Tapered arrow shafts

[John57]

I'm in the process of building my own taper jig.
I have been planing on tapering my shafts 3/4 length.
And now I see the plans I'm useing for my jig are for a 10 inch taper,also the tapered shaft supplier I was going to buy from before deciding to do it myself,also only tapers to 10 inches.
So the question is,,,will I gain anything by going to the longer taper,or is 10 inches an optimum after which nothing is really gained.
Thanks for any comments.

[Shaun]

A 10" taper allows better clearance of the fletching and tail of the arrow off the shelf and does not greatly affect the spine. The middle of the shaft clears by bending away from the handle with "archer's paradox".

[Joseph]

Tapering 3/4 of the shaft length would take a lot of spine off and would also make the nock end extremely small.  Joseph

[aromakr]

John:
Tapering the shaft has absolutly nothing to do with arrow clearence of the shelf. The reason for tapering is to overcome paradox quicker. As Joseph said you will loose quite a bit of spine with that long a taper. What I would suggest is tapering both ends. Starting with a 23/64 diameter shaft taper the nock end 8-10" to 5/16" then taper the point end 12-13" to 11/32. Now these taper lengths and not cut in stone, your arrow length will ditcate how long the tapers can be made. I have in my collection arrows with all different taper lengths, made by some of the finest arrowsmiths of the past. The idea is to remove weight from the ends of the shaft, which in turn speeds paradox recovery.
Bob

[John57]

Thanks guys,
And Bob,thanks for the explaination.
I knew I could expect better arrow flight.
Just wasn't to sure why.
Thanks again.

[The Ursus]

I have a home made taper jig that I use.  I taper most of my shafts 15-25"s.  Most of my 3/8" dowels need a lot of material removed to get them to my 75-80# spine.  I usually run them through 15 inches then check spine.  Then keep running them deeper into the jig till the spine comes down to where I need.  I leave the bottom of the jig open at 5/16 so when the shaft comes through it can't get any smaller on the knock end.

In short, I think longer tapers help flight by putting more weight up front.  You'll just need to make a longer jig.

[dino]

Ursus,
What kind of jig are you using?  Got any pics? dino

[John57]

Dino,I can't speak for Ursus of course,but the jig I'm making is an exact copy of the one posted by Rob Distefano in the "how to" section right here on TG.
I'm just going to make mine to what ever final length I decide on.
I'm looking at 10" on the back and 6 on the front,so I guess I'll be making two of them.
Cheers.