IMHO "working" a bow on the tree, or "working in" adjustments is not only a waste of time, but actually works against you. I only bend a bow far enough to see a flaw in the tiller, frequently doing most of the work at brace height. I don't "work" a bow until the tiller is nearly finished, usually no sooner than around 20" of draw and then only just enough to detect a need for changes. Working a bow prematurely, while any flaws exist, simply sets the weak wood unecessarily. Better to get it all bending even, with as little work as possible, THEN, work the bow. Preferrably by shooting with the aim of fine tuning the timing and while paying acute attention to where the limbs take set. These areas are weak, whether the static tiller reveals it or not.
I admit this may be an advanced technique, although I see lots of bowyers who should know better by now still advocate the "working in" adjustments dogma. The only advantage I see to the practice is it helps the the bowyer make the draw weight he set out to. But most frequently, unfortunately, making cast like a 10# lighter bow because the weaker wood has already been thorougly crushed and the bow has to drag this dead weight around for the rest of it's life. I wait until I get nearly to full draw (ie. 25" draw) leaving an extra 10# on the bow, then reduce the weight at the end if necessary. More often than not, the last 10# will pull out while shooting the bow in, from 25" to 28" draw, without any more wood reduction.
Shoot a bow your are making through the chrono at 25" draw and 10 gpp, then at 28" once it's "worked in" and you'll see the difference it makes. It can be a real eye opener. Wish I could figure out how to keep a bow "fresh" all the way up to full draw.
