Tillering, the String, and Finishing

Wear safety glasses for every pull: an unfinished bow can break.

On the tillering stick

The 3Rivers sequence ¹:

1. Long string. Fit a tillering cord longer than the bow so the limbs bend only slightly when the string is pulled. Set the handle on the top of the tillering stick and pull the string down to the first notch.
2. Find stiff places. Slide Eric Krewson’s tillering gizmo, a small block with a pencil set about 1/8 inch off the limb, along each limb: where the pencil draws no line, that part of the limb is bending too little ².
3. Scrape and exercise. Take no more than ten scrapes from the belly at a stiff spot, flex the limb 30 times, and check again ².
4. Low brace. When the limbs bend evenly on the long string, brace the bow low, 2 to 3 inches from string to handle ¹.
5. An inch at a time. Pull the string 1 inch further on the stick at each check, stepping back to look at the curve. Hang a bow scale on the string, or set a bathroom scale under the stick, and never pull past your target weight ¹. A first milestone is about 30 pounds at 20 inches.
6. Full brace. Brace to about 6 inches; longbows are rarely braced lower ¹. Keep tillering to full draw.

On a Holmegaard, aim for the inner limbs to bend in a circular arc, not an elliptical one, and judge the tiller with a straightedge laid between the steps, not by the tips ³. Reduce the handle hump in stages until it looks as if it is just beginning to bend ³.

Read the curve

• Hinge: a short section bending more than the rest. Slide a block along the limb against a straightedge: a gap that grows and then shrinks marks it ¹. Leave the hinge alone and remove wood on either side of it.
• Chrysals and frets: a chrysal is a set of small, faint compression fractures on the belly; a fret is a large one ⁴. They show overstrained wood, often at a hinge. La Varenne lost two bows to frets ³.
• Set: the bow staying bent toward the belly after unstringing, from compression of the belly ⁴. Some set is normal; a lot means the limbs are working too hard.

The string

Stephen Anderson’s Flemish twist string ⁵:

• Length: the bow’s length minus 3 inches.
• Strands: 14 strands of B-50 “is plenty strong enough for a 45# traditional bow,” in 2 or 3 bundles.
• Bundles: stagger the ends of the bundles by 1/2 inch so the loop tapers.
• Loop: about 7 to 8 inches from one end, twist the bundles into a loop, then twist the rest of the string down its length and make the bowyer’s knot or a second loop at the other end.

Finish

Finish the nocks to the string’s size. Scrape the whole bow smooth, round the edges of the belly, and sand. Seal it with an oil or wax finish, because wood that swings between dry indoor air and damp outdoor air changes its moisture, and with it its strength ⁶. Wrap the handle with leather or cord.

Shoot it in with a few dozen arrows at a short draw, working up to full draw, then unstring it and check the set. Store it unstrung.

Try it

Make the gizmo before tillering: a 1-inch block 6 inches long with a pencil threaded through a hole in the middle. Run it along a straight board and a curved one first, so you can read the line it draws.