Tillering again

[bigcountry]

Sorry for asking all the opinions on tillering.  

I was thinking last night about tillering procedure.  When a person has finally got a bow to brace maybe 1 or even 4 inches, should they make the limbs bend evenly all way down the limb at this point?  And when you get to final brace of 6", do you want the limbs bending the same way all way down the limbs from fades to 6" from the tips the same way it does at full draw?  

In other words what I am asking is for a straight bow, is it desirable to tiller so a gizmo as eric puts it will show the limbs evenly bending at brace and at full draw?

[George Tsoukalas]

No, what matters for a selfbow is full draw but getting a good brace bend is a good start towards that. Still have to check slowly as you increase draw length. There are buildalongs on my site. Jawge
 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[bigcountry]

I have studied a bunch of your stuff George, along with John's and others.  I just always seem to start tillering and somehow or another get under poundage.

[George Tsoukalas]

So did I way back when but you'll get it, big.

[John Scifres]

If you are bracing a bow, it should be bending pretty good out to about 16".  Don't brace until you have 3 things: limbs bending evenly (both limbs bending the same), limbs bending smootly (no hinges, no stiff spots), and weight reduced to your target draw weight at maybe 20".  This takes experience and feel but you'll get there.  

The one sure way to make weight is to take your time and never, ever pull a bow farther than it takes to identify a problem.  You have to sneak up on it, especially for your first 20 or so bows.  Missing weight happens when you rush it.  When you pull too far without the things mentioned above, you end up with a hinge that you have to fix and consequently take weight off.  Then you have to even up the two limbs, then you spiral down to 40#.

Have faith.  Relax.  Enjoy the process.  I'm assuming you are doing this for fun so savor it.  I was at MOJam a few years ago and watched Rich Saffold carry a too-heavy ipe bow around all weekend.  He had a blast reducing it a few scrapes and a few pulls at a time.  I'm not sure he ever finished it  

[bigcountry]

Here is my history of tillering.

1st bow: I floor tillered too much.  The guy showing me the ropes doesn't like tiller stick, or tiller tree, he likes to do thing by sight, so a tiller he thought was fine, I thought would be a hinge.  So I fixed it later.

2nd bow: I floor tillered this one pretty good.  Could barely get the string on to brace to 1".  Kept the limbs evenly bending the whole time. Got to the point of 55lbs@24", and did something stupid and tried to reverse bend to get out string follow and it exploded.

3rd bow: Great floor tiller, great bend, got to target wieght, but wanted to take out a dog leg and heated too much, bent too much side to side movement mid limb and got too thin on one side.  Shot fine for 100 shots and broke right where i heated.

4th bow:Not bad, not finished yet, floor tillered to where I could barely put a string on.  Put away to work on this summer.

5th bow: IPE/Boo.  Everything is going great.  Too good, want to keep it up.  But have that leary feeling things could go bad at a moments notice.  Only working on 1/2 hour a night.  Have her to 2" brace, and pulling 12".  Limbs are almost evenly bending with 10" of stiff limbs from the tips.  Moving only 1" at a time.