Tapers

I'm going to try posting images of my taper sheets with a few comments now and then. They will be archived in the Tapers photo album. I'm not sure how the photos will work, but I'll give it a try. Hopefully they can be printed landscape on most printers. I've got about 500 tapers in an Excel database. I can compare about any two bamboo tapers that have been made by the world's master craftsmen. The taper sheets like the one I posted last night are a summary of two tapers with comparisons. The stress and deflection algorithms were built by Jim Utzerath and presented at a rod makers gathering in 2000. I stumbled across Jim and his spreadsheet a couple years later. Jim generously agreed to share the . I've passed it on to a few other makers, but as far as I know, I'm the only person actively using the today. To the best of my knowledge, there are no other deflection s out there that are built out in as much detail as Jim's. This thing is very cool. I need to check my notes, but I think Jim described it as a static deflection . It produces the standard Garrison style stress curve and then goes a couple steps further. It simulates the effect of bending the rod under a static load. With that done, the bent stress and deflection curves are produced. The summary sheet includes all three charts plus taper and deflection values and some statistics. The summary sheet changes a little every time I work on it. So the posted sheets may evolve over time as I fine tune them. So...just how useful are all these charts and stats? They're almost useless if you're not familiar with one of the two tapers...like you've actually fished one of the tapers. If you have that as a starting point, this stuff can be priceless. The deflection curve speaks volumes about the relative performance of two tapers. The deflection values look reasonable for normal circumstances, but don't take the deflection values literally. This will only add value if you're familiar with one of the two tapers. So for what it's worth, I'll post my favorites occasionally and others as requested.