I have been making quite a few bows recently and currently have these 3 here at the same time and they are all quite different.

The bow on the left is is a 15thC 1250lb windlass bow that will be sent off to the US very shortly. This is without a doubt a monster and you can see a video of it being used here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEOeZTV9wiA

The bow in the middle is a 250lb 14thC 'composite' bow spanned using a belt and claw. This is in fact a steel bow that is clad to make it look like a composite. This bow also has an antler nut.

The bow on the right is a 300lb late 15thC German hunting bow spanned with a goats foot. If I dont sell it in Pontoise (Paris) this weekend I will post up some better pictures next week.

I hope you like the diversity.

Tod

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Very nice work!

What did you use to bulk up the composite looking prod?

The faux composite bow is very convincing. Great work.

Ed T.

These are just so sweet!

Thanks so much for posting these, Tod! Before you started making the crossbow videos, I never imagined that there are at least 9 ways to span a crossbow. I'd never given them more than a cursory glance, but you'd brought me to full appreciation of the craftsmanship, engineering, artistry, and variety in crossbows.

I'll continue to look forward to your videos and posts. Each video reveals more than dozens of articles I've read on the topic.

Leo: Excellent looking bows and also an interesting clip showing loading and shooting the windlass bow.

What slows you down most is taking off and putting on the windlass, but being careful to not tangle up the ropes of the pulley when you take the contraption off the tiller would probably save you many precious seconds.

As a tactical aside I think that two crossbowmen acting as a team could average a higher sustained rate of fire if one does all the shooting and the other does all the loading/winding: Keeping the windlass in hand and not having to put it aside " somewhere " saves most of the time lost " untangling " things, and also the one doing the loading can avoid all tangling in the first place.

I think the rate of fire would be a bit faster than if each crossbowman was each loading their own bow.

Use of a pavise would also be useful and easier to manage lugging it along for a two man two crossbow team.

If immediate and constant shooting wasn't needed during a lull in the action both crossbowmen could be ready to shoot at the same time, but then default back to each doing half the job of loading/firing.

Also, when one got tired of winding they could switch jobs.

One disadvantage of the windlass type crossbow is if one had to keep moving and shooting and what to do with the windlass to not lose it or carry it in an efficient manner: With a 1200 lb. prod losing the windlass or having it hopelessly tangled up would be very " annoying " and dangerous if the battle got very close with the crossbow becoming just as useful as a paperweight. ;) :lol:

I'm really curious of how many feet per second that bolt travels off that 1200lber.

and i never her descriptions of crossbows having a snap to them - learn something new everyday.

Thanks everyone.

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Daniel Wallace wrote: I'm really curious of how many feet per second that bolt travels off that 1200lber. and i never her descriptions of crossbows having a snap to them - learn something new everyday. Discussed in a long topic already but my opinion is that a heavier crossbow draw weight can't really accelerate a bolt much faster that a weaker draw weight bow as the limbs of a bow can only move so fast. http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=19926&start=0 So if one can get something around 200 to 300 feet per second from a bow at 600 pounds of draw a 1200 pound draw might give you only a small increase in velocity using the same bolt weight. and not have a bolt going at 600 feet per second. What, I believe a much heavier bow/prod can do is use a much heavier bolt and shoot it without losing any significant projectile speed until one reaches a point of diminishing returns. So if you have a bolt traveling at the same speed but being 2X - 3X or more in mass it's going to have a lot more momentum. Anyway, the very long topic has a much longer discussion about this and I'm just giving " The short version " here, and my personal opinion/conclusions. !

Jean is totally right; springs have a maximum speed they can return at and no faster. A bow made to medieval layout will move a bolt around 160-170fps on a good day, but no faster. As a bow of 1200 weighs around 5kg (from memory) the difference between a 100g and a 120 gram bolt makes no discernible difference to the bow, but quite a big difference to the target.

Jean is also right in that the thread he mentions is 13 pages of interesting discussion and this is probably better continued there as it covers all this very thoroughly.

It is a pet hate when authors write ' He raised the bow, squeezed the trigger and with the slightest click, the quarrel of hurtling death sped silently on a flat trajectory straight to his heart' or some such guff. It should read 'He aimed high, squeezed the trigger and with a loud crack of the string and a reducing rattle of the spinning nut, the quarrel raced away and gently arced down to his heart' Also guff, but at least accurate (pun intended).

Tod