How to Tiller an English Longbow -- The Basics 

Thanks, yes, some people seem to over react on the internet, I am just making videos in the style I choose to make them in, if people want to watch them then fine, if they dont then they can watch some other persons videos, I am not going to be able to please everyone, a few people have said I talk too much in this video, I said what I felt was necessary, I have also made videos where I say nothing and have had people say nasty things about that too! Thankfully you can skip bits of videos.

Thanks for the positive comments. Much appreciated.

This is an excellent video and demonstrates perfectly - One can have 50 years experience ... or 1 year repeated 50 times . Some bowyers have a difficult time "reading" the wood . After 50 years of primitives ... I am still learning . Thanks for your video & Best wishes from Apache land New Mexico -> Lefty

Thank you so much for your series of videos they've helped me fulfill a dream of owning and making my own longbow

Excellent tillering video. I have been building bows for 10 years now, and really learned a lot from watching this. Thank you. I was stationed at Lakenheath back in the mid 80's. We really enjoyed our stay there. I had a couple of longbows made during my assignment. Love your country. Again, Super video!

Great Video , very clear and concise . thanks for taking the time to share your process with us .

Now I understand why handmade longbows cost as much as they do. Thanks for the video, that was really cool to see! It reminds me of spoking and trueing a bicycle wheel

Yo dude, hope your enjoying this lovely sunny Easter Sunday, i really like your videos on tillering i have found them extremely helpful and insightful. I like that you mention everybody tillers slightly differently, i started this craft absolutely clueless and have successfully finished bows with pleasing results. For me personally i have found using an oak belly with African iroko wood as the back can make quite a snappy bow. i make my bows to draw full compass as a warbow but for me personally due to tennis and golfers elbow in both arms through years of manual jobs and sport i can only use lighter bows of 18 to 20lb. but still continue to make bows and forever learn the secrets and skills of this fine tradition. By the way your website had some very cool stuff on it and is very reasonably priced

Hi, thanks for the comments, though its a shame they are all negative, I don't want to argue with you as you are obviously entitled to your own opinion but I think you have misunderstood the video. Its title is `How to Tiller THE BASICS`

Hi, thanks for making this video. Despite the opening disclaimer, I was able to see everything that you were pointing out from the stiffness in the bottom limb to the twist in the bow itself. Tillering is an aspect of bowyering that I was having some difficulty with. Thanks for clarifying it for me.

! that's great thanks, it's good to have someone who is so ready to help a rare thing on the interweb in this day and age, I look forward to the video

Thanks for the great video and your honest opinion. It gave me plenty of helpful hints. I am in the process of tillering my first bow that I made.

im still a beginner bowyer, I started at 17 and now I'm 19. Im really grateful for breaking over 10 bows and learning from them. I understand how making this video is difficult to film, but Incan see what you see. Also my best bows which is only a few, i was saying keep tillering, but I said no I don't want it to break, and now they shoot great. I do have a bow that is over tillered and it is a weak match stick.

Fantastic! In all the books and videos I have, it seems every bow maker keeps certain tricks and skills to themselves! Leaving us scratching our heads! Even the bowyers bible confines till erring to, 'simply remove wood, where it's not bending', but it's obviously more complicated. Great vid!

Hi Richard. This is the first video of yours I've come across, and I'm jolly glad that I did. I guess the most important thing to be able to do when tillering, is, as others have said, to "read" the wood i.e. to be able to look at the grain and possibly predict what the wood is going to do when under stress - whether or not it's likely to twist as it is bent, and by how much. I would also guess that checking the grain in the initial piece of wood in the first instance is just as important. Yours appears to be one of the best videos on tillering that I have seen. As you say, tillering cannot be taught via a RU-vid video, it has to be learnt through the experience of working with the wood. Although I have never made a bow, and am never likely to, since I don't have a workshop, I still find the art of bow-making (and it truly is an art!) very interesting. I have bought myself a fletching tool, however, and taught myself how to fletch arrows. I've subscribed to your site, and look forward to watching more of your videos. Thanks again!

Thanks for your videos ans for sharing your skills as a bowmaker. It s very interresting to « read the wood ». It s apleasure to try to make my own bows and to improuve my skills with experience ans fails. Thanks for all.Go on!

Another good and usefull video. Thanks a lot! And for usefull questions and answers too!

You done a fine job I think. I use a Grid Pattern that helps to see it. But I have to say a good friend of mine made a Osage Bow still has over an inch of reflex. He accidentally left it strung for a while and still retains that reflex. The Bow is only about 56". It is a Eastern Woodlands Flat bow. Now the some of the first bows I made were really ugly its really tough to find straight Osage. But when you do its hard to part with... I always wanted to try Yew. But it doesn't grow here it the area.

One tool really used by you and others bowmakers is the cabinet scraper. I have two of them but I can t manage to sharpen it nicely. Do you expect to make a video about the tools you use and how to prepare them?

This is an excellent tuition on the process... and I had forgotten to check for twist ! Still have the available 'interval' thankfully... perhaps that's why I'm revisiting... revision..

