tillering uneven bending limbs

[ejwitman]

I am working on my first Osage bow.  Built a board bow and it came out great.  The osage I am working on is snakey as one would want out of character bow.  One limb is more reflexed than the other.  I do NOT want to get involved with heating and bending.  That being my criteria should I tiller for even bend or for even brace.  Thank you.

[Pat B]

With self bows the only place to see proper tiller is at full draw. Brace profile doesn't matter as long as the bow bends well at full draw.    Pat

[Flinttim]

Tiller at full draw is where it's at. Character bows especially , many times show weird brace tiller.If one limb has more reflex, don't get too concerned. A lot of times it disappears by the time you get it done.If I had one limb more reflexed , I'd try to get it to be the lower limb, since they are stressed more anyway.

[Pat B]

Good advice from Tim.

[ejwitman]

thank you guys.  the one with the reflex is the bottom limb.  One more ?.  If you tiller at full draw how many pounds over desired finish weight do you start.

[Flinttim]

You work toward your desired finish weight. In other words, I do not draw it past my desired weight. Example- I want a 50 # bow. I draw it to 50# , no matter the draw length. Maybe it's 50 @ 22". I check the tiller, and if it's good I scrape it some and back on the tree it goes. Now it might be 50 @ 24". Always working toward finish weight.Some like to leave it 5 lbs over their target and "sweat" it off or whatever. I try to hit target at draw length. I do tend to leave it a bit heavy, say, 52# at my length. The 2 lbs will go away with sanding. Or it might be 51# at 28". Close enough for me. NEVER draw a bow past the weight you want. ie: If you at , say 22" , do not draw it past your desired weight. In the case above, do not draw past 50 # , no matter what. The result if you do is good ol' set or string follow. Not what you want.