Just signed up: Ben Blaque

Hello everyone at the arbalist guid. My name is Ben Blaque and I perform My crossbow act all over the world. I have been doing my act for about 7 years and have traveled to other countries and performed over 3000 shows. I am in the process of getting a new websight but you can look at my old and horrible sight i currently have www.blaquemagic.com I just got back from Jakarta Indonesia where I performed live for over 2 million viewers. I have many other gigs lined up including one in Paris this fall. I am looking for some really awsome crossbows to feature in my act , similar to the Talisman crossbows. If I cant find something i like then i would like to start making my own. Also, you can view my video on youtube if yo search: ben blaque. thanks and look forward to learning form this forum. Ben Blaque

Welcome to the Site. Looks like you have a lot of cool things going on right and a bit traveling. But once again welcome


Wow, Just watched your promo video on Youtube. That was some crazy stunt shooting. That was really cool and insane.

hey thanks. i have alot of work into it and starting to pay off as i just returned from Jakarta Indonesia where i performed for the national tv show being aired in several countries. We had over 2 million viewers the first live performance.
I just need some killer crossbows like the Talisman crossbows to use in my act and on the Tv specials.

Ben Blaque Welcome to the forum!

Never thought I'd have this celebrity moment...truly an honor to have you with us.

I remember putting in "Crossbow trick shot" in the Youtube search one day and stumbling upon your performance. Indeed a great show, very inspiring too. That same day I went to a BBQ hosted by the local Firefighting squad and since some of them are crossbow hunters...crossbows were out and we did some ring shots (I mean "ring" as in jewelry ring) for friends and family and then shot some balloons with kids, it was cool, but nothing as cool as your stuff.

So, you're looking for a cool crossbow for your performance?

I don't know if anything can be done as quickly as you need it (a custom usually takes from six months to a year), but we'll try to help you out as much as we can.

Tallisman crossbows are indeed awesome looking machines, the internals are pretty cool too. Not all of them are traditional flexible limb crossbows, some actually use a compression spring in the forend of the stock. Heavy, noisy, but that somehow makes them just so much more intimidating. Anyway, I wrote Phil an e-mail asking him if he still builds bows and invited him to stop by the forum. We'll see how that goes.

Also, just in case you're interested...

There are a few other crossbowyers that do awesome work and might be able to help you out.

One would be New World Arbalest,

David R. Watson and Lightly build some fantastic Medieval Crossbows and can be contacted by this address:

http://crossbows.net/contactinfo.php

They are also members of this forum - Geezer(David) and Lightly, you can check out some of their work by looking up Lightly's topics in the Medieval Crossbow section.

This is a bow they did for our Mod, Basilisk120:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/swifthoundbows/sets/72157625564511304/

And if you wish for a slightly more modern recurve, or a beautiful custom stock for your existing crossbows (if I'm not mistaken, I saw you use a modified Parker or Tenpoint)...there is a Russian Crossbowyer by the name Dmitriy Krohalev. You can take a look at some of this work here:

https://thearbalistguild.forumotion.com/t298-crossbows-by-dmitriy-krohalev

As well as on his site (translated with Google Translate):

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=ru&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fsamostrel.com%2Farchive%2F

All in all, you have quite a few choices.

Ivo

Hey Ben. did Phil ever make you that bow you wanted? Saw your post some ti;me ago on crossbownation.com.

What are the requirements of the bow and desired performance? Is weight a factor, size?

I build torsion based bows. Ty Ruben has agreed to be my company designer "at large". - www.alieninsect.com currently I like to use the scorpyd for its piccatinny rail, making the torsion "riser" a simple bolt on but involves some custom stock work.

No one builds or sells torsion "crossbows" properly called ballista or manuballista (scorpion or scorpio) cheiroballista.

Anyhow, there are many skilled craftsman here - Im just a designer/innovator.

Big hello to everyone on here.Sorry Ben for not getting back in contact with you regarding making you a crossbow as i have been having terrible difficultie's trying to get info'talismancrossbows.co.uk to work so i can reply for a long while now as the website designers i used have just messed me around and around and around so now my email is talismancrossbows@hotmail.com .Anyway thank's for the interest in my crossbow's and your act is incredible stuff to say the least.I have been very busy getting the Talisman Mantis Ballista crossbow all ready to be finally made for hunter's and crossbow shooter's in general and this has required 100 percent attention to get this really incredibly powerful weapon to the stage's where i am right with it now.Right now i am in a position to be able to offer you a full custom crossbow that you would like if you are still interested.The Beast crossbow will be featuring in an up and coming film along with several other of my crossbow's in this British made film so i am negotiating with art director's and producer's but this is early day's.Anyway good to hear you are doing very well as you deserve recognition and i will gladly help out if i can.How are thing's working out with your design's Joel i will have to meet up with you when i get to the United state's anyway it's all good stuff we are all doing with crossbow's and i am still going for ultra high speed's and kinetic energy as i know you are very interested in very high powered crossbow shooting and i think the none flexing limb approach is really the way forward for incredibly high speed's and power.I just did not want to post this onto Crossbow nation as some of them on there start to get nasty so a just let them get on with what they do.I am still waiting to recieve two set's of Mantis limb's from the foundry to retest as it is only these that are critical to the extent of insanity,lol for all this crazy power.