Uneven reflex

[John Malone]

Hello guys, thought yall could hide from didn't ya. Any way I'm tillering this R/D and one limb has more reflex than the other. The form, lams taper every thing was perfect it just came out a little uneven. How do I tiller this out. I'm still 20 pounds over weight at 18 inches. Can I remove wood from the more reflexed limb until it matches?

[Wolftrail]

I would not worry to much about it, tiller as usual and shoot the bow in until you are satisfed with the balance in hand and make the desired limb the top.

[Bowjunkie]

Forget about that. It doesn't matter if they 'match'. Heck, define 'match'. Would you rather they matched in appearance, or matched in action and effect? Many bows can't do both but must do one or the other. Matching in appearance only matters superficially to our mind's eye's want for symmetry. And she can steer us wrong more often than most realize or would care to admit. Matching in action and effect means the limbs return in unison, the bow is inherently tuned, sends the arrow straight away without porpoise or handshock, is less prone to change tiller with use, and more.

Change your mindset. Work to balance the strength of the limbs relative to your holds on bow and string. This is the beauty of the dynamic balance tillering method. It works on limbs that start off differently as well as it does those that are the same.

[John Malone]

Thanks guys, don't matter now. She blew like a cheap firecracker. Had it pulled to 45 at 18 a million times, put the string on and pulled it maybe 10 inches boom. This is the second backing strip of three from the same source that has done that. Could've been me, but I don't believe in coincidences.
  On to the next one.

[Wolftrail]

I'll say it once, I'll say it a hundred times.  As long as you are OK keep building.  This is why I prefer backing it can prevent a sliver in the face.  One bow that broke nailed my forearm I  had a welt there for a week.   

[John Malone]

It was backed. As far as ok goes I keep plenty of duct tape and antibiotics (homemade wine) handy. 

[BMorv]

Sorry that happened.  It always sucks to lose one with that much work into it. I would try and determine if it was something you did or didn’t do or if you did everything in your power and it was just a bad backing.  If you determine it was the backing, I wouldn’t use the next one.  You just have too much time invested to get it to that point to take a risk on questionable materials.  Or at least that’s my perspective

[John Malone]

Backing looked great, it can happen though I guess. Truth be known it was probably something I done. I'm thinking that when I sanded the edges of the riser in where they meet the belly I may or may not have gone a tad deep. Next time I've come up with a better way of doing it. I sand and shape it first so there isn't much left to doin that area. Next time ill glue it on square, I've got an eyede. The only part that hurt was it had black walnut lams that Roy sent me.