Sticky stick grips

Ok there were two way i made it smooth, one make it ridged, so you take many a smooth straight line down the shaft of the stick, best way i found to do this was a peice of stuff card.

or my second inovation was to get an old sheet, and thinly spread the silicone along it, and then cut out a nice length, maing each one about twice as think as tennis grip (in width only a few mm high of silicone) and then wrap it around so it double sover its self so its think enough, one problem with it tho, is that after a little while....the silicone come soff the sheet and makes it quite slippery.

hope that helps

Lava

I combined two of the different suggestions on here... a thinner layer of silicone with a thin bicycle innertube over the top... With a small ammount of silicone covered by electrical tape at either end to smooth the transition from rubber to alluminium you can make it suitable for contact work aswell... Very nice and comfortable finish...

Thanks for the tips! I should be needing them soon as i redo the grip on my staff (i used a whole tube of silicone from a caulking gun on my staff... a wee bit much i'd say..)

just a random addition... my mate has kangaroo leather for grip and it is lovelly not too sticky as to become annoying but grippy enough that it doesn't slide

A recommendation for stickiness freaks :

(English translation at the bottom of the pages)
Handball glue
and dont forget the Dip'nClean Wipes for removal of handball glue - told you its sticky

And for Mcp

Written by:

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A thin layer of Dip'nGrip will last long, even on sweaty hands, and will require only occasional 'brush-up' during time-out or half-time

---

I like the time-out

cheers

andy

Handball glue is fine but it as well as grip better grip all rubbish when the staff falls down. I was thinking about gum or silicon tube, like around sticks for devilstick.

:R

Squach Rackets grips are great....

My mate has leather on his staff.... it has lasted like 1 year now of serious abuse by many a noobie.

Don't know how the maker of the staff got the leather to stick to the aluminium but he did and it puts my Squach Racket grip to shame...

any one with time on their hands should look at this idea..... as its thick, grippy, stops heat and takes to wear & tear very well...

Let me know how it goes.

On another note, what does everyone use for waiting the staffs.?

I have used leather on a couple of practice staffs I made. Pretty easy to do, cut a strip about 35mm wide, glued it on with PVA (white carpenters glue)wiped off the excess with a sponge and trimmed the ends and secured them with plastic tape.
Jeff

after being annoyed by my new foam grip, i have just replaced it with acrylic sealant, like silicone except less of the nastyness (i hope) anyone at falmouth is free to try them

leather is the s#%t

i use 4 my conact staff

it is so good !!!!!

it's all about the dead cow skin

I'll have to agree with the bicyle inner-tubing. Its great stuff, I have it on a practice staff right now. I'm definiatly adding it to the next staff I plan to make.

edit: Let me clarify a bit. I mean you shove it over your staff before adding the wicks. Don't wrap it around like you would do with tennis grips. I plan on experimenting a bit. Make a test staff and shove some innertubing over it, then tape off one end and fill it up with silicone (the stuff you fix aquariums with, nice and bouncy).

hmmmmmmm so the inner tubes?!

Si mply rap them round the staff and gaffer tape each end? Does the tube not need to be stuck down or is it just pulls so tight andoverlapped you dont need to!?

Thanks guys

er.. i posted this elsewhere, but not here:

the shizzle, i'm afraid, is neoprene.

still grippy and bouncy after 18 months of paraffin abuse. not slippery even when covered in fuel (not that i do that, you understand )

chopped up dead wetsuit. cheap and cheerful, and fantastic....

well, have gone out, blagged some innertubes from a bike shop for free and purchased a roll of gaffer tape for a quid! How cheap is that. Feels good, although the test os gonna be over next few months to see if it holds up!

Good work people! Thanks

Also........ neoprene?!? How do u cut it? in strips ///////// or one big sheet [ ]?!

cheers Blu cat!

one big long strip

its by far the best grip i've used in 6 or seven years of making toys.

I'll have to try the neoprene.

I split an inner tube down it's length wash it and wind like normal grip fastening the ends it's nice but could be better.

I find bicycle innertube gets a bit slippy when wet, although I had better results with the innertube from motorbike tyres (still not perfect though)

Have to find a source of neoprene, by the sounds of it!

Bluecat: when you attached it, did you use glue or tape or both? neoprene sounds like the kind of thing that would melt with the use of superglue...

Hi everyone, its been cool to see your brainstorming I'm making a glowstaff at the moment, and the polycarbonate tube is crystal-clear and smooth at the moment. I a) want to make it cloudy and b) add grip to the staff.

Is it possible to get translucent grip? My firetoys staff has a silicon grip, and I *think* its translucent (though it does get a bit grubby!) so I'm thinking of wrapping the polycarb tube in silicon, as to add grip, as well as diffuse the light coming from individual LEDs inside the tube. BUT I don't want it to obscure the light too much ... just diffuse ... I guess testing is in order.

A quick search on google hasn't retrieved any suppliers of sheets of silicone ... is the only way to spray it on (sounds a bit messy...and I want to get a perfectly even coating otherwise my sloppy work will be very obvious when light is shining through!)

I find silicon on my firestaff really nice, but it does tend to get ridiculously slippery if paraffin spills on it when dipping ... plus spinning the staff on top of my head, the grip wraps my hair up until its kinda fused to me scalp ... d'oh! Plus silicon (and any other staff grip for that matter that I've tried) REALLY dries my skin out when I'm doing contact ... impregnated moisturiser the way forward?

Neoprene sounds interesting *waits for old wetsuit to appear on freecycle*

My mate (who doesnt post here) has just made his second prototype glow staff from probably the same kind of polycarbonate tube you've got hold of akgraphics (sounds the same). He covered it in clear silicone and it works a treat. He sanded down the tubing first to get the diffuse glow and then got a piece of tubing slightly bigger (wider) than the polycarbonate, pumped the silicone into the gap between the 2 bits of tubing and slowly pulled the larger one up the staff while pumping more silicone in. This gives you a nice even coating of silicone all the way up the staff.

Its a really nice stick, easily as bright as aerotechs and cost about £30 to make. Its only fault is its a bit light for lots of contact but it still looks great.