Thank you Richard.. People will be grateful Richard for this video.. which is excellent.. Don't be to soft with all of us beginners.. Get going folks to any who have delayed.. you can do it.. I have only done 2 so far with a 2 year gap.. first one Red Oak 35 pound draw but my latest one is 71 " with little recurves at tips pulling 48 pound at 28 inches and is Ash board.. It may break ! i don't care.. Next I will Ash back Red Oak and repeat.. luckily I didn't spend too much time looking for that 'perfect curve' and did most of scraping just holding bow while strung and as soon as I could kept changing to shorter string..

Appreciate the tips, i recently took on the task of making a Red oak recurve.

Perfectly tillered matchstick! Haha, probly the best think I'll learn on the internet !

Had a look at your video to see if I'm doing anything wrong, I've been making similar types of longbows for many years but only for myself and a few mates. There's always that one stubborn limb that doesn't want to come round. Thanks, I do it this way too, its way David Edwards taught me, a long gone craft guild bowyer who made my 1st longbow.

Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

it has helped tremulously , thanks . i am in the tiller stage now, and being very careful. ..bill

Really useful... Not just your videos, but your comments, too... I don't usually rate or comment myself, because you have to keep signing in to do that...

I think considering the short amount of time you had to fit everything in, and the awkwardness of the subject that was pretty ace! I'm sure it clears up a huge amount for a lot of people, of all stages and abilities. There was stuff in there that I had always overlooked, such as leaving the tips stiff before adding the nocks, and especially in removing lateral twist - that can be quite a daunting prospect when it first shows up!

Great video!!

Thanks for your valued reply and guidance. What laminate combinations make the best bows? and on average what would be the thickness of the belly , the core and the back for a 50lb bow? Do you use Casamite to glue the staves together, and if so is the new formulation as good as the old stuff?

Thanks for your valued reply and guidance. What laminate combinations make the best bows? and on average what would be the thickness of the belly , the core and the back for a 50lb bow? Do you use Casamite to glue the staves together, and if so is the new formulation as good as the old stuff?

thanks for getting back to me, I will get back on it asap

hey can you do a video about the specs of your tillering jig set up, i made one the other day but i would like to see if there is a better way to do it, please

My first triple is currently hitting 45 lbs at 16"... I did push a little past that momentarily to 50 lbs !8" I will bring the 2 aspects together... even tiller and correct draw length maintaining approx 45lbs, as requested..

Very nice video, thanks! I am making a longbow from one piece of yew, and it is now ready to be tillered. A dutch bowmaker tought me that the side of the bow facing away from me when shooting should consist of one single "ring" (Not completely sure how its called in English, it isnt my native language..) along the entire length of the bow. Since your bow seems to have bamboo there the video left me with a question. If I experience stiffness on the top limb during the tillering proces, should I remove some wood there and break my ring? Or should I compensate the stiffness in the top limb by removing wood in the bottom limb?

glad you liked it.

Thanks, as mentioned in the video I am removing wood from the side to get rid of the twist.

The video was useful and informative, thanks! A quick question: when tillering you're in fact also exercising the bow and shaving it down to the right symmetry and weight but can you over exert it? Can you pull the limbs too far or will the initial taper prevent them from breaking?

Richard, great video! Thanks for sharing your expert experience. Out of curiosity, it looks like you had a reflex of about 3 inches in that stave, did it end up with a slight reflex or straight? Happy easter!

...The amount of talking I do at the beginning is aimed at beginners to point out that tillering is not something you can learn in a short video, but is something they will need to work at for years to perfect. Of course tillering is teachable, thats how I learnt by being taught by my father teaching me.

I don't have a rig like that you have what can I do to pull on the bow a little and start flexing it without that should I just put my feet on the handle and pull on it that way

Woohoo! Thanks.

I almost finished my first English Longbow out of Black Locust today, but it broke while tillering...I cut the age rings of the back, next time I know not to do that^^ And I gonna se ash i think haha

Great video. Do you use 2 pullies on your draw rope for your tillering tree? Thanks Ernie

Thank you incredibly, i am working on my first bow its a 60 inch red oak bow its two and a half inches wide and i just began tillering tonight. It is scary to me because i dont want it to break in my face. I dont have a fancy tillering stick like yours. Its just a twoxfour with notches and a shelf for the bow. I am wondering, i only want say 45 or 50 pounds, what should i do so i can take it to that weight without cracking it. P.S. i have 27 inch draw length. Once again, thank you for the video

Absolutely fantastic video. The only thing that sucks is the lighting when you step in front of the camera, and the shadow against the bow sometimes makes it a bit harder to eye the bend. Really really great video though, thank you for making it, really enjoyed watching it.

fantastic video i want to make my own bow and have for a long time but i live in australia and from the research ive done there isnt too many species good for lonbow making any suggestions?

Tillering is bloody hard and sadly I have not mastered the art yet. What is your opinion on the use of a homemade 'tillering gizmo' as an aid? Thanks, Phillip. Flaxen Saxon.

hy, I enjoyed the movie, cleared some things up for me. I do however have a question. is there a way to manipulate the poundage? tiller it in a different way to make it stronger or weaker?

hello sir good afternoon well my questions is wich kind wood/bambu we can use ?

