taper favorites

The exchange of tapers forum is for classic and personally developed tapers. The definition of classic tapers are those tapers that were developed by rodmakers that are no longer alive. Please understand that rod makers who have developed their tapers, and are active in the community, should not have their tapers cloned, or shared, without their permission, please refrain for asking for those tapers as it infringes on the maker.

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sanderson
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taper favorites

#1

Post by sanderson »

What would everyone recommend for a taper on a first rod build?

perfesser
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Re: taper favorites

#2

Post by perfesser »

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Last edited by perfesser on 07/01/20 15:31, edited 1 time in total.

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henkverhaar
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Re: taper favorites

#3

Post by henkverhaar »

Gillum 7042 as represented in RodDNA

PJ Julius
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Re: taper favorites

#4

Post by PJ Julius »

I'd recommend a shorter rod. Less to plane, fewer guides to wrap. Look at the Paul Young Midge taper. It will make a terrific first rod, and give you confidence to make your NEXT rod! I favor the taper published in "The Lovely Reed".

Canewrap
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Re: taper favorites

#5

Post by Canewrap »

I would recommend looking at what you fish for most and the size of the stream. The reason is, this being your first rod, will be a rod you will hang onto for a long time. If you fish small streams a lot, I would recommend the Garrison 193, 6'9", 3/4 wt. If you fish medium streams a lot - the Paul Young Perfectionist, 7'6", 4/5 wt. If you fish larger water, a Dickerson 8013, 8' 5wt. There are a lot of choices out there, but my advise would be to start with what you would use the most. A lot of people will make a 7'6", 5wt as an all around rod for their first. There are a ton of choices for that.

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mer
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Re: taper favorites

#6

Post by mer »

Canewrap wrote:
06/30/20 08:18
I would recommend looking at what you fish for most and the size of the stream. The reason is, this being your first rod, will be a rod you will hang onto for a long time. If you fish small streams a lot, I would recommend the Garrison 193, 6'9", 3/4 wt. If you fish medium streams a lot - the Paul Young Perfectionist, 7'6", 4/5 wt. If you fish larger water, a Dickerson 8013, 8' 5wt. There are a lot of choices out there, but my advise would be to start with what you would use the most. A lot of people will make a 7'6", 5wt as an all around rod for their first. There are a ton of choices for that.
There is an aweful lot of "sense" in this. Although, personally I would do a Payne 100 (4wt) instead of the Perfectionist :) Your answer to the first sentence is the key.

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carl otto
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Re: taper favorites

#7

Post by carl otto »

A first rod build:

A two piece solid built rod, because only one set of ferrules to fit.

A proven published taper, as one would find in The Garrison, Howells and/or Mauer books. (Plus buy the book to educate yourself).

A taper without any unusual jumps in the taper to ease form set up.

A rod taper that can meet most conditions one might come across on the streams they fish.

I personally think the suggestions of the Young Perfectionist, Dickerson 8013, Payne 101 or 102 meet these requirements.

Carl @ Wanigas Rod Company

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tapermaker
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Re: taper favorites

#8

Post by tapermaker »

my favorites are the Dickerson 8014 , the kushner formula -B , S, kiley granger 7ft 3/3 3/4 wt . Dwight Lyons early leonard model 50 8ft 3/2 5wt.

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henkverhaar
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Re: taper favorites

#9

Post by henkverhaar »

tapermaker wrote:
07/08/20 15:16
my favorites are the Dickerson 8014 , the kushner formula -B
If you like those, you probably would also like the Phillipson Dry Fly Special?

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tapermaker
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Re: taper favorites

#10

Post by tapermaker »

I like the dryfly special all right. But i also like the slower deliberate action of the Lyons model 50 . IT is right tool for light tippets and controlled presentation.

Canewrap
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Re: taper favorites

#11

Post by Canewrap »

I guess the guy got what he was after. Noticed he hasn't posted back to this thread. My real favorite is the Driggs River taper, as executed by Ron Barch. I've analyzed the daylights out of that taper and have taken most of what I learned to develop a couple other tapers. I've also taken the tip taper and married it to a couple other butt sections with a lot of success.

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kermit
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Re: taper favorites

#12

Post by kermit »

Can't go wrong with the PHY Perfectionist!
Zia Rods Brochure
www.ziarods.com

sanderson
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Re: taper favorites

#13

Post by sanderson »

thanks for the feedback, I've been diving into books and all the information I can find. I'm going with a Dickerson 7613, the '52 taper. I got into this in a somewhat unorthodox manner. I don't do woodworking, I've never built rods, and I don't own many of the necessary tools. I'm semi-retired, with time to spend. I decided to attack a few of my personal shortcomings head on, I'm somewhat impatient, and more of a generalist, uninterested in minute details. However, I'm very interested in fly fishing, love challenges, and have some artistic and creative DNA. So.....I'm off. I'm stalled prior to roughing my strips. I've done a couple practice triangles, with and without straightening of nodes. I'm not sure I've got my preliminary strips square enough to start roughing, unsure of the node area, and just worried about how to get my 60's with the curvature of the enamel side. Any advice/ encouragement to jump into the roughing? How straight is straight enough to start?

