So, the last couple bendy handle bows I've made, while the tiller seems to look good in the hand, I'm finding, at brace, the bottom limbs are ending up extremely stiff. I'm wondering, if my hand is masking the tiller of the bottom limb or something.
Pic #1 - Little black walnut sapling bow - tiller seemed good, but I eventually noticed, at brace, the bottom limb is MUCH stiffer (no braced pic, sorry)
Pic#2 - After feeling like the bow in hand pic wasn't telling the whole story (some of the bend is covered up by the hand) I took some pics on the tillering tree, and the bottom limb seemed waaay stiff. So after trying to get a good tiller on the tree, the brace looked much more even, and I started feeling a bit better, so I took another bow in hand pic...
Pic#3 - Braced bow looks much more even, and seems good, but now, taking a pic with the bow in hand, it looks to be hinging just below my hand on the bottom limb and too stiff on upper limb for the inner 1/3rd of the limb. (which is a problem I was fighting before when I was doing all my tillering with the bow in hand pictures)
I'm not sure what to do next. When I pull on the tillering tree, I use a little bit of tooling leather as wide as my 3 fingers and pull on the string where I would pull if I had an arrow nocked. Arrow pass is 1" above center, and I center the arrow pass at the center of my block on the tillering tree. So I'm trying to get a similar pull on the tree as I do in the hand. I've heard it said a lot that the bow in hand is the true test of the tiller, but what seemed like a good tiller in the hand resulted in a lousy tiller at brace. I seem to have an easier time with stiff handle bows because I can orient the bow better because of the straight line at the back of the handle. I feel like bendy handles might be tricking me by covering up limbs that are too stiff by rocking in the hand a little, or maybe the way I'm holding the bow is changing the tiller, or maybe I'm over thinking the whole process. Help please!
