First osage self bow, need help tillering.

[osage outlaw]

I am working on my first bow attempt, an osage selfbow.  It is from a tree that I cut down on our farm.  It is 66" nock to nock.  I am aiming for 55lbs.  I started tillering it a couple of days ago.  Any suggestions?



Here it is with a shorter string.

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

I'm the worst to judge tiller from pictures,..but from here that tiller is all over the place, I would be carefull to draw it so much at this stage.


The guys that actually can pinpoint tillers will chime in shortly, you'll get some good advice soon.

[african man]

Hi Scrub Buster
The first step in a major journey .... 
Are the two photos the same , or have you taken some wood off between the shots ?
Photo 1  looks like a hinge starting at block 4 on left , outer half of right limb needs to bend more
Photo 2  left limb looking better , maybe a touch more bend at fade out and watch for too much bend in block 5 , right limb watch for hinge between block 2-3 and block 3-5 needs more bend
thin the tips down a bit , they look a bit chunky

Just take it slowly

This is a tool I find helps a lot with tillering , you slide it along the belly when the bow is pulled and it marks the spots that you need to remove wood , and the spots that are not marked  are left alone
Its a piece of wood with a hole drilled in the middle that fits a pencil and a larger hole counter sunk to hold a nut , that the pencil will screw into , so that the hight can be adjusted







Chris 

[osage outlaw]

Thanks,
     I have been using the tillering tool like the one you have.  I did remove a little more wood between photos.  I should have a couple of hours today to work on it and listen to the Masters.

[Timo]

Looks perty swell so far.The blue checkers hurts my eyes though. I would just work on getting more bend at the fades first.Not sure what kind of tiller you are looking for?

[Dean Marlow]

You need to get it bending more right past the fades. Looks like the first third of the limbs are to stiff. Take some off there and take a look at it again. Dean

[George Tsoukalas]

It is so nice to see you on a rope and pulley, scrub-buster. Yes, the bend should begin at the fades. It is bending there but not enough. The tiller you have is known as a whip tiller. Too much bending in the outer third of the limbs. That means the bow will stack quite a bit on you towards the end of your draw. Jawge

[osage outlaw]

It is so nice to see you on a rope and pulley, scrub-buster. Yes, the bend should begin at the fades. It is bending there but not enough. The tiller you have is known as a whip tiller. Too much bending in the outer third of the limbs. That means the bow will stack quite a bit on you towards the end of your draw. Jawge

Thanks, Jawge.  I really like the rope and pulley.  I was using it today and thought it was like a homemade Bowflex machine.  I worked on it a little more today.  I thinned out the tips and worked on the limbs.  I won't get any more time with it until Wed. or Thur.  I think it is looking a little better, but I will concentrate on the areas just after the fades and at the end of the right limb.  Thanks for the advice.  Here is a picture of the latest.

[Timo]

Scrub,I'd concentrate on the areas from the handle out, about 1 1/2 blocks.No further for now.

What does the unbraced profile show?

[osage outlaw]

Here is the unbraced bow before I thinned the limbs down.  That is the natural shape of it.  I had to heat treat some twist out of it.