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Re: taper favorites

#14

Post by 3creeks »

sanderson wrote:
07/19/20 21:04
thanks for the feedback, I've been diving into books and all the information I can find. I'm going with a Dickerson 7613, the '52 taper. I got into this in a somewhat unorthodox manner. I don't do woodworking, I've never built rods, and I don't own many of the necessary tools. I'm semi-retired, with time to spend. I decided to attack a few of my personal shortcomings head on, I'm somewhat impatient, and more of a generalist, uninterested in minute details. However, I'm very interested in fly fishing, love challenges, and have some artistic and creative DNA. So.....I'm off. I'm stalled prior to roughing my strips. I've done a couple practice triangles, with and without straightening of nodes. I'm not sure I've got my preliminary strips square enough to start roughing, unsure of the node area, and just worried about how to get my 60's with the curvature of the enamel side. Any advice/ encouragement to jump into the roughing? How straight is straight enough to start?
Don't let the fear that you aren't doing it right paralyze you. Just do it and make mistakes that you will learn from. Also, in my humble opinion, don't follow multiple sources while you are trying to learn. Each have their subtle differences that occasionally conflict and you don't want to get stuck.

Here is Harry Boyd's excellent tutorial that takes you through each step. http://canerods.com/rodmaking.html
Combined with this you have an increasing number of online videos that demonstrate what these steps look like in real life.

I didn't know about Harry's tutorial when I started so I used Wayne Cattanach's book and his video set. I had other books but I thought it was best to stick to Wayne's method and I could modify as needed when I got more experience. My first rod was the Perfectionist from The Lovely Reed, which should have been a 5 weight, but since my node work wasn't great I had to do some scraping of the blank after gluing and it became a pretty nice 3 weight that I caught tons of fish on in small streams. I didn't understand how flat my nodes needed to be until I actually did the work. Sometimes you just need to plunge in and see what happens in order to understand the "why" of things.

Jeff

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canerodscom
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Re: taper favorites

#15

Post by canerodscom »

Thanks for the kind words Jeff. That little series of articles has been well received over the last 20 or so years.

Harry

sanderson
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Re: taper favorites

#16

Post by sanderson »

thanks Jeff? 3 creeks, I've got Harry's tutorial saved to my computer, read it often. Many post the suggestion to "just dive in" and make your mistakes your going to make. It's a blast, but intimidating, to say the least. I've really hit the pause after flattening nodes and straightening. What in the world is flat and straight enough?? Is hardwood in the vice hard enough to flatten, or do I have to have flat metal jaws? Also, how square must my first edge be before going in the rough plane? SO, onward from here, nice to hear the reassurance that I'm going down a traveled road, bumpy as it may be.

Canewrap
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Re: taper favorites

#17

Post by Canewrap »

"What in the world is flat and straight enough??"

Use a metal ruler or strip of something that you know is perfectly flat (old plane blade works great for this) and take the edge and hold it against your strip with the enamel side up and sitting in your forms. If you can rock the straight edge to either side of a node or see light between the straight edge and the surface of the strip, it's not flat and the node needs more work. Nodes become hard to see once they are perfectly straight, but you can do something similar to the process above to check the edge straightness of a node. Sighting down a strip will tell you if there are sweeps or bends that need to be dealt with.

sanderson
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Re: taper favorites

#18

Post by sanderson »

I'd like to thank everyone for countless suggestions and advice. You may not be aware of how much information is weaned from even the most innocuous posts. It's been a godsend for my journey. I started with a blip on a fishing site, bought a book, then another and another. Started watching video and reading this forum. I had 0 woodworking experience outside shop class 50 years ago, a sketchy relationship with minute details and focus, and little patience. But, I wanted to work on each of those personal challenges, and making my first rod allowed me to do just that. So, what began July 3 has ended with a completed Dickerson 7613, (1952 from Lovely Reed). The Bauer book and Harry Boyd's 7 part series were my main guides. Harry, I've not spoke with you, but I see your comments frequently on all the forums. You were a big help. So.....on to rod #2, a PHY perfectionist 4 wt.
Image

Image

Boise Bamboo
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Re: taper favorites

#19

Post by Boise Bamboo »

Congrats Sanderson. Well done! It looks beautiful!
Don

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Re: taper favorites

#20

Post by Canewrap »

Really nice work. The first is usually the hardest as you get used to how to work with cane. Can't wait to see
pics of your future rods.

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