Bracing

[SLIMBOB]

Hey Don.  Glad you checked in this Morn!  I laughed out loud over the mental picture you painted for me.  If you step thru, which I do, and you age from year to year, and I begrudgingly admit that I do, then ones balance may not be as sharp as it once was.  The inevitable stumble fumble with a bow wrapped around your leg is somewhere on the horizon.  As to your comment on safety, I will respectfully disagree.  Most of the breaks I've had over the years didn't happen while bracing the bow.  Most of the breaks for me anyway, happened nearer to full draw.  I said earlier that my tiller method is unrecognizable to Curt, who got me started in all this.  One of the areas that has not changed or diverged for either of us over the years is bracing the bow early.  It's how I learned to do it.  Yes, some caution is in order.  Floor tiller well!  By that I mean make sure when you string it that it is floor tillered well enough not to bend like a hockey stick.  That's a"feel" thing that improves over time.  But if you brace the bow with 1 inch, or 2 inches of brace height, and you have lots of weight left to shed, then I don't believe you will stress one near enough to break it.  That shorter string will give you a truer reading on the tiller than a long string will.  As Bryce said, the long string will lie to you.  Want to increase the odds you come in under weight?  Tiller out to near full draw with a long string.  The string angle throws your weight reading off, not to mention that that long string just doesn't pull on those limbs like a short taught string will.  How many times, with a long string, has everything looked really good....until you brace it, and it's a mess.  Guilty here.  If you have lots of weight left to remove, 4 inches at 35 lbs, no biggie.  If however you are at 20 inches and 35, you get the sadz when you realize you have two untenable choices.  1.  Fix the tiller and come in under weight.  2.  Don't fix the tiller so that you get that 50 lb bow you wanted.  If the biggest drawback is having it look like a hockey stick when you first brace it, work on your floor tiller.  If your worst fear is doing the "self bow bossa nova" while performing the step thru...I'm with you on that one.
DC always comes up with good topics to discuss.  Hope this hasn't driven your question into the ditch.

[George Tsoukalas]

I long string tiller to to 10"of string movement; not tip movement) looking for a good tiller and target weight. This puts the save 10-15" over target weight. Then I string it with the short string.

I've been doing that for years.

The bowyer can also do it by feel.

In my early days, stringing a stave that was too heavy sometimes resulted in an immediate break and so I developed this method.

Jawge

[DC]

So, as early as you can string it comfortably, as long as the bend is good? The last few have been too recurved to push/pull so I have to use my stringer.

[burchett.donald]

  Bob, I have done the "self bow step through bossa nova" more than once, LOL...When I mentioned "safety" I was referring to over stressing one limb causing "set" not breakage, my appologies for not being clearer on that...There is also the difference of low brace vs full brace as we all know...I want all the "new folks" to be aware of bracing an "unbalanced" long string or floor tillered bow can cause set...It took me a while to find this uneven low brace photo...You can see the left limb was weak...If it was really weak it could have taken set at this point...As stated earlier I ruined one years ago...I know most of the guys on this thread are expirienced enough to go from floor to brace but not the newbies unless they are really lucky...This is a series of 3 pictures from "low brace unbalanced" to "full brace" and "full draw" old pics from 2014...
                                                                                                                      Don

[Pat B]

I guess the ends justify the means. 

[bushboy]

The first brace will tell me if I have reduced it enough,if it's too much of a struggle I go back to floor tiller.

[bradsmith2010]

yes I have had some heavy bows stuck on my leg,,more than I want to admit,,

[SLIMBOB]

If....you are content with your particular technique... if your end result, the final product is what you were aiming for...consistently, you have little reason to change anything.  What you are doing is working for you.  But...if you find yourself often fighting late stage tiller issues....if that picture you posted on PA asking for tiller help, shows a bow out of kilter at near full draw....if you have been inconsistent in hitting your target weight far too often...then trying what I and others have suggested here, just might be worth a try.

[Bryce]

Lots of good and respectful things being said I like it. What this forum is for:)

To those that use a long string, try this; go from floor tiller to low brace, tiller to 18” then finish it on up. You’ll have that baby bending perfectly in 45 mins no problem. Well... on a stave that doesn’t have any major issues.

✌🏼