Negative tiller. Fix it or leave it?

[cool_98_555]

Hi guys,

I finished another osage selfbow.  Shoots great, with really straight arrow flight, and hardly any hand shock.  BUT...it has 1/8" negative tiller, and I shoot split finger with the arrow about 1.5" above center.  Should I just leave it?  Will it make the bottom limb a lot weaker over time?  Should I fix it and lose another 5 pounds or so?  Anyone have a great shooting bow that has negative tiller?

[Stick Bender]

If it was my bow and it was shooting great with no shock or vibration, I would leave it , I let how the bow shoots tells me what to do ! but one trick I used in the past where I wanted more positive tiller with out losing weight was to shim the limb tip on a caul and heat a slight bit of reflex in !

[George Tsoukalas]

I say enjoy your bow as is. Jawge

[cool_98_555]

How do you guys measure positive/negative tiller?  I have been measuring by putting the back of the handle flat against the wall and measuring the deflection of both tips.  I've also tried measuring from a spot on the belly to the string on both limbs, but I don't know which is correct.  Maybe I'm using the wrong measuring method?

[Stick Bender]

This is one of those topics that come up where you will get a lot of different answers , some think that positive tiller can only be measured at full draw , but the way I was taught to do it is brace the bow 7 in. from the back of the bow and measure from the belly at the end of the fades to the string , I shoot for 1/8 positive on self bows but I had one bow that came out at a hair under 1/4 positive and it shot fine , the end game to me is how it shoots ! The concept of positive tiller is for limb timing with natural material bows measuring doesn't always tell the whole story but most of the time it will in my experience.

[Dances with squirrels]

I do NOT want my bows to have positive tiller. I want them to be balanced at full draw and that's what I use as my beacon, not an ambiguous predetermined tiller measurement. I shoot split, the top limb is longer, and they usually end up tillered even or slightly negative when complete... but they could be anything depending on limb shape differences, internal disparities, etc. All the more reason to balance the limb according to how they act at full draw draw, rather than how they look at brace.

[Badger]

  most of my bows are symmetrical, same length limbs. I have had a few over the years that changed tiller a little once they were shot in, if they still shot good without any unusual adjustment to my knock height I didn't worry about it. I like the arrow to draw straight back on the bow not with my fingers but with the hook placed right below the arrow nock. I figure when I shoot an arrow my fingers are no longer on the string anyway.

[BowEd]

What I've seen on a number of my bows is that when I tiller equally balanced limbs to 1/8" positive tiller by measurement of string to belly that after shooting it in the tip of the bottom limb is with 1/8" more set than the top limb at rest.That's shooting split finger though.
I've always just left it be and continued on shooting it with no bad things happening to it.
The only problem about adjusting with heat to the lower limb is that there's a reason it's that way.

[Jim Davis]

I just look at the bow and if I see one end is a little more curved at brace height, that becomes the top limb.

If over time, the other limb bends more, I turn it upside down and shoot it that way.

I don't sweat the small stuff.

[Hamish]

 Is the set even between the limbs or does one limb show significantly more? That will tell you if you need to make modifications.

[cool_98_555]

Set is 1.5” on both limbs

[Carl Galvin]

What is negative tiller, is that another way of saying "set"?

[cool_98_555]

No negative tiller is when the bottom limb bends more than the top limb.

[Carl Galvin]

I have the opposite problem.

[okie64]

You could cut 1/2” or so off the bottom limb. Or just file another set of nocks in 1/2” or so from the nocks on your bottom limb now and then check it again.