Are butt sections on rods made to any sort of standard taper to make reaming grips and inserts easier for the builder?

Currently reaming the wood reargrip for my "sneaky pete" and find that the piece of scrap I managed to dredge up does not quite match the taper of the butt section I'm using. As it is close enough to take me an inch short of position, I'm wondering if the tapered reamers in the machine shop would be better suited for the job.

Also wondering if the pre-made reamers available from our sponsors are made to match any sort of rod blank taper.

No, not really. Although there isn't much taper on the butt of most blanks, it is there in some amount and it's going to vary from blank to blank. This is why it's helpful to make and keep a really good assortment of reamers in various diameters and tapers.

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Thanks Tom. I guess I'll just have to look around and get lots of scrap to work with.

I remember some time back someone mentioning durable metal reamers that can be chucked up. Specifically for rod building. I'm thinking that a set of these would be priceless and extremely useful, somewhat like Andy's mandrels. A range of tapers and diameters, just like the commercial grit-on-graphite reamers. Say from diameter W to X, X to Y, Y to Z, but also in varying tapers (0.1,0.2,0.3 degrees).

Might be expensive, but I'd pay.

I'm not aware of any metal reamers other than those sold for use in machine shops to accurately size or taper bores. I'm not sure how well they would work for rod building, although they might turn out to work great.

The Flex Coat kit for making your own reamers is very good. Just stock up on some yard sale rods and make up a batch. I like solid fiberglass stock when I can find it.

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Thanks again. I have access to machine shop taper reamers for the next few months. I find they may be too short for reargrips of any appreciable length (over 5 inches), but are perfect for short foregrips, skeleton inserts, etc.

I'll check the tapers and costs. If it's right then I'll spring for them and wait for manufacturers to come up with what I had in mind, while I collect scrap and grit roll.