Wooden Bow Tillering Question

[KenH]

Somewhere in the dim ages of the past (farther back than last week) I remember reading about (and actually doing) tillering selfbows, two-wood or tri-lams bows by "stock removal" only on the back of the bow.  The advantage being that the bow could be kept strung as stock was gently removed, and you didn't have to keep stringing/unstringing/restringing to check the ellipse of the tiller.

Anybody remember this?  Can you point me in the right direction for instructions?

[Pat B]

If it is backed with a board backing strip like hickory, maple, etc. you can adjust tiller from the back some but this is limited. It is best to do most if not all of the tillering from the belly.

[Bowjunkie]

Much of the tillering on the belly can also be done with the bow braced.

[Roy from Pa]

Once I have the bow to a 4 inch brace, I never unstring the bow when removing belly wood to tiller the bow. You just need to be very careful not to cut the string.

[George Tsoukalas]

Some latch onto new things readily when there is no need to. I would not do it. As was mentioned  you can keep the bow strung, which I tend not to do much because of the danger of breaking the string. But it is possible.

Some of the European bows from antiquity were said to be tillered that way but later that was disproved.

Jawge