Medieval crossbow replica

[stuckinthemud]

Well it's been a bit more than a month, but I have been working steadily away on the next iteration. I'm using a much better piece of yew this time although the sapwood was very thick and I started off by reducing this thickness by a couple of mm. This means that the heartwood runs out to each end of the bow and provides a better ratio of sapwwod to heartwood. I would have liked to reduce it further but the lath was not thick enough. So, I'm pretty much at brace height, with only about 10mm of "set" where I didn't get the outer 2/3 of the bow moving quite as quickly as the inner 1/3. The next stage is where it all tends to go pear shaped (literally) so I thought I'd post an update before that happens :-D

 

[Orraloon]

Hope this one works out for you.
Regards
John

 

[stuckinthemud]

Yeah, I really need to stay patient and just slowly keep working it back, but, that kind of patience I really struggle with

 

[stuckinthemud]

In case you haven’t already guessed, that bow also broke when nearly finished. I think the yew I used was infected with mold which showed as a faint grey mark between the sapwood and heartwood.

Summer is my building season and I have bitten the bullet, cutting down my last yew stave. This is as close to the measurements of the original Lillohus bow as I could get and it bends very nicely. Once I’ve worked out some kind of winch I’ll let you know it’s poundage but I can’t actually draw it at the moment…

 

[TRITON]

 

[stuckinthemud]

Owch!

 

[Vulcan]

I visited a bow maker many years ago and he simply strung the bow, supported it from above and hung body building weights from the string using a steel hook. This was not only for checking the draw weight but also the tiller of the limbs. I’ve seen the same method used for modern target crossbows for compliance checks.

 

[stuckinthemud]

That is a great method, but I don’t have any beams to hang stuff from, and I don’t have any weight lifting weights . I do have a stack of timber, some scissor jacks, ropes (various) some strong brackets and a 500kg weighing scale (which I didn’t have last year)

 

[Fergie 307]

View attachment 185374

I bet that was a new underpants moment

 

[paulrbarnard]

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Exactly that happened when my Dad made a bow 50 odd years ago. He spent a long time on it and it looked great. First time he pulled it with an arrow notched crack. He wasn’t impressed at the reaction he got from me and my brother . He never did make another.

 

[Orraloon]

View attachment 185374

I had that happen to me with a yew bow. Wish I had a pic of it happen like that. Was at the archery club and I am holding a string with a bit of wood at each end. Everyone watching and me feeling a bit sheepish. Its a feature of yew bows that when they go its bits of wood everywhere. My bow had shot really well for over 12 months with no sign of anything wrong then that sharp crack noise. A real WTF moment. Other bow woods can fail but not so dramatically. They usually just take on a set and loose poundage or may crack but not fly apart. They will also show compression marks on the belly as a sign that things are not right.
Regards
John

 

[cerro]

I made a crossbow from a piece of softwood as an experiment then I trawled scrap yards for a car leif spring with no look I then tried to get a old saw blade still no look tried wood but they all broke so cut my self made Ash long bow up and used that, success bought a hanging spring they are cheap on the net and it draws 48 LB Now to get some hard wood and make a good one with Yew prog

 

[paulrbarnard]

I made a crossbow from a piece of softwood as an experiment then I trawled scrap yards for a car leif spring with no look I then tried to get a old saw blade still no look tried wood but they all broke so cut my self made Ash long bow up and used that, success bought a hanging spring they are cheap on the net and it draws 48 LB Now to get some hard wood and make a good one with Yew prog

I’ve done a quick repair to an MDF door in a camper where the screw was straight into the edge of the board. I squeezed it with a clamp then flooded it with thin super glue. Worked a tread as a ‘bodge’ repair.

 

[Cabinetman]

? You in the right place? @paulrbarnard

 

[paulrbarnard]

? You in the right place? @paulrbarnard

Nope. Must have hit the back button. I was trying to reply to butt hinges in MDF edge

 

[stuart little]

I made a crossbow from a piece of softwood as an experiment then I trawled scrap yards for a car leif spring with no look I then tried to get a old saw blade still no look tried wood but they all broke so cut my self made Ash long bow up and used that, success bought a hanging spring they are cheap on the net and it draws 48 LB Now to get some hard wood and make a good one with Yew prog

Many moons ago, about 40 I would guess, I built a crossbow from a purchased kit, the bow is of aluminium alloy, very 'sprungy'. I've still got it up in me loft, too frightened to use it nowadays, & lacking the strength to cock it! The bolts would penetrate car panels, with a range of well over 1/4 mile.

 

[stuckinthemud]

Managed to get it weighed. To be honest I’m a bit disappointed as it’s 150lb at 12” draw length. It can be drawn to 14.5” which would be about 190lb but that would really be pushing it’s limits and that’s not wise when it’s about 2 feet in front of your nose

I still have a lot to learn, it was most likely a utility/hunting bow. I can’t imagine a Danish warrior wading into conflict with 150lb, but, then the original was made of slow grown Baltic yew, compression timber and was probably reflexed to boot- dunno what that would add to its poundage but say 10 percent for density, plus 30 lb for drawing through a couple of inches of reflex puts the bow 50lb higher and 200lb is pretty useful. Even so, 200lb is still a utility bow not a war bow