Most bows are tillered to approximately 1/8" - 1/4" positive measurement on the upper limb, when the bow is to be shot split fingered. In this video you will learn how to make a bushcraft tillering stick using a saw, axe and knife. Pat. Retract the pencil in the Gizmo and run the wood block up the bow’s belly and find the widest gap. It can be tricky at first, with a long tillering string, but once you get the bow to a point where it can be braced it will sit on the balance point. After floor tillering your bow, bend the bow slightly on your tillering tree or tillering stick using the long string. A tiller stick can be very dangerous to work with. I hope this new tillering method will lead to better bowmaking for all of you. With the tiller tree you can pull your bow and look without stressing the limbs, also. The idea here is not a new one and was first brought to our attention several years ago on one of our Bow Making Weekend courses by guest instructor Gary Scott of Christendom Bows. Tillering stick (sometimes called a tillering tree) For this build-along we’ll be making a hickory longbow; although you might be more interested in making a recurve bow, that’s not a great place for a beginner to start. Maybe the answer is 'bushcraft a one-time-use tillering stick' - I'm wondering if there's an alternative. I almost always get my bows to floor tiller and then use a heatgun and caul to correct side to side deviations and also induce about 1-1/2" of reflex in the profile. This blog is meant to serve as a quick how to for any budding bowyers or anyone who has made plenty of bows but always tillered on a fixed notch tillering stick. How to Make a Bushcraft Tillering Stick. Twisted wood walking sticks turn a helpful tool into a work of art. Logged Make the most of all that comes and the least … Thank you for a great post on different ways to help learning stick in our students! In fact, you can make one out of an unused hiking stick, trekking pole, or ski pole for about a third of the cost of a commercial tiller extension and it will work just as well. You can spend as much for one tiller extension as for a pair of ski poles but they aren’t twice as complicated, twice as strong, or twice as expensive to manufacture. Gravity keeps the bow stabilised. The stick is upright, preferably in a vice, to give you a constant reference point. I have heard of them being launched and sticking in the ceiling. As the son of a very good amateur magician I learned at a very … Screw the pencil in the block to a point it is almost touching the bow’s belly at the point where you found the widest gap. This one is 65" nock to nock and a 1-7/16" wide at its widest. I make my bows slightly longer than Dean recommends but other than that, pretty much like he prescribes. Walking sticks are useful not only for people in need of everyday walking assistance but for hikers and outdoor enthusiasts; they provide extra support, especially when traveling downhill, which reduces strain on knees. I agree with your seven methods; not only do they make a lot of sense, but they mostly have firm backing from research. For example, making a survival bow in the wild, how would one tiller it? Tillering is the adjustment of tiller by removing material from a bow limb or limbs. This article is not a treatise on making wooden bows, but instead, a new way of achieving the desired results. I tiller my bows even for a 3-under shooter. I hope that many teachers will be able to read these and implement more evidence-based teaching techniques into their classrooms.