Tillering

[George Tsoukalas]

That's how the bow is made or broken. Can we share some reason why we favor tillering stick over rope and pulley. I favor the rope and pulley for my safety and that of the bow. I'm far enough away to avoid injury, I can watch the limbs flex and return to make sure they do so in unison. Also, the stave is not held at draw for long periods. Jawge

[Cueball]

Neat stuff Jawge. share some more

Roby

[Steve Harville]

Hey George
I made a tillering stick before I made a tree and pulley. I intentionally broke the tillering stick to make sure it never got used any more.

Along with what you said, I think the biggest benefit of a tillering tree is that the bow doesn't stay bent very long, reducing set.

It's harder to take pictures though:) .

I added a second pully to mine to make it easier to excercise heavy bows. You have to pull twice as much rope though. The way it's set up you can bypass the second pulley for lighter bows.

[George Tsoukalas]

Thanks, Roby. Hi Steve, like a block and tackle. Neat. My bows aren't that heavy. LOL. I need the exercise anyway. I use my set up to actually judge when the stave is ready for the short string.I mark where the string ends and measure down 10 inches. My goal is I long string tiller out to 10 inches with good limb movement. Gently. Never pull over target weight by much. When I get my target weight or a bit over at 10 inches. She's 10-15 # over final potential bow weight. Perfect for the short string. No strain. I came up with this method about 10 years ago while breaking too many staves while stringing them for then first time because they were way too heavy. It's possible to do all of this while floor tillering by feel too. But i like my way. Then I can say i did it my way. Jawge

[George Tsoukalas]

So now I am done with the long string. I shape the nocks to fit my stringer and then string up the stave for the first time. Very low breace height now. May be 3 inches from the back. Then I proceed never pulling beyon target and actually off late I never pull much past 40-45 # (for a 27 inch draw) until I get to around to 20 inches of draw. I make sure the limbs are starting to bend at the end of the fades early on. Correct any problems quickly. Whenever possible remove wood from the entire limb to prevent hinging. Jawge

[George Tsoukalas]

How we doing out there? Has anyone hit full draw recently? Jawge

[The Dutchman]

Hi George,

You where instrumental in me burning my tiller-stick and going over to the tiller-tree and pully system, I have how ever added a bow scale to show the #age as I draw the the bow and never draw the bow more than the final target #age. With this method I'm still to break a bow. :thankyou:

[George Tsoukalas]

Good for you, Dutchman. Here's my latest effort. It's a hickory board bow. I wanted a bow in the middle 40's for the final day of a weekend shoot.
http://photobucket.com/albums/v331/Jawge/

[George Tsoukalas]

Almost forgot. See "T Bow". Jawge

[hunt2hunt]

Jawge,

I use a tillering tree. It is mounted on my bandsaw table as is my vise.

I have a long rope that I simply wind up on a small handle to make it shorter to get different Perspectives. I have a tape measure mounted on the tillering tree to check draw weight.

I use the same method for reverse tillering a perry r/d.

I think I would choose Dean Torges method as a second approach before I would go with a tillering stick.

h2h

[hunt2hunt]

Jawge,

I just realized I didn't answer what you really asked.

I did quite a bit of research before I settled on a tillering tree. Reading different sites and searching threads.

In the end, it was because I could watch the bow bend on a tillering tree and I could not on a stick.

I'm not sure why, but I get something out of watching the bow bend. Perhaps it is a subconcious process. I don't know.

Maybe it is like gap versus instinctive. :)

h2h

[George Tsoukalas]

Yes, indeed, HTH. It's nice watching those limbs flex, bend and return-hopefully in sync. Jawge