I may have to put one of those together to give it a try.
I've been making battleshafts for a group shooting heavy yew warbows and simply free handing the taper. This jig may make it easier to steady the shaft during the planing operation. Hanging onto a 1/2" shaft isn't too bad but the board may make it just a little bit better.
Guy
PB, your taper procedure is very similar to what I do.
I'm doing a 15" taper on a 36" shaft. On the nock end I mark 5", 10", and 15".
I run the little hand plane from the 5" mark to the nock end of the shaft, once around the shaft.
Then I run the plane from the 10" mark to the end of the shaft, once around the shaft.
Repeat from the 15" mark.
As you can see, the first 5" section has the plane go over it three times. The 10" section twice and the 15" section once. I repeat as needed until the end of the shaft gets close to 3/8". Then I sand with 80grit to even out the ridges from the plane. After gluing in the horn reinforcing strip for the nock and cutting in the nock I finish sand to 200grit and I'm done.
Jeez... I wish the actual work went that fast!
Guy