MAINE - Life in the Slow Lane
Keith
You're screwed Buddy! You do cane and you'll never go back to carbon or glass. Dickerson is a "Fast" taper, if there is such a thing in Bamboo. Jamie laid out 130 feet of line and backing with a 4 wt Dickeson taper I had.
Myself, I love the Orvis and Winston tapers but you'll have to try them out for yourself to decide. There is an annual event up in Maine in the Spring each year where you can lay out line with every taper ever made. I'll have to hook you up with my Bud in Merrimack.
The one taper you didn't mention, which IMHO is the best of the best because I am a 2 weight slut, is the Wayne Cattenache taper. A 2 WT cane rod in that taper is a gift of the Gods.
STOP it! I'm still huntin 
Bout Jan I'll be all hot an horny about fly fishin gear.
Just a heads up on cane. Calcutta is NFG according to Jamie and a host of other builders I know. Tonkin is the best. Now with that said, all Tonkin is NOT created equal. A lot of what gets to the states is not so wonderful, because, the "Hiti Kitis" keep the best for themselves. Howsomever, Andy Shin, who in my opinion is the BEST cane rod builder in the world, can get me a culm of the best of the best.
When the time comes let me know. I do have connections world wide 
BTW- Dave IS evil, but we love him anyway 
You guy's kill me Evil nah twisted maybe. Keith like Koda already mentioned the Boo Fest in Maine is where I would start. You can cast every boo taper known to mankind. The rod you feel most comfortable is where I would start Not to make matters worse but wait until you purchase a traditional real to match that classic boo your building
Dave great minds think alike (well at least you and I do). I am already laying out the build in my mind and it is centering around a classic/vintage real.
Koda, you never fail to come through...looks like I need to head to boofest (anything like woodstock?)
BTW you guys are like crack dealers... here taste this buddy you'll never go back to the 45's.....bastards!
Keith
Woodstock was chump change next to the Boo Fest in Maine. When you get like me & Lee, so old you gotta sit down to piss, you been around the Horn. NEVER sell the old bucks short. They've seen some shit come down the pike. Do the boo fest, decide what you like in a cane rod, and if you decide to do a build from the ground up I'll get you the best cane culm on the planet. If you decide to hell with that end of it I'll get you a done blank in the taper of your choice. Doing a blank from scratch is a bitch. One little void in the matchup of the 6 segments destroys the rod IMHO. Nah, I'll leave that to Andy. He's been doing it for 50 years, I think he's got it figgered out
Keith and anyone else who would like to go, lets get a group together and all go. I have a friend (Joel Anderson) who will be a big help in making up your mind what taper to do. If I can get the photo's from Joel and put them back into his write up on making a bamboo rod you will have a great source right here on this site. I will work on that in the next week or two.
See Yah
Lee
Sign me up Lee!
I was also thinking of getting a group together for the big fly fishing show they do in Worcester every year.
Bought some new fly tying material yesterday to try the heron fly and now you have us thinking about bamboo rods and vintage reels. No wonder folks aren't using the site as much, it's too expensive!
I have a bit of the bug for the rod building and have been thinking along the same lines as you, if I'm going to do a flyrod, why not go bamboo. I've been wanting to make one ever since reading about it as a kid, but have always thought I'd do it later on in life. After finishing the baitcaster, I starting looking at bamboo blanks, tapers, building from scratch,etc and decided more research would be needed. I've held a couple 3-4 weight bamboo rods and think that's the size I would go for as well. I have an old Battenkill six weight that fishes a 5 weight line pretty well, but I've always thought it was a bit heavy for what I generally fish.
I'd be interested in joining a group to go to the bamboo meetup in Maine. If you are interested in a sort of partner in crime in making one from scratch, I could probably have my arm twisted fairly easily. Should be spending my time on other stuff, but it would be fun. Not sure where you live, but my woodworking shop is in Rollinsford, NH, next to Dover, and we have tools, space to build, make dust etc. If there are others on the site that would be interested we could try to arrange something...
I am seriously thinking about this class:
Build Your Own Traditional Bamboo Fly Rod
Doug Moody
Check out his videos on YouTube.
That school looks like a great place and the prices seem really good.
So Dave planted the seed and that combined with my OCD and the enjoyment I get from building my own rods has resulted in my researching bamboo fly rod blanks for my next build.
I have at least settled on a 4wt somewhere in the 7-7.5 foot range.
Now I have to decide on taper... this is where it gets a bit confusing, there are so many. So to really add to the sickness I even found a school where I can go for a weekend and build my own blank from scratch, this really appeals to my "do it yourself" attitude, I just need to find the time.
So what I need from this community is; what do you know about the various tapers and what would you reccomend and why?
Some of my taper choices are:
Dickerson
Anderson
Hardy
FE Thomas
Leonard (about 10 varriations)
Ovis (all the classics)
Payne
Winston
-Keith
All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing