Tillering after removing twist

[Groucho]

Tillering this osage bow has me stumped - appreciate any advice.  I had it tillered pretty well but a twist (on the left side) caused the string to go off to the side so I heated out the twist.  But apparently, heating the limb caused the recurve to relax so I had to recurve the left limb again.  But now, you can see in the image that the left limb is stronger than the right.  And left limb is thinner than the right limb so I'm reluctant to remove more wood.

Could this be caused by having more recurve in the left limb?

[Eric Krewson]

Looks to me you are really straight out of the handle on the right side then you have a hingy spot and not much bend to the recurve. If it were me I would reflex that right limb with heat to get rid of the hinge and retiller. The left limb looks good to me.

An old artist trick is to squint your eyes at a picture to make the detail show up better, I did that and looked at your picture.

[Burnsie]

Are you close to target weight?  If you are still pretty heavy you should have enough to do as Eric said.
Otherwise prepare to be under weight.

[Groucho]

OK thanks.  That hingy thing on the right was a bump (curve) in the wood that I had to follow.  It's not too thin compared to wood on either side.  Do you still think I should straighten the hinge?

The bow is at weight - my grandkids already have lots of light bows :-)

[NonBacked]

It looks like you’ve done a good job getting to this point. If you’re satisfied with the weight and the string is in-line, you need to take some test shots and determine how it shoots and how it feels. I would expect that it will lose some weight, but Osage stays together under all kinds of mistreatment.

If you’re wanting to make it look “pretty”, we can give additional advice if you will add a couple of pictures – unstring your bow and show the side profile and the back profile. Also, tell us the mass weight.

Note: I’ve hunted all season with bows that didn’t look that good.

[Pat B]

Was the twist in the limb before or only when you drew the bow? Maybe your thickness was uneven from side to side so it twisted as you drew the bow. Was the heated area completely cooled before you drew the bow. If not that could cause the hinge and take it out of tiller.
 If the limbs were well tillered before you heated it you could put it back on the form, reheat both limbs and leave it clamped to the form over night.

[Groucho]

Thanks Nonback and Pat.  I posted some unbraced pics.  You can see the hingy thing on the right side and that the string still isn't centered - but it's much improved :-)

It was 45lb before I started all the heating changes.  Now I'm concerned about taking it to a full draw as the left limb is stronger.  I'm not concerned about beauty, I just don't want it to fail.

[Groucho]

Other unbraced

[NonBacked]

Groucho, thanks for the profile pictures. They give a much better indication of the situation. Do you have a scale to determine the mass weight? Also, what are the specs? It looks like about 62in. long and pulled to about 20in. on the tiller stick. Did you pull it to full draw (26-28in.) when you measured the 45lb?

***  First Fact: A bow is worthless if you can’t shoot it, and you can’t shoot it if you can’t string it.  ***

So, you need to…
1. Verify, as Pat suggested, that the limb thickness is even across the limbs for the full tapered length. Both limbs don’t have to be the same thickness, but they should be fairly close.
2. Get the knocks into alignment…pretty close to the centerline through the handle.
3. If you had to flatten the limbs side-to-side, re-string the bow and check the tiller. If it’s close enough to pull to 14in, estimate the draw weight. If it’s lower than you want to pursue, put it in the corner and start another one.
4. If the weight is OK and the tiller profile at 18-20in. is somewhat even, go shoot it. Note: Breaking-in a bow requires “baby steps”. Don’t pull it to full draw on the first shot. Start at 10-12in. for 5 shots and eyeball the tiller. Then pull to 16-18in. for 5 shots and check the tiller.
5. If the tiller is unacceptable, post some more pictures so we can see the status. Most likely, you’ll need to start on the Right Limb, where Eric suggested. You already know that re-tillering will lower the draw weight a certain amount.