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The finer points of tillering

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longbowman:
I've just made my first bow and I'm really happy because if fires! However in reading numerous forums and articles etc I've come across talk about positive tillering, having the handle off centre thus making one limb shorter than the other. So what is a positive tiller and why have it? And also why make one limb shorter than the other? What effect does this have? Which limb should be the short one? If someone could elaborate on this issue that would be great. Thanks

Et_tu_brute:
Longbows have the bottom limb as the shorter one. Basically when you are marking out the bow find the centre and put a mark on, then measure one inch above and 3" below the centre, this is your handle section, so you are shooting from 1" above the centre of the bow. Since the bottom limb is shorter it's under a bit more strain than the top limb, so some people use positive tiller to make the bottom limb a little stiffer than the top.

longbowman:
Thanks for your reply. With a positive tiller is it the top limb that comes down 1/4" more than the bottom of vice versa? Why is the top limb longer than the bottom?

Et_tu_brute:
To be honest I really don't know why the top limb is longer, sorry I can't be of more help. Yep with positive tiller the top limb bends a little more than the bottom, not necessarily 1/4", a bit more is fine.

alanesq:
This is something I have been confused about?

Isn't the point of the marking 1" up and 3" down from the bows centre for a handle because when you hold the bow its not actually resting in the centre of your hand (its mostly held around the thumb joint area)
so actually the bow will be bending from its centre despite the fact the handle area is not at the centre of the bow ?

i.e. the handle is off centre to compensate for the part of your hand which supports the bow 

- If the bow isn't supported at its centre then drawing the bow would tend to turn the bow in your hand as one tip has more leverage than the other  (although this theory may not be true as Japanese bows are very off centre?)

BTW - This means that when tillering the bow should not be supported at the centre of where the handle is/will be - it should be around 1" down from the top of the handle  (i.e. the centre of the bow)

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