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Odds bodkins that is fabulous.

Last knotty question for a while. Can you suggest a locking knot or hitch that can be tied to a dowel but won’t slide under diagonal load and is easily tied and untied? Thank you, Andrew

Love it

I have an 8mm hemp rope with a soft eye loop splice in each end I need to temporarily shorten it a few inches but any knot(s) will be subject to a load of 350 lb but will need to be readily untied

Most cyclists are also car drivers and vice versa, consequently it fascinates me these debates become so partisan. I have been runner, cyclist, motorcyclist, driver of several vehicle categories and agree the real point is that there are idiots on the roads- runners, skaters , scooters...

Francois Vivier also designs a pretty boat

Quick rant, but, I overtook, safely, a couple of cyclists then met another group I could not overtake safely. While I dawdled along waiting, the 1st cyclist attempted to pass my vehicle on the inside, by squeezing through a 1/2 meter gap between my car and the kerb. Where is my protection in...

Now that is a good idea’

Oh, one more thing, hemp rope stretches😀

Been a good few hours scraping and tillering. Tiller actually hits the measurements taken off the drawings which is nice. Thickness taper is 1mm per 1 inch. Centre is 26mm, fades are 25 mm 2 inches each side of centre, tips are slightly less tapered. My makers space is an absolute midden...

Love that bow! Research is way more fun. I used to live in Primitive archer

Mentioning the knights Templar, they used a mixed skirmishing crossbow “team” of heavy, medium and light crossbowmen, light crossbows being peasant levies operating knockelarnbrust (stick bows), the light, quickly spanned, crossbows suppressing fire while heavy slower spanned bows picked away at...

Recent excavations have rewritten the context of the bow, pushing it back 100 years and suggesting a possibility of a war bow during wars with the Danish possibly just after the Black Death . A reconstruction of the Berkhamsted yew bow came out at 275lb Although metal crossbows did appear in...

Means my better half is watching trash tv so I can slope off for a few minutes

Yes, wood bits tend to have a sharp spike in the centre where high speed drill bits are more of a triangular shape

Pistol grips are awful. Egg beaters work ok but can be tricky as spur bits can catch and jam. I have had good experiences teaching 8 and 9 year olds 1:1 to use battery drills - I think we were using McAlistair 16v 2-speed drill/driver. Taught them how to fix using Philips type screws at the...

Thanks all. I usually use a crane scale on my crossbow bench but this lath is way past the capacity of my scale. When I priced a replacement the best price I came up with was near enough £50. The blacksmith’s crane scale is 100kg but he also has lots of heavy steel items and a couple of pull...

The blacksmith has a 100kg scales and is well up for a bit of experimental archaeology

I am familiar with Todd’s work, his work on metal bow laths is well respected, Andreas Bichler and Historia Vivens 1300 (not the Italian site) is an amazing resource

I think hanging known weights is the only way forward. Going to visit the village blacksmith and see if he can help