Hey Guys, New to this whole Bow Building thing but I am so in love with it. Anyhow, I have been reading the Bent stick and Mr. Comstock proposes that you offset the handle, making the arrow rest about 1.5 inches from the center point and then let the other 2.5 inches be below the center point. Now for all the bows I have made (an impressive 4 successful ones) I have made the handle exactly centered and tillered it there. I was wondering has anyone tried putting the tillering stick at the exact spot where the arrow will rest? And will this not make the tiller more accurate on each limb when the bow is drawn? I guess I was also wondering if this changes the way the bow will look, will it look lopsided?

   Thanks
      Bard

Do a quick search on the bowyers bench lots of very interesting discussion on this!  Some guys are even a little passionate about it!     :D

You want the pressure of the tiller stick where the pressure of the hand goes. If you put the tiller stick at the arrow pass the tiller will be off unless you tiller the bow to be balanced that way.  
 I make my bows symmetrical with the center of the handle at the center of the bow. I grab the handle with the middle finger of my bow hand at the center of the handle and mark the arrow pass at the top of my hand.

Thank you gentlemen,
  I think I will use this summer to do a little bit of testing for myself. I have a feeling that if I place the tillering stick right on  where I will make the arrow shelf during the tillering process I will have a more evenly tillered bow where the limbs each draw equally despite having slight differences in how far they travel during each draw.

Peace,
  Bard

QuoteOriginally posted by Pat B:
You want the pressure of the tiller stick where the pressure of the hand goes. If you put the tiller stick at the arrow pass the tiller will be off unless you tiller the bow to be balanced that way.  
 I make my bows symmetrical with the center of the handle at the center of the bow. I grab the handle with the middle finger of my bow hand at the center of the handle and mark the arrow pass at the top of my hand.

I don't believe i've ever had a bowyer do such an accurate, but simplified explanation of the best way to locate a shelf, and how to tiller a bow.... Hat's off to you Pat!  Good job.      

I concur, or something like that. Pat is right on, no other explanation necessary.

God bless you all, Steve

I do pretty good with simple! d;^) That's what this selfbow stuff is supposed to be...simple bur effective.  If I wanted complicated I wouldn't have been messing with selfbows all these years.