My usual draw weight target is just 40 pound. If I pull hard on a bow at the long string stage, there is a good chance that I can pull it way over 40 pound just to see if it will bend at all. I just hate to look at the scale all the time while I pull on a bow on the tillering tree. Frankly I hardly ever use it anymore. I just tiller the stave without putting on the string to the short string stage. Then I tiller it short stringed to even out the bend, usually for less than an hour each time. I do not pull on it hard unless I am close to my draw length target. Then of course, I have never made a perfectly tillered bow. It sounds incredible but I read somewhere old master bowyers never even stringed the bow until it was all but finished. I guess they were doing perfect no-set-tillering.
