Yew bow tiller check/criticism

[steve b.]

65", 1.5" fades, upper limb one inch longer, zebra wood tips (not finished), about 45-50 lbs. right now.  Started with 1.5" deflex handle up to 2" now.
Its a low altitude stave and my first yew.  I was going to recurve slightly but decided to just do what I could with it, as is.  14" of draw here on the stick:

[steve b.]

[Bryce]

Looks dang good Holmes!

[BOWMAN53]

That one is being sent to my house right lol.

[Weylin]

That looks great, Steve! I got nothin' to pick at.

[Carson (CMB)]

Looking good Steve.  I like those tips, looks like you are getting the mass down on those.  Nothing wrong with a little string follow.  Makes a sweet shooter and if you keep that belly crowned like you have it will still shoot em hard. 

[bow101]

Nice piece of wood.

[Roy]

Tiller looks real nice, the natural deflex will make it a smooth shooting bow.

[steve b.]

Thanks dudes.  I hope to finish up the tillering tomorrow.  The reason I posted the pic of that knot was because I was going to ask some advice on the tillering of the lower limb.  That knot is in the middle of the first 1/3 of the lower limb where the limb also is slightly reflexed.  So it causes that 1/3 to be especially stiff and you can see in the tiller stick pic that it is a bit stiff there still.  Should I just ignore it all and tiller for a smooth curve or should I leave it stiff for strength?

[BOWMAN53]

I guess to be super picky, the inner 1/3 of the right limb could bend a tiny bit more or you can leave it and call it positive tiller with the left limb as the top. OR i could be totally wrong and have tillering eyes.

[DarkSoul]

Looking good there! It's time for the short string now. Don't use the long string any longer, but gradually increase the braceheight from an initial 3" to the full brace height.
That knot looks sound. It has quite a bulge on the back of the bow, which will mean there is more thickness near the knot. The knot will therefore always remain stiff, unless you file a dip in the belly (which I advice not to do). I'd personally ignore such a knot on the belly side when tillering. Leaving the back proud will compensate enough of the weakness of the knot, in order to create a slight stiffness in the tiller.

[Hamish]

Looking good, but if it was my stave I would heat gun it into a slight reflex, or reflex deflex the limbs to avoid stringfollow. The first yew flatbow I made came from a deflexed stave, which had been cut about 60 years ago, I wished I had reflexed it , I still might.Yew is such a joy to shoot, light in the hand with great cast. It will shoot well even with the deflex.
                                                               Hamish.

[steve b.]

You're right BOWMAN53, I need to deal with that stiff area tomorrow.
Hamish, I considered that.  I'm just not convinced yet that reflexing reduces string follow, vs. heat-treating, which I know helps. 
DarkSoul, I went from floor tiller right to short string and 5" of brace.  I left this pic out for brevity sake.

[Del the cat]

In the 5th pic down there seems to be a narrowing, one tile above that jar?
The belly doesn't seem to follow the undulations of the back...?
Tips look a tad chunky?
These are observations rather than criticisms, it's only the tiller that matters.
Just trying to help avoid any problem areas.
Del

[steve b.]

Thanks Del, I want the critique.  I see what you mean.  I cleaned it up more today and tillered it out to 45 lbs. @27".  I skipped the tiller tree and used the wife.  She can only pull about 40 lbs. @25 so I thought, "perfect".  Turns out she fell in love with the "pearl looking back".  I asked her if she wanted the bow for herself and she said, "yea!".  I thought, "great, a free pass to making another bow".  Then she said, "can you redo the handle cuz its too big".  I had just finished sanding it and was ready for pics when I went back to work on the handle.  I contoured the grip a little and called it good.  Shot it 20 times, took pics: