Breaking in a bow

[DC]

I'm sure this has been covered before but I could come up with any search parameters that worked. Let's say you are tillering a bow and you'r after 40#@28". When do you stop scraping and go put couple hundred arrows through it. 25,26,27 inches or maybe 45#. How do 'you' do it and does it depend on the species of wood at all.

[Del the cat]

I might go a couple of pounds over weight and shoot say 50 arrows before final sanding and finishing.
If you can get within 5# of the target, that's pretty much good enough.
Or if I want 40# at 28" I'll quit taking off weight at say 40# @ 26" and then allows final scraping, sanding and shooting in to let it come back the last 2".
I just finished one, the guy wanted 42#  ... so that's what it says on the bow , to be honest, it depends if you weigh it when first strung or after a day's shooting. It's somewhere between 40# and 45# but i didn't tryu to weigh it accurately as it's impossible.
Del

[Onebowonder]

<snip>I just finished one, the guy wanted 42#  ... so that's what it says on the bow , to be honest, it depends if you weigh it when first strung or after a day's shooting. It's somewhere between 40# and 45# but i didn't tryu to weigh it accurately as it's impossible.
Del

We won't tell him Del... 

OneBow

[bradsmith2010]

what Del said sounds pretty good,, you probably going to loose a couple of pounds after final shoot in,, or may have to take a few scrapes to even tiller ... so better to be a couple pounds over,,

[George Tsoukalas]

By the time I get to full draw, the stave has been drawn so much on the rope and pulley that it is ready to be shot which I do anywhere from 24-36 times.

I check tiller...actually I have my daughter snap a digi to check tiller and then I finish it.

Jawge

[PEARL DRUMS]

Snap a digi Jawgey? Look at you Mr. Techy

[Badly Bent]

I usually start shooting some arrows at short draw when I'm within 3-4" of target draw length and still have a few pounds of draw weight to spare but only if the tiller looks good. I don't pull it to my full targeted draw weight until within an inch of hitting full draw. Of course all of this is assuming I hit target weight at all which happens less often than I care to admit.

[Pat B]

I'm like George. If you exercise the bow with every wood removal and sweat it from full brace through full draw without overdrawing the bow it's pretty much shot in when you meet your draw weight on the tiller. You might loose a pound with final sanding but gain performance once you reduce tip weight by shaping the tips.

[George Tsoukalas]

Once I string the stave, I put the aggressive tools away. I'm using a scraper-like tool. Actually, it's a Swedish push knife used as a scraper.

So there is very little sanding to do and at least theoretically, not much weight to be lost.

LOL, PD, I even have an iphone thingy.
Jawge

[Stixnstones]

i just finished a osage recurve the same way Badly Bent was talkin about. and thats pretty much my standard practice

[bow101]

I read either in the Trad Bowyers bible 3 or 4 that he tillered his bows to 24" then shot them in.  With tiller been equal and or close to perfect and/or 1/4" positive tiller re-finish the tiller after 60 or so shots and Bob is your uncle.

Does that make sense..?

[PEARL DRUMS]

I stretch mine out pretty good once the tiller is even, no surprises in the end that way and any weight loss is small enough I dont notice it. Always watch the target draw weight of course. I guess you could say I don't coddle them when i tiller.