Limb length equal?

[Postman]

Have some staves reduced and drying as per the Hunting the Osage Bow book,.    I  was wondering y'alls thoughts / experiences on the unequal limbs he suggests. Have one pretty close to floor tiller, needs some drying, and trying to decide layout on the next.
would that alter the use of the famous (and extremely helpful for my learnin' eyes) "tiller oval" I see on all those pics?
What a great book, By the way -  I recommend it to my fellow rookies. 

[TRACY]

It is a great book. I build my bows with the bottom limb shorter than the top like Torges suggests and they shoot fine for me. I think it matters how you tiller it from that point on with a slightly stiffer bottom limb. I always keep in mind that there is always more than one way to do things and still end up with the same end results.

Tracy

[JackCrafty]

I like shooting the arrow at exactly mid-way on the bow.  On short bows, this makes the lower limb is significantly shorter because the handle is off center....but it's the way I make all my bows.  I just make the lower limb a bit wider.

I tiller the bow as close to a perfect arc as possible and try not to induce too much set in the lower (shorter) limb.  It always takes a lot more set than the upper limb, however, but many NA bows (plains style) I've seen have this feature....so it works for me.

[Pat B]

I used to tiller as per Torges but now I use a symmetrical design with equal limb lengths. For me it is easier to see tiller than it was with asymmetrical limbs.  Hunting the Osage Bow is an excellent book on wood bow building.  As long as the limbs are balanced with one another you shouldn't have troubles either way.    Pat

[Kegan]

With a D bow, it's all limb . Anyway, I tiller mine with even limbs- it seems to take less to get them balanced.

[Justin Snyder]

This gets to be a touchy subject.  Most guys do it the way they learned. If they learned even limps that is what they do, if they learned uneven they do that.  Justin

[Pat B]

Not me!  I learned uneven limbs and after many years of that I finally decided I could see proper tiller better with even limbs.
  It doesn't really matter as long as the limbs are timed to each other. If a Yumi bow can be accurate, any bow can be accurate. As a matter of fact, all bows are inherently accurate. The shooter or the arrow(shootee)make it less accurate.     Pat

[koan]

Ya, Justin!! ...Brian (mud)

[Hillbilly]

I like even limbs, just 'cause I'm usually too lazy to do all that complicated math to figure out where to offset the handle. 

[George Tsoukalas]

See Handle Styles on my site. I like even limbs too. Jawge
http://mysite.verizon.net/georgeandjoni/directions.html

[Slivershooter]

Anymore, I make my bows with the upper limb longer, just prefer the way a longer upper limbed bow balances in my hand while carrying them in the field.  As far a shoot-ability (new word) is concerned, I not a good enough shot to tell much difference between two styles.  I can’t tell much difference in the time it takes me to tiller the two types either.

[Rich Saffold]

Even limbs.

[Marc St Louis]

Stiff handle = even limbs

[DCM]

Arrow pass at dimensional center yields a bow where the nock point most nearly bisects the string.  The geometric implications of this are the same as positive tiller in effect, which is to offset the asymetry inherent in having the the nock point necessarily above the fulcrum of the bow hand.  But in a practical sense we're only talking 1" or so here one way other other.  Nobody buts arrow pass 2" above center (1/2 of a 4" handle), rather usuallly 1' or 1 1/2" above.  Lots of wiggle room as far as I can tell but I see "even" bows as having a shorter upper limb.  Seems like double dipping on the upper limb, forcing it to be both shorter and weaker, or giving the lower limb a free ride.  At least that's the way I've reconciiled the issue for myself, although most of my bows wind up arrow pass slightly above dimensional center.

[Dano]

I'm pretty sure the only reason Dean likes the shorter lower limb is for ballance in the hand, and of course the Dinamic ballance once tillered. So what the heck, it's up to the bowyer and how he or she likes.