon fiber shaft salvaged from a golf club. The handle is made from Floam (TM) modeling compound.
The orange handled trekking pole (previous post) weighs in at 3.7 oz (105 g). The silver one weighs 3.9 oz (111 g). The silver golf club had a longer metal shaft.Loki rubber trekking pole tips fit well and add 0.4 oz (11 g) each.
I believe the handles themselves weigh around 1 to 1.5 oz apiece.
Robert
Jeff,
The Plasti-Dip worked great! I opened the can and poured some out into another can to leave room for displacement. The can size was just right for the handle. It took two coats (30 minutes apart) to get a complete coating. I don't think thinning would help because I think it would take more coats, but if you want to try, the can has thinning suggestions. The solvents in the dip did dissolve some of the exposed polystyrene beads, but the second coat covered these rough areas. Here is the result next to the can:
Here are the finished handles:
The handles are still springy to the touch and quite comfortable.I'm off to buy more Floam for a second pair for my son.
Robert
The original Floam (TM) trekking pole handles have worked well through 160 miles on the AT and numerous day hikes. I had to renew the plastic coating. The lack of length adjustment has not proved to be a problem.
I made a new set of hand-grips using a composite of thermoplastic and foam beads. The thermoplastic I used is polycaprolactone, or PCL. PCL is used for 3D printing, splints and sutures. It comes as white pellets and is sold on Amazon or ebay. I used Polymorph brand. It melts in very hot water and hardens to a very tough, white nylon-like plastic. It starts off white but goes clear as it begins to melt. When you take it out of the hot water, it is pliable and stiffens gradually and gets white as it cools. Even though hot, it doesn't stick to your skin, and it's heat capacity is low, so it doesn't burn.
By itself, PCL is quite dense, so I used it as a binder for polystyrene foam micro-beads that I removed from a neck pillow. I cut a seam to open the pillow and poured out some beads. Do this outside, out of the wind. It's messy; it sticks with static electricity and blows in the wind. I used two parts foam beads and one part PCL beads by volume. A half cup of PCL pellets and one cup of foam micro-beads make more than enough for two hand-grips. I poured them into a pint-sized container half full of water straight from the teapot and stirred with a plastic spoon. I then removed the blob and kneaded it until the mixture was uniform. I then divided it into two equal portions and remelted each in a fresh batch of hot water. I was able to mold this over the golf club handles. When the mixture was too stiff to work, I just immersed the whole handle in a container of hot water for a couple of minutes and molded them some more until I got a comfortable shape, and the two handles matched. It took several cycles to get what I wanted.
PCL is nontoxic and biodegradable, but it is not porous, and it sheds water. Unlike the original Floam handles I don't think they will need the dip treatment to waterproof.
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