here's rear grip and butt I made dyed brown, and sanded smooth.

 

 

here are the same pieces with two thin coats of Tru Oil.

wow that turned out real nice.

I love what Tru oil does to the burl corks.

What did you use to dye the cork? I've all but given up on this as a lost cause. They look great by the way.

The qualities of cork that it good for handles makes it almost impossible to truly dye. It just won't soak in. It can be sealed, coated, even painted but not really dyed.

My last attempt involved cork seal and food coloring. Result: green hand.

I used an aniline from Keda Dyes. Bought a five color sampler kit from Amazon. Five small packets of powder to mix with water. Red, blue, yellow, brown and black. 

Cork is difficult to color. It took several coats to get what I was looking for. I applied it with a sponge brush, then put a heat lamp on it. Repeat four or five times, then coat with True-Oil.

I have a rod I built for myself with a similar grip, made from regular and burl cork rings. I dyed it red. Took about seven or eight coats to get enough color to it. Again finished with True-Oil. I've had it out a couple of times. No stained hands, but I haven't had it out in the rain. Be interesting to see what happens in truly wet conditions.

Burl rings take the color a lot better than regular cork.

I'll put up some pics of the red grip when I get the tiger wrap replaced. It blushed badly. I need to strip and re-wrap it. Be a while before I get it done. I'm working on two rods that need to be shipped out asap.

Thanks ghoti.