Short bow tillering

[Kegan]

Anyone begin tillering shorter bows by bending them over your knee? It was in John McPherson's chapter on bow building in Naked into the Wilderness- I tried it on a hachet bow of 64" (or so) with excellent results. Is there a major draw back thta I should be aware of?

[1/2primitive]

I sometimes do that, except that my longbows are about the size of your short bows. 
My short bows are about 40-46" long. 
    Sean

[Coo-wah-chobee]

Kegan ya need good eyes and a feel as ya do it. It gets better as ya do it. As fer major drawbacks. Nope none I can think of. Lets put it this way "What ya gonna do ifn ya dont have a tiller tree and all the modern conveniences ?" Answer."use my knee !" .....bob

[Pat B]

Just don't pull too far too soon.     Gary Davis did an article in PA last year about a bow he built while out in the wilderness on a hunting trip. He used a head high branch on a tree as his tiller tree. As long as your limbs are balanced it will work.      Pat

[Badger]

 I think for the most part you can adjust to any number of ways of tillering. As long as you can see how the bow is bending and have the feel for when to brace it. Steve

[JackCrafty]

Tillering by bending over my knee has worked well for me.  The more I do it the easier it gets.
Never had a bow break over my knee....but I've broken a couple using other tillering methods (with shrapnel flying everywhere).  In fact, I think it might be safer to tiller over your knee...if the bow breaks, you'll be holding on to both pieces.   

[Kegan]

I've been trying to simplify my bow building methods, and this seemed to be a perfect companion to just using a hatchet (or stone). I liked how I could feel the bow bending instead of just putting in on the tillering stick and looking at it, even with smaller bends. Now to try it with longer bows (grab it lower?) and heavier bows (65+#).

[Gordon]

You could draw the bow and look at it in the mirror, or a still pond if you want to go natural. A shadow would probably even work.