[Dariusz Wojtasz]

Hello everybody,
It's my first post.
Is there anybody interested in crossbow replicas making, or generally in crossbow history?
I'm looking for articles etc. about horn bows (composite) especially roentgen photos, I'm going to make such a crossbow next year
I'm looking too for dimensions of cranequins (inside parts).
Of course payment or exchanging available
Best wishes
Darek

[Steve Fabert]

Welcome to the forum, Darek.

You probably do not have ready access to a copy of the best source on cranequin crossbows, a book by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, which includes detailed drawings and diagrams of the workings of the cranequin. I happen to have a copy, and would be happy to scan the relevant portions of it and email them to you. Please send me a private message with your email address and I will try to get these out to you by the weekend.

I believe this book was reprinted in the mid 1990s, and you may be able to find a used copy of it at reasonable cost. It is a comprehensive history of not only the crossbow, but also the Turkish recurved bow and such medieval siege engines as the trebuchet. Any serious fan of crossbows should read it.

[Dariusz Wojtasz]

Hello!
Thank you very much for so fast answer, I didn’t expect that!
The book by Payne Gallwey is very good but in my opinion Die Armbrust by Egon Harmuth is the best in this topic, than A Guide to the Crossbow by Paterson (in my opinion of course).
I tried to use The Crossbow when I was making a crossbow (photos enclosed) with windlass but I had to change almost everything and take dimensions from the original crossbow in the museum. Sir Ralf made mistakes in few aspects so I wouldn’t recommend his book to the people who’d like to build crossbow replicas however it helps too.

Regarding the cranequin: I’m looking especially for someone who had or has access to dimensions of driving gears of any original, because I have only outside dimensions of few cranequins. I’d like to build the cranequin without modern driving gears.

P.S. Sorry for my English

[Steve Fabert]

Your English is more than adequate.

There is a one-half scale drawing of the internal gears of a cranequin on page 138 of the Payne-Gallwey book Other variants of the cranequin are illustrated that show simplified mechanisms, including one on page 144 that mounts the gears externally.

Since these mechanisms predate the industrial era and were each hand made, the dimensions of the parts for one would probably be unique to that one and the crossbow that it was built to operate. Fortunately the cranequin mechanism appears to be very simple, something that any metal shop could produce today with ease.

[Dariusz Wojtasz]

Hello,
Sorry for yesterday attachment, I pasted bad photo now is correct.

It’s correct every cranequin was different but I’d like to make so unique one.
As you know modern gears has different shape of the teeth and my friends use that to make their cranequins. I’d like to make the copy of an original one including hand made driving gears. For me modern driving gears inside the cranequin are like milled “copy” of an historic sword.
Payne Gallwey’s scale drawing are sometimes incorrect for example when I was making the windlass (part from the enclosed photo) I found that the bigger wheel is a little too small (or the smallest is too big) what could made problems with proper moving of the ropes. I had to change it and use bigger wheels. “The Crossbow” is perfect when somebody wants to know how it worked but I’m not sure if every scale drawings are OK. One of the cranequin’s gear “drilling” mostly looks different than in Gallwey book. I’d like to avoid mistakes.

Best wishes
Darek

PS Thank you for compliments