Great video, you point out the essential situations of tillering straightly and clear. Very nice accent too, I could understand every word and enjoyed your jokes very much. I recently began bowmaking as a hobby and got my very first longbow done on this last December 25th. It pulls 35 pounds at 31 inches. That's my matchstick! This video (and some more of yours) helped me much making this second longbow which is going to be finished today. It pulls 55 pounds at 28 inches. A true record to me. I just got a question: is there any relation between bow length and draw length? For example, knowing the draw length of the customer, is there any rule of thumb to determine the overall bow length? Thank you heartily for the very good inspiration and help you give to amateurs like me and many others!

Right at the beginning you explained my problem save I broke it clamped it and reglued it though standing here I think maybe I should bugger the other side as well lol nah thanks for the tips mate quite useful but to tiller a already glued side may have to buy some serious sandpaper and use my scraper blade call this advanced survival tillering lol

I'm pretty new to this, but what kind of string do you recommend using? I know you need a long string and then begin to brace the bow, but I can't find anywhere that suggests what kind of string. Thanks and AWESOME video!

Hi, we do not make flat bows but yes we have made them in the past, most of our bows are for target shooting so the average mens weight of bow is about 50lbs.

so when you were checking the bows poundage at 28 inches is the 7 inches that the bow is braced at included in the 28 inches ? hope that makes sense to you.

hi I am making my first bow and have it to the point were I can put a lose string on and drawing to 12", how far should it go before I can brace it. hope that my question is clear thanks in advanced

Excellent video many thanks. If you want a fast flight bow but a low weight say 45lb would you take more of the belly or the back? Thanks Ian

Thank you for making this video. I have got a silly question since I am an absolute beginner at this: how dry does the wood have to be for the tillering? Thank you once again!

One quick question on removing limb twist, once braced. I am a little confused and don't want to completely ruin a good bow by taking wood from the wrong side. Lets say that the tip of the limb is pointing to the left as you eye down the bow. Is wood removed from the left side in the direction the limb tip is pointing. ie... the inside of the curve?

Hi same question as below do you place handle below center since top limb is longer & bends more?

I have made and tillered two bows since watching this fantastically helpful video. They shoot well and look OK. The only thing that is ruining them, is I am ending with around 2 inches of string follow on both of them? One was an ash self bow the other a tri- laminate? Any ideas why this is happening please?

no probs

If the string is not aligned correctly I am a bit confused about removing wood from where the bow is bowing out. If you looks down at the belly of the strung bow say the string is offset too much to the left - do you remove wood on the right side of the bow, and the same amount the whole length or mostly near the tips?

Great video... "perfectly tillered match stick" I've done that...ha ha ha

what wood should I use to make a bow

I am not using a block plane in the video, most tools I use are Stanley, not that it matters much.

Hi, the bow is from a laminated stave of bamboo and lemonwood.

He knows abt Covid 19 earlier 😂

are there any tropical woods that are good for making bows what the best wood to make bows

Any you like, see our wesbsite for the types we use.

Wonderful, Looking at the video, I noticed that the shadows seem really revealing. Was this an accident? coincidence? genius? or am I sust imagining something that isn't there? Thanks for doing it. R

HI, we sell Longbow strings, see our webshop, they are made from Dacron, a modern man made waxed string, you can buy one from us or buy the raw materials to make your own string, I hope that answers your question?

my friend makes horn bows. hes helped me with tillering and it drives me crazy when he points out where i need to remove wood and even when hes pointing it out to me, i literally cant see it.

I understand what you mean about learning, just because you've spent seven years training to be a dentist or a carpenter it doesn't,t give you the x factor, that's something you can,t be taught!.

How much will you sell that big bow in back 0:20

i remember when i realized that people have no idea what tillering is :P people that bought or tried my bows thought i just cut the wood to size then put a string on it followed with some sanding and bobs your uncle you got a bow... i tried to tell them thats a stick with a string, but a tillered stick with a string is a bow. Whats tiller they ask, and i reply ... eeee hmm (scratch head) its aaaa ... it´s how i make it bendy and stuff... now stop asking these silly questions and shot some arrows.

Tea for the tillerman. Cat. Who I met.

I want to get a really nice english longbow. But all the really good makers are in the UK and either don't ship to the US, or shipping is ridiculously expensive. :/

Is this every bow? Stiff on one side perfection on the other it's like a parallel universe right here

TV series next. . .

What was the weight ?...

yes a hair cut in vogue

I'll bet in bygone times the young apprentice bowyer wasn't even allowed to tiller in his first year of training(if that was,in fact, a trade with apprentices,journeyman and masters after the usual guild craft tradition).

hi, perhaps contact us directly, youtube is not the best place for a conversation, our email address and telephone numbers can be found on our website, thanks.

Skip to when he changes his shirt and you will see what you came for.

Tillering video starts at: 5:33

A good deal wrong here. Myself and two others are the only few who can make a true English Longbow in the UK.