Hi All,

Stone bows seemed to have started in China and started life as generally fairly light bows, used for shooting clay or lead balls at birds in trees. They are great at this and with clay shot, there is no cost associated with ammunition loss or usage.

They seemed to have come to Europe in the mid 15thC and gained a great deal of popularity through the 16thC, when they started to become really quite powerful and indeed (perhaps fancifully) queen Elizabeth is shown shooting at a stag with one. They were in quite wide usage through until the 19thC. We still of course have bows that shoot ball, but these are now single string affairs. We have plenty of manuscript pictures of English bows, but very few real ones from this early period.

This bow is based on English examples and so has a plainer stock that the Italian and Spanish styles, but I tried to make the metalwork a little extravagant.

The spiked nose of the forestock is not an offensive feature, but is to dig into the ground whilst the bow is spanned, so that it doesn't slip away as you draw it. The method of spanning is to put the spike into the ground and the button on the butt into your stomach and draw the bow back so this of course limits the power to around 150-170lbs.

The rear sight has a central peep and V slot above and below and also pivots, so it is fully adjustable over a wide range of heights. The fore pillars also take a thread loop with a bead, so this can be adjusted for elevation and windage. Incidentally I have wondered if this is where the use of the word 'bead' comes from when talking about sighting in a target.

The stock is in cherry, the stock button at the back is box, as is the one on the fore stock. All the metal furniture is in steel and the bow string is in linen and leather. The trigger is sprung and the trigger slot covered by a decorative bone panel.

The bow can shoot either 20 gauge lead or clay shot. Clearly the lead will hit with a much bigger punch, but for birds, generally clay will be enough.

I will get this on a chrono for speed and also make a video of it in use in due course.

I hope you like it.

Tod

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Absolutely love it! Looking forward to see you shoot with it.
J

What an absolute beauty, just everything about this looks gorgeous. Do you by chance have any pictures of the mechanism, I am very interested in medieval crossbows and this stone bow is expanding my interests.

Damn, could I have had some fun with that when I was a kid......now too. ;) :lol: Beautiful replica!...........McM

Gorgeous as always Tod!!! What does the clay shot look like? Just a little ball of clay that has been fired? How does it get loaded? It seems like it would just slip off of the string....

Thanks everyone.

Luka Kren wrote

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Do you by chance have any pictures of the mechanism, I am very interested in medieval crossbows and this stone bow is expanding my interests.

Have a look at Payne-Gallwey, the mechanism is well laid out there.

Julien M wrote

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Absolutely love it! Looking forward to see you shoot with it.

Thank you. I will post up a video in due course and will let you all know.

Tim Lison wrote

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Gorgeous as always Tod!!! What does the clay shot look like? Just a little ball of clay that has been fired? How does it get loaded? It seems like it would just slip off of the string....

Thanks Tim,

The double string and pocket is shown here at rest, but this is what happens during the loading process.

1. make sure the trigger and hook are set and retained.

2. pull the double string back with both hands and place the loop onto the hook.

3. As your hands let go of the string, the load is transferred through the loop into the string and this creates a vector between the pillars and the two vertical loops and the one horizontal loop. This vector causes the top and bottom strings to come closer together and so bends the leather section into a pocket.

4. This pocket must be carefully sized to the shot so that you now 'pop' a shot into the pocket that uses the top and bottom cords a bit like retaining springs. You can see a slightly darker patch at the top and the bottom of the pocket and where the leather has deformed around the shot when it has been loaded.

5. When the trigger is pulled and the hook released, the vector causing the top and bottom strings to close is removed and so the strings spring back to where they want to be (in line with the pillar tops) at the same time as the bow is moving the string forward. This returns the pocket to a simple vertical panel of leather that now pushes, but does not hold the shot.

If the pocket is too deep it will not release the shot cleanly, too small and it will not retain the shot at all. What this means in practice is that the shot must be reasonably well sized and just random stones off the floor will not do.

I hope that makes it a bit clearer and I suspect it makes complete sense when you realise the strings of course change distance between each other; either way a video will help clear this up. I can film it, but a friend edits for me and this will take a little time.

Regards

Tod

Ahhhhh! That makes a lot of sense. The tension from the pull brings the strings together to form a pouch that then releases when it's fired. Clever. Looking forward to seeing it in action.

Wow... this would be so much fun. What a lovely thing you've made...

Thanks Scott, I appreciate that.

For those who would like to see it in action with a great deal of talking by myself, I have just uploaded to You Tube and it can be found here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLiCIm8pyyc&feature=youtu.be

Regards

Tod

Hi Tod, I Love your crossbows and videos of you shooting them.
Do you have to get a pice of wood that follows the curve for the tiller, or can you get away with straight grained stock?
P.S Thanks for the Dragon Hammer, it is outstanding.
Hamish.

Fan-flipping-tastic!!! Thanks for posting this Tod. It looks like a lot of fun to shoot!