Its half term and I spent some time catching up with half finished projects, in this case following the archaeological drawing of an original tiller and trigger to mount a lath sent to me by Del last summer. The original finds date to the 1040s AD and are from Lac du Paladru, Colletieres a Charavines, in France.
The lath is a lightweight 30lb in walnut sapwood, it took 1.5 inch set on a 33 inch ntn with 10 inch draw
Have to say, this is a really sophisticated design, you lean against the trigger with your thumb which you activate by pushing it (not pulling) while lightly laying a finger on the bolt and holding the back end of the cut-out section, all with one hand, the other hand being at the fore-end holding up the bow. The trigger has a stop designed into it and gives a lovely positive action, clicking into place on both ends of its movement, though carving the stop into the trigger channel is a bit of a potch. I messed the geometry up and had to put the nose of the trigger into a groove in the string notch to stop it gapping as it reached the top of its arc. Its all mated to a 30lb walnut bow with a late gothic type binding as no-one knows what the binding should be and this type of binding is as likely as any as well as being very effective.
The bow is correctly mounted but I drew it badly in a rush to grab the photo
