I too was stymied by the lack of 'how to' instructions for building a
tiller. Eventually, I just 'attacked' it: The plans called for a
tiller made from 3" stock, 5' long with a slight overall 'S' curve. I
bought some 6' lengths of four quarter mahogony and white ash, ripped
them to 3" wide, trimmed an inch off one end, and "re-sawed" them on
the table saw (to re-saw is to make a thick piece of stock into two
thinner pieces, in this case to cut the four quarter [about 3/4"]
stock into two thinner pieces [about 3/8"]).

I then built a simple jig to describe the 'S' curve, then laminated
alternating layers of mahogony and ash to get back to the required 3",
held together with thickened epoxy.

Once the epoxy cured, I removed the now 3" x 3" x 5' curved piece from
the jig, and went at it with a belt sander and 60 grit...(!). This
was a bit tedious, but fun in that I was able to 'create' the look and
taper I was after.

Once close, I used the R.O. sander and 150 grit. Then finished with
varnish.

As to attaching the tiller to the rudder, there are many ways to go
about it. See November 'Cruising World' magazine for an article on
tillers by Lyn Pardee for some ideas. The method described in my
plans, and not described in the Pardee piece has the tiller
sandwitched between two 'cheek' pieces, the cheeks being bolted o the
rudder, and the tiller to the cheeks by a through bolt.

Good Luck.

Mike Worrall
Los Angeles