Man Who Has Never Finished a Bow Offers Unsolicited Advice on Every Bow in Progress

Gregory Tiller, a man who by his own admission has never completed a functional bow, has established himself as one of the most prolific advice-givers on the Traditional Bowyer's Forum, where he has offered detailed critiques of approximately 340 bows since joining in 2022. 'Your tiller is off,' Tiller commented on a recent post by a bowyer who has been making bows for thirty years. 'The upper limb is working too hard past midlimb. I'd take a rasp to it. Also your string looks like it was served by a child.' When confronted about his own output, Tiller explained that he is 'more of a theoretical bowyer' whose strength lies in 'identifying flaws in others' work rather than producing work of his own.' 'I have twelve staves in various stages of preparation,' Tiller said. 'Each one taught me something valuable before I set it aside.' Forum moderators have tracked Tiller's contributions and found a consistent pattern: detailed critiques of others' bows followed by vague descriptions of his own projects that inevitably end with phrases like 'took a bad set,' 'developed a twist I couldn't chase out,' or 'the wood had other plans.' 'He once told me my string nocks were asymmetrical,' said master bowyer Helen Riser. 'I measured them. They were off by four-thousandths of an inch. He was technically correct, which is apparently the only kind of correct he's interested in.' Tiller's forum signature reads: 'The bowyer who sees the flaw saves the bow.' He has saved, by this metric, hundreds of bows. His own garage contains none.