Define 'Parabolic'

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Canewrap
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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#41

Post by Canewrap »

I propose we change the label from Parabolic to double-action.

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quashnet
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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#42

Post by quashnet »

"Double action" is exactly how Paul H. Young characterized the performance of the Parabolic 16, a model with a more radical taper than some of his other rod designs. From the description of the Para 16 in the circa 1955 PHY catalog:

"This unusual rod probably has the most line casting power per weight of bamboo of any rod in our line... It has double action, while playing a fish you will feel the action of the butt right into the cork grip. The butt gets in its power impulse first, then as the tip straightens, the line really goes places."
Please visit and bookmark the Paul H. Young Rod Database
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Other rod databases: Dickerson , Orvis , Powell

Alberto1
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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#43

Post by Alberto1 »

I quote Charles Ritz regarding “Parabolic Rod”. “This is the action I call “Parabolic”, though the term is only a figure of speech, and the curve of the rod has absolutely nothing whatever to do with a parabola”.

Taken from A Fly Fishers Life, page 92 - 93.

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BigTJ
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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#44

Post by BigTJ »

Stiff lower tip and mid; deeper flexing butt.

I’m with Alberto1 the name Parabolic is just a name it has nothing to do with fitting a parabola / taper /stress cart you can fit a section of parabola to some degree to just about anything. And a full parabola with both legs doesn’t look anything like a taper or a stress curve.

In other words if you can fit a parabola section to an A taper Powell - which you can by forcing the math and truncating the data - you know you’re wrong because and A taper Powell is not a parabolic taper it’s the opposite it has a stiff butt and flexible mid to tip.

Another way to look at it if a parabola can be fit to both an A and a C tapers then why not call all tapers parabolic?

John
Last edited by BigTJ on 08/01/19 15:41, edited 5 times in total.

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BigTJ
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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#45

Post by BigTJ »

hoagy b carmichael wrote:Gentlemen:

In an effort to add some clarity to this interesting subject I would like to quote from a letter written to me by Alfred Miller (Sparse Grey Hackle) in 1977 on this subject. I certainly do not intend to injure our friends in France, or anywhere else, but Sparse was in the middle of all this and I feel his recollections important to the subject matter here. I quote:

"Later, Jack [John Alden Knight] sucked Garry [Everett Garrison] in a little on his "parabolic" taper a brand-new invention by the great Knight - according to him. Of course, one Enright, an Irish maker of the famous Castleconnell type of salmon rod, had come over in 1909 to the Anglers' Club national casting tournament, and had beaten the pants off all the competition in the two-handed salmon event. He was a big, powerful bruiser and yet the only member of the Anglers' Club who could cast with it was the diminutive George LaBranch; so Enright gave that rod and a similarly designed trout rod to George, and after George's death his widow gave them to me and I gave them to the Anglers' Club collection."

"Garry cut a few rods to Jack;'s modified (parabolic) tapers to see if Jack could sell them, but nobody bought them after trying one or two casts; one had to fish nothing but parabolics and get used to that slow, top-heavy action. Jack finally sold Charlie Ritz, who soon found he had to make some fundamental modifications; I think he still retains the name or something like it. He's such a horse.... artist that you can never tell just what Charles Ritz does mean."

Sparse goes on in a different letter to refute the largely baseless story that Mr. Ritz apparently made up. "I think the Ritz story about about the messenger boy (his fly rod was broken in the spokes of his bicycle), etc. is so much horse..... Ritz was a good merchant and a money maker, and he needed a few things to make Pezon & Michel unique and desirable."

So, there from Sparse is his version of the origins of the "parabolic" taper design. Jack Knight was not an engineer, as was Garrison, and the term "parabola" was probably not in Mr. Knight's vocabulary. Did Mr. Garrison first coin the term "parabolic" to the 8'0" rods made for Knight? I think so. It certainly was not Mr. Ritz....

H. Carmichael
What the letter can't change is the fact that Charles Ritz was a champion of what we now call Parabolic tapers. He is the one who gets credit of marketing the name and coining them to the masses, later followed by Paul Young. Regardless of what we believe, the taper is what it is, and wherever the name come from, it stuck. I also think that these types of tapers pre-dated 1909 by a long shot. In fact it's about what you get when you cut a willow branch and attach a horsehair string to it.

Hoagy a question for you - do you think that the name parabolic has any mathematical connection between one leg of a parabola and the curve of the taper? The story in the book says it was the stress curve not the taper. But I've always thought in the end it was just a name, not a concept Garrison ever pursued.

jim royston
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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#46

Post by jim royston »

I think, at this point, it would be easier to describe the nature of the universe and man's purpose on earth!

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mer
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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#47

Post by mer »

jim royston wrote:I think, at this point, it would be easier to describe the nature of the universe and man's purpose on earth!
The latter question about man's purpose is very easy.
We were put here to determine "the best 5 wt fly rod".

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BigTJ
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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#48

Post by BigTJ »

jim royston wrote:I think, at this point, it would be easier to describe the nature of the universe and man's purpose on earth!
It would be a lot easier if people would stop trying to put a mathematical meaning on the name and just come to grips with the fact it's an action type with a stiff lower tip and mid and soft butt.

-John

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SEKG
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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#49

Post by SEKG »

Image
A picture of a Dickerson 801510 made by Lew Parks, awesome rod, if you like that type of action. If you look close you can see the parabolic action.

GRASSNGLASS
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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#50

Post by GRASSNGLASS »

With a long line out the one big thing I notice with Parabolics is at the end of the forward and backcast there are two distinct bumps instead of the normal one bump. Seems like two sections of the rod finish loading at different times.

Barry

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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#51

Post by Tommasini »

fat tip /thin butt

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thegubster
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Re: Define 'Parabolic'

#52

Post by thegubster »

SEKG wrote:Image
A picture of a Dickerson 801510 made by Lew Parks, awesome rod, if you like that type of action. If you look close you can see the parabolic action.

SEKG thanks very much for that excellent "action shot"!! It tells much indeed.

I don't have a "true parabolic" but a friend who's a "bloody good" caster got hold of one of my favored rods once and mentioned "Hmm, nice, like semi-parabolic maybe"...

I just know that particular rod is a special one for me so I guess I'm a fan!

That's a really telling photo!! Thanks much. Looks like you're in a bit of "God's country" there too. (no comment req'd. ... 8) )


Jeremy.

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