I just happened upon this site, and I am very glad I did.
I have bought several crossbows at auction some if not all in need of some TLC.
I do hate to see basically our heritage thrown in a cupboard and left to rot!
Having a passion for restoring vintage air guns, it wasn't to long before I bought some dilapidated original crossbows.
The smallest crossbow I have is a boys practice type? only about 14" long and not powerful from around 1900.
The largest I have is a Victorian target crossbow which is around 5' long.
Oldest one is a small hunting crossbow around the 16th cent.
I am not up on all the proper wording for parts of the crossbow yet, so please bear with me if I get the wording wrong!
I have just bought some material which is Ivory substitute from which I hope to make several prods.
What brilliant videos of the string/cord? Making, that has certainly helped me in making them, as I only had pictures from Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey "The Crossbow" and guess work to go by.
Making them by hand without a machine of some description leaves you with very sore fingers, and as it transpires wrong!