I'm working on a maple board bow. I've tillered the bow out to 28" and I'm at my desired draw weight. The tiller is exactly even - 6 1/4 inches on both limbs at brace height. My question is: Should I leave it at even tiller or reduce the lower limb so that the tiller is positive on the upper limb - even at the price of some draw weight reduction?

It won't make any noticeable difference. I personally would let it alone if you have a shooter now.

I'd leave it as well.

Leave it as is and shoot it 50x then see how it settles

I would leave it alone if it were me.

quit where you're at

Is the bow's design symmetrical or asymmetrical? How do you grip the string?

I dynamically balance my bows relative to my holds, design them so their center is near my fulcrums, and many, perhaps most of them end up with equal or nearly equal tiller measurements. But if your bow is symmetrical and/or you hold the bow and string differently, not to mention the vagaries often inherent in a wooden selfbow... an even tiller may not be best. Sometimes it's not what's best for my bows either. But in the end, I know and do what's best... tiller measurements be damned. Each bow is balanced at full draw relative to my holds with total disregard to brace height measurements. They're a virtually meaningless end result.

In short, nobody can accurately answer your question as posed.

I say, balance the bow at full draw relative to your holds, and let the brace height measurements be whatever they'll be. You wont know what they are, nominally, until the bow is done, but you KNOW the bow will be right.

You reduce the top limb to make it positive. Like was said, tiller on a wood bow can be all over the place in small increments. I usually have 1/8" of positive or slightly more on the top.

Bows do settle out after a hundred shots. The way the arrow flies and the hand shock are more important tiller indicators than measurements.

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