Holding beyond brace

[Badger]

  I have always tended to snap shoot and only touch full draw on the tiller tree until the last couple of years when I became more interested in the no set tillering methods. I would prefer to be able to pull to a full anchor and hold with full confidence as long as I need to hold just as I would do on a glass bow. I am finding if bows are long enough and wide enough to accommodate the weight and draw I am asking they can do that. Obviously we don't have to do that but it is nice to have that extra confidence.

[bradsmith2010]

I think it is great to know where the limit is,, instead of guessing,,

[Marc St Louis]

I scrape on a braced bow all the time.  I also do some scraping on a bow pulled to maybe 12" of draw when I need to work on the outer limbs, I'll do that to get the string out of the way on recurves.  I will hold a bow at full draw for several seconds while tillering but not minutes 

[burchett.donald]

  I don't think it's necessary...Although I have done it a few times with a tiller stick to change the string angle to clear my card scraper near the outers on short bendy's...I wouldn't want to pull that far unless it was tillered to that point...
                                                                                                                                        Don

[Stickhead]

I've got a wall-mounted tiller tree that I build onto a whiteboard.  That way, I can pull it to a given length, quickly trace the curve on the whiteboard, and get it back off the tree within a few seconds.  Then, I can make measurements and analyze the heck out of the curve without over-stressing the bow.

[BowEd]

I've caught myself holding a bow at full draw on the tree to evaluate.Maybe a good 10 seconds or so I guess.Does'nt seem to hurt it any.Tillered & tweaked braced and unbraced before depending on how much weight reduction I need to do.
Many things can bring set I guess.This may be an off set side note story but I had a fella I made a bow for with a proclaimed 30" draw & tillered it to that draw.He did'nt draw any farther than 28" really.Made him a 68" osage bow.I own a few almost exactly the same.Months later I saw his bow and it had taken some set while mine had'nt and that his brace height was pretty high I thought.Like 8" for sure.I asked him if that was the height he normally braced it.He said yes a fistmele and showed me his.Most guys fistmele is more then these flat bows need to be braced.I said that's ELB long war bow jargon.I could be wrong about that though.These flat bows don't need that height.7" is more than plenty.String to the back that is.It should be the height that still shoots the arrow cleanly.

[bradsmith2010]

I am pretty sure Tim Baker said to brace the bow 1 inch higher,, is the same stress as drawing it 2 more inches,,

[BowEd]

Good point Brad.I don't doubt that to be true.No matter what a person can't deny that wood has a memory.I guess as long as the memory implantment[is that a word..sounds good though....lol] is'nt too terribly long it's ok....lol.

[PEARL DRUMS]

In my opinion the hyper-sensitive "set" thing some of us suffer from has cost us a lot of our accuracy.  Short drawing and snap shooting so we don't cause set. It has to start somewhere and that's a good place.

[DC]

I am pretty sure Tim Baker said to brace the bow 1 inch higher,, is the same stress as drawing it 2 more inches,,

I've been thinking about this kind of stuff lately. I wonder if he meant just stress from various sources or if he meant the bow actually bends that much tighter. I find this kind of stuff is very difficult to get a mental picture of and usually have to make a drawing or a model to take actual measurements from.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I've seen a TON of over braced bows and they are just fine. Draw a bow 2" beyond its intended draw and many will blow up. 

[bradsmith2010]

an overbraced bow is still under more stress,, even if it can take it,, really not good for the bow,,
if designed to be braced high no problem,,Jim Hamm used to shoot his braced high, but made it long to compensate,, he did not short draw ,, hit about 29 inches of draw with high brace,, I cant do it,,makes me snap shoot and short draw if its braced high,,,

DC,, it was my understanding that when you shorten the string to make the brace higher,, it will pull the tips further at a given draw,,
I am sure someone else can explain it more clearly, ,pretty sure it is in volumn 1

[DC]

The thing we should be thinking about is the relationship between brace height and bow length. To have the same "brace height" effects a 36" bow should have half the brace height of a 72" bow. Or maybe not, my thinking may be off there but you should get my drift. In order to have the same stresses a longer bow will need a higher brace height. Unfortunately brace height is usually set for physical reasons, fletch clearance, wrist slapping or arrow flight. I think this means that shorter bows are usually under more stress at brace than a long bow. Maybe one of the reasons long bows are more durable.

[bradsmith2010]

great point, why didnt I think of that,,,

[DC]

Cause I'm smarter not