Who is "mac" ?

Hi!

I'm Robert MacPherson. I have built about a dozen crossbows over the years; mostly modest bows in the 150lb (70 kilo) range. Most of my bows have been based on "Gothic one-foot bows" of the high middle ages. I have also built an all steel ballistrino with a built in screw spanning mechanism. I will try to get some pics of some of my crossbows together and post them.

I feel as though I have a good understanding of what makes crossbows "tick", and am very willing to share what I know with others.

My fondest crossbow desire is to build horn and sinew composite bows, and hope that the folks here on this forum can help me overcome some of the technical hurdles.

Mac

http://www.lightlink.com/armory/
http://billyandcharlie.com/

Welcome 'mac': You know me as iolo, but I'm just Geezer here. If you wanna build horn/sinew crossbows, start by locating a copy of Die Hornbogen Armbrust, by Holger Richter (pub. by Verlag Angelka Hornig) I found my copy online for a bit under $100, and it's well worth it. Hornig references an artisan in England who seems to have the art of making horn/sinew crossbow prods in hand. There's plenty more to learn, but if you can find this English artisan, and he's willing to teach, you could be well on your way.
It's good to have you on board, old friend. I

Hello Mac,

Darius here. Nice of you to join us!

Geezer wrote:Welcome 'mac': You know me as iolo, but I'm just Geezer here. If you wanna build horn/sinew crossbows, start by locating a copy of Die Hornbogen Armbrust, by Holger Richter (pub. by Verlag Angelka Hornig) I found my copy online for a bit under $100, and it's well worth it. Hornig references an artisan in England who seems to have the art of making horn/sinew crossbow prods in hand. There's plenty more to learn, but if you can find this English artisan, and he's willing to teach, you could be well on your way.
It's good to have you on board, old friend. I

I thought that was you! It's good to see ya' here!

There is certainly good stuff in Richter (bought a copy a few months ago). I am intrigued and baffled by the way horn plates of various widths and lengths are made to nestle in into each other like cells in a living tissue. There is a picture on page 89 (abb.66) which shows this very clearly. The structure looks surprisingly organic.

Richter quotes McEwen on his methods of construction in the back of the book. While I have the greatest respect for McEwen, it seems to me that his methods have too much of a machinist's precision about them. The results are stiff, symmetrical and precise; they lack the organic fluidity of the structures we can see in the pics of old bows. If you follow the outlines of the plates in the pic I mentioned above, you will see that they are not at all flat, but curve to fit neatly into their fellows. It almost looks like the medieval bowyer was able to squeeze a nearly random pile of tapered plates into a billet.

Do you think we should carry this over into it's own thread?

Mac

DARIVS ARCHITECTVS wrote:Hello Mac,

Darius here. Nice of you to join us!

Hello Darious! Glad to see you here!