when to brace

[swimbill]

good morning

I have floor tillered and long string tillered an oak board bow.  How do I know when to go to the short string? 
this is the first bow i have made not from a kit.

[Pat B]

After I get to 6" to 8" on the long string and everything looks OK I short brace the bow at about 4". This way you get a good idea of the bending of each limb and see how close their bends are together. Also you see how the string tracks early in the process so you can make adjustments without going past your targeted draw weight.
   Being that this is your first bow from scratch, concentrate on your tiller and try not to worry about draw weight. For now getting the tiller right is more important. You will be building other bows so you can work on hitting targetted weight then.    Pat

[Kegan]

Once I get to what would be brace on the tillering tree (or floor tillering for D bows), I leave it there for an hour or so. Helps with the stress of stringing (I don't have a bow stringer).

[ricktrojanowski]

I go to the short string when I'm about to 2/3 the way to the weight at draw that I'm looking to hit.

[George Tsoukalas]

I long string tiller out to 10 inches. Gently. I look for good limb movement and bending. I check weight. I remove wood until I get target weight or 5 # over at ten inches. Then I string it. This is for a 26 and 27 inch draw. This will put the stave at 10# over target weight. Perfect. More on my site. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[Pappy]

I brace when I get the tips moving about 8 inches and everything else looks good on the tiller stick
[I know Jawges]    The I brace about 4 or 5 inches and go to the tiller tree,Rope and pulley system. I long string but I keep my long string just long enough to reach n-n ,not real loose.
   Pappy
 

[George Tsoukalas]

t...t...t ! I can't say it, Pappy. Jawge

[Pappy]

 
      Pappy