Mid 15thC Central European Crossbow -- myArmoury.com

Leo Todeschini · Industry Professional

Hi All,

Here is a reproduction heavily based on a piece from the Royal Netherlands Army Museum.

Hunting bows were almost always composite and that is not financially viable these days, so this is my take on one.

The stock is cherry and is inlaid with ox horn and bone. The nut is antler and has a steel insert for the sear.

The bow is in fact a steel bow of 400lbs draw weight clad to make it look more like a composite bow and is covered in parchment and then painted in a scheme similar to one of a similar dating in the Wallace collection. The original of this bow had a snake skin covering.

The cladding does reduce the cast a little, but perhaps not as much as you would think.

The bow is spanned using a spanning belt with a doubler pulley.

I hope you like the results.

Tod

Mark Moore · Posted: Tue 09 Jul, 2013 10:26 pm Post subject:

Love it, Tod! I think I could take a big ol' East Texas buck deer down with that baby! Love the detail work!......McM

Joe Fults · Posted: Wed 10 Jul, 2013 3:56 pm Post subject:

Pretty darn spectacular!

Jason Daub · Posted: Fri 16 Aug, 2013 4:43 pm Post subject:

I have had this for about a week now, it is even more impressive than in the photos. The decoration is beautifully done, it looks as if it came out of the same workshop as the original. The doubler belt makes it very easy to span, it is just a matter of straightening up and then a calf raise to latch the nut. I'll be accuracy testing it this weekend, hopefully, but it looks very promising in my little 10 yard indoor lane (aka "the garage"). Tod has done a wonderful job.