Howdy from Washington

Just a quick hello to introduce myself, I don't post a lot on forums, but I have been lurking here for months learning more than I have anywhere else and figured it was about time I joined. I've been a medieval crossbow fan for my whole life, my first crossbows were just toys when I was a kid, but as I have aged my interest has grown. As of now I have made a few -real- crossbows, a Skane type crossbow and a more conventional rolling nut type that seems to resemble some of the central european crossbows. I'm currently in the process of collecting parts and materials to make one modeled after the Padre Island types. I'm looking forward to contributing here when I can!

Welcome, would not mind seeing pictures of your previous efforts.



Todd

I was actually just looking for those pictures, I'll put em up here as soon as I can locate them!

Finally got some new pics done of one of my crossbows, I had to dig out my old digital camera. The pics I did have seem to have gone MIA. Its still a work in progress, as I still need to cover the prod with rawhide or leather, then rebind the whole bridle. Just cant seem to find a source of rawhide outside of Tandy leather. Wow I never wrote down the specifics on this crossbow. Its one of those aluminum alloy prods from darkwood armory. Im using false sinew for the string and for the cord retaining the nut, I served it with hemp string and covered the loops with thin leather. The nut is delrin, with a steel plate sear, it seemed easier than drilling out and installing a rod. The body is red oak, and the table is poplar, I really liked the contrast even with a clear finish of danish oil. I use poplar for the bolts as well, I found red oak to be a tad too heavy for a 70# draw. I used a piece of flat steel stock for the stirrup and a round steel bar for the trigger. That part was tedious, I have a limited workshop and no access to a forge. The bridle is fairly light at the moment, I will rebind it with at least 2 times as much cordage when Im done. The belt quiver is cobbled together from scraps of an old leather purse I had laying around, but it works.

Sugarbuzz,

I'm pretty sure that you will get better performance out of that bow if you make your next string out of something less stretchy than "artificial sinew". The traditional material is linen or hemp, but I have never had good luck with them. It seems like we can't get the really "long staple" stuff our ancestors used. The B-50 dacron string material works well. It is available here http://search.3riversarchery.com/search?asug=string&w=string+material from "3 rivers archery".

Mac

True enough Mac, I had been using the Tandy sinew for years on bows, it does have a certain stretchiness, but not too much. I had read about using it in Iolo's crossbow book, I had figured it was somewhat more forgiving on an already limited life prod. I should upgrade to B-50, but I'm on a somewhat limited budget. You serve dacron with the same stuff? Thanks for the tip as well, I'm always looking for better ways to do things. I will try to aquire some for my next project, which is already in the works. Shaping the stock now, and waiting for fedex to come through.

Buzz,

I serve the string with linen thread, coated in a mixture of hide glue and tallow. The tallow plasticizes the glue, so that it is not brittle.

Mac