Tiller check and brace ?

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I'm working on a Black Locust short bow. It's 45" NTN and I'm looking for a 21" draw out of it and am going to aim for about 55-60 lbs. Right now I have it at a 3.5" brace when measured from the inside of the handle and unstrunge it is almost perfectly straight. What do you all think would be a good brace to start with for a bow of this size? I'm thinking not too far from where it is now.  O and how does the tiller look where it sits? I have not pulled it past the point it is braced right now so I don't know where it is standing in terms of weight yet. This bow started out going to be a longer straight bow, then I decided I would try and see what it would be like as a recurve and broke it off when trying to bend the tips with a heat gun. I don't think it works too well trying to bend wood with dry heat after it has been heat treated. Then after I shortened it I reheat treated it heavily. In the picture of the front profile I put a yard stick next to it to show size.

Kyle

[twisted hickory]

So far the braced profile looks good to me. Full draw picts? For brace I start low most likely around 4.5 on that bow and shoot some matched arrows out of it. Twist the string up till you get reasonable flight out of the arrows and you don't hear the arrow slapping the arrow rest loudly. So far I have only built 6  bows but I have found this to work well for me to get good arrow flight and not end up with a too high of brace. It helps as well to have a narrow as possible arrow pass if design permits make the arrow pass so the arrow contacts the side of the bow near the back of the bow. 
Hope that works for you, it does for me.
Greg