I did a little more today. First, after removing wood from the belly the backing was gonna be too thick so I sanded it down a little. I just got a new 40 grit belt for my sander and was worried it might take too much off but gingerly I ran the back over the sander with 6 or 8 light pulls on each limb and got it down some. Unfortunately the dyed design on the back was removed. I can easily replace that or come up with some other decoration but I'll worry about that later.
Here is the backing thickness before the sanding...
![](https://i.imgur.com/4dCIWmR.jpg)
...and after sanding and rounding off the edges. Not much difference but if necessary I'll do it again.
![](https://i.imgur.com/U9b0t5l.jpg)
After that I sanded the backing and corners smooth I cut in the string nocks. Usually I'll come down 3/4" on the back and 1" on the belly side. This gives me about a 45deg angle. This time I went 1" on the back and 1 1/4" on the belly because the ends were uneven.
![](https://i.imgur.com/qvfTHch.jpg)
![](https://i.imgur.com/HvTpaID.jpg)
These are temporary nocks anyway just for tillering and will be removed when I narrow the tips. I like the tips to be wider to start with. Once I go to low brace and see how the string tracks I'll shape the tips close to finish size and add overlays.
Then it her first trip to the tiller tree. I exercised the limbs then took a look just to see if things are relatively even. they seemed to be OK...
![](https://i.imgur.com/uAgfRGA.jpg)