What would you do?

[DC]

This is a waggle in a Douglas Maple bow. Would you follow the back more closely or is it OK the way I'm going? It's about 1/8" through the waggle.

[aaron]

those roller coasters are always a challenge- If they are good wood and not too tight a radius, I just follow the back... yours has less than ideal wood (knot) and a tight radius. I think you are doing the right thing by leaving it stiff, but I'm worried about that knot near the edge.

[Springbuck]

Is that part going to bend?  I think you are fine if it's not, or the bend comes up right next to it, but if you intend that area to bend right through, you are in for a challenge anyway.

[DC]

The crook is right in the middle of the limb so ideally it should bend but I'm just not sure how much I dare to try to get it to bend. I'm going to leave it a bit thick cause I'm chicken but I was a curious how close the pro's would take it.

[stuckinthemud]

The tiller tree will show you what to do

[George Tsoukalas]

That's a tough tiller. I would definitely tiller that to not bend as much as the rest of the limb.
Jawge

[BowEd]

Yea I think I'd leave that stiff too.

[mikekeswick]

The problem may be the lack of extra width at the knot. Best to have a reasonable amount of bend there or else you may get chrysals either side of it. Remember stiff spots throw extra strain on the wood either side, especially the handle side. So it is going to be a balancing act.

[Selfbowman]

I always leave those areas a little thicker but follow the back as mentioned. Then during tiller treat it as it were a knot . Remove  slowly and carefully till you like the bend. The gizmo won't help you here. Arvin

[Selfbowman]

This is what I did. Arvin

[Springbuck]

That's a tough tiller. I would definitely tiller that to not bend as much as the rest of the limb

I'm with Jawge, especially if that's as straight front to back as it's gonna get.

  I believe that crowned staves have their own problems, but seem to be more forgiving of a little grain run off.  Like when I with apple, serviceberry, or hawthorn, the spiral grain is less of an issue on a small diameter stave.....so you got that going for you.

   A lot of times around knots, bumps, wags like that I rough it out to the same starting thickness as the rest of the limb, like 5/8" of whatever, and then I thin and taper further right up against the bad spot, but basically leave it alone, unless it's obviously way thicker than it needs to be.  And it doesn't need to be much thicker to bend less or not at all.

[DC]

Thanks guys. A good mixture of answers so I'm just going to make it as thin as I think I can get away with. My problem has moved up the bow a bit. There was a small ripple in the back that I followed some on the belly. When I braced it I got a bit(a big bit) of a hinge there. I didn't want to pull on it much so I glued a patch on the belly to support it. I'm just at brace and it's pulling close to 40# so with any luck as I tiller it out I will scrape the patch off. If not, into the fire pit