Hey all,

I took some pictures of a 16th century Spanish Crossbow that was in a local museum. Thought I would share some pictures. Has some interesting features.




It doesn't show up well, but if you look in the bolt groove the light spot is a raised section. It looks like the bolt would rest on the roller but and the bolt rest and not in the groove. There is a small bone section in front of the roller nut and it is raised compared to the bolt groove.

Been studying the pictures and have some questions.
Is the cheek piece an addition to the stock or carved as one piece. in the photos it looks like it is held on at the back with an iron strap / loop and at the front with a nail or bolt.
Is the curved piece under the front of the cheek piece a trigger? In the first photo it looks like it has a hole in the stock where a working tickler would pivot.
About 11 inches from back of prod to front of nut or just a little less? What is the nut made of? Very serious prod too. Thanks for sharing.

I the cheek rest is a second piece added on.

That curved piece under the trigger is as far a I could tell a stop. Wasn't too sure but didn't look like a trigger there was nothing that looked like an axle at that location.

The hole behind the nut is most defiantly there and it looks like were the lug for the gaffe to hook on went.

Didn't have too much time to look at the museum, the people I was with had to move on. Hopefully I can get back there to spend some more time looking, or if I am really lucky I could get a closer look if I asked nicely.

That hook is for a Spanish cranequin.

Our Russian friend Mr.SAM built one of these a little while back, but never posted it here...guess I have the honor of presenting it to you guys.







Original topic: http://forum.arbalet.info/viewtopic.php?t=8115&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Some of the images are lost and I couldn't find an x-ray pic of the hook(I believe it's in one of the crossbow books, so if anyone has the interest you can post it), I do have a few more pictures from Mr. SAM though.

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The cheek piece must have been added at some later point(possibly when the cranequin was lost or the tiller failed and it's use became impossible) and goats foot lever came into play, though I do not see the anchor pins for it.

Just a few guesses.

Ivo

Good call Ivo!

I was sure that the there was something "hinkey" with the cheek piece, and that the goat's foot had nothing to do with this crossbow; but I hadn't put it all together and come up with the Spanish craniquin.

The x-ray you are thinking of is on page 127 of Harmuth's Die Armbrust.

Mac
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Mr. Sam makes some nice looking stuff!

Mac

I'm wondering now if the curators made the old mistake "they came together so they must belong together". Also would it be possible to use a spanish cranequin with this bow if the cranequin came with a larger stock loop?
How different are the materials and workmanship of the cheek piece and the rest of the bow? Nothing like a good mystery.

Ivo wrote:That hook is for a Spanish cranequin.

The cheek piece must have been added at some later point(possibly when the cranequin was lost or the tiller failed and it's use became impossible) and goats foot lever came into play, though I do not see the anchor pins for it.

Just a few guesses.

Ivo

I was kind of thinking the same thing when you showed the picture of the Spanish Cranequin. If the cheek and lugs for the Gaffe were added later. Would a gaffe be faster than a cranequin? While the Lugs are in the bow right now it does have the mounting holes for them. A few inches behind the roller nut is a 3/8" hole (give or take just eyeballing the diameter) it does go all the way through the body and looks like it would be in the correct place for the goats foot lever to hook on too.

As for cheek rest. It is a second piece but can't tell if it was added later or not.

Crazy thought, maybe the is an early example of sporterizing a military weapon.
For those who don't know what I am referring too, back when they were cheap wasn't uncommon to buy an old military rifle like a Springfield 1903 or a Mauser and sporterize it. Replace the military stock with a target stock, clean up the action put a scope on the rifle, bed the action that sort of thing. Basically turn the battle rifle in to a target or hunting rifle. Just wondering if something similiar was done here.

One last thing to add.

One thing that I have read in a couple of different places and the placard for the crossbow hinted at. It seems that as crossbows were being replaced by firearms by the main Spanish Army the now surplus surplus crossbows were being shipped to the troops in the New World. So crossbows were being used here as primary weapons longer than they were in Europe. And some things never change, there is always some group that is getting dumped on with the old outdated equipment.

So maybe, in similar vein to what I mentioned in the last post, is that some of that was "upgrade" to modernize the crossbow. Make it more suitable for the changing tastes and use in a new environment.

As far as 1552 was almost unheard for common people to have firearms...and in a assize of that year no one in a whole village had one!. They were required to get more equipment to form a group of 100 pikemen, 20 of them with armour, all with sword (which almost everybody had already) and helmet, plus about 30 crossbowmen...

Taking in account the difficulty of suplyng an army in the other corner of the world, at least quarrels can be made on site, not as powder...