A new early crossbow forum?

There has been some suggestions for an "Early Crossbow" Forum under the workshop section for pre XV Century crossbows and similiar devices. This could cover Greek and Roman crossbows and manuballistas (sp?) as well as others.

Just tossing this out there. What does everyone else think? Do you think we need anouther section for early crossbows and similiar bows?

It might be necessary if there is enough interest in early forms. I would not have it as pre 15th century however. The medieval forum is listed as medieval crossbows but it barely catches the end of the medieval period. There are more similarities between a crossbow of 1200 and 1600 than 1600 and 1700. Maybe rename the Classical recurve section to "Renaissance and Early Modern", change the Medieval Crossbows time frame to 10th through 16th maybe 17th century? Then add a "Classical and Dark Ages" section (I know it isn't the Dark Ages anymore, but it remains a handy catchall term for the Late Ancient, Migration, Proto/Pre and Early Medieval Periods).

Not to make it more confusing, but what about early asiatic crossbows. Some examples would be the Chinese repeating crossbow, the one that uses a bronze trigger mechanism, or the various veitamese and tiawanese crossbows.

All good points so far.
Todd, I definatly agree on wanting to make sure the Asian (and African) crossbows gets covered, thats why I was thinking "Early Crossbows" instead of Greek/Roman Crossbows for a title.

So idea:

"Early Crossbows"
"Dawn of time to VI Century"

"Tradtional Crossbows"
"VII - XVI" Century"

"Classic Recurve Crossbows"
"XVII Century - Modern"

"Compund and other modern crossbows" (yeah drawing a blank on whats its called now)
"Modern to the Future"

For those in the SCA the date ranges might look familiar. I think this would cover the intent of what we want.

Alternative Forum scheme.

"Pre-gunstock crossbows" (Alternative name Tradional Crossbows)
"Pre XVI Century"

"Post Gunstock crossbows" (Alternative name Modern or classic Crossbows)
"Post XVI Century"

"Crossbow Perversions and other mechanical arrow shooters"

Yeah the naming needs help but does bring the number of forums down which isn't a bad thing.

I for one would appreciate a "general crossbows" forum. I can't find a section that really pertains to my current build. It's not really radical or anything...

Unless stealing ideas from the Greeks would be considered radical.

I once saw a documentary which showed Pygmies hunting for a monkey; they shot it from a tree using a type of crossbow, which looked quite original.A new discussion would certainly be varied if the contributions keep flowing in...regards,paul.

jake-owa wrote:I for one would appreciate a "general crossbows" forum. I can't find a section that really pertains to my current build. It's not really radical or anything...

Unless stealing ideas from the Greeks would be considered radical.

I just put it under the modern forum. It is a modern design after all.
And Yes stealing ideas from the Greeks is a radical concept. Never been done before in all of human history yes everything the Romans did was completely unique and unprecidented.

Paul - if you can find more information on the pygmies crossbows you should start a topic in the crossbow discussion area. I am interested in finding out about these crossbows. you have piqued my interested

Ok, modern it is.

Hi.this is to Something something dark side...there appears to be a wealth of information on the African hunting crossbow,starting with a link fromWikipedia's History of crossbows,item 4 ,Africa & the Americas;that takes you to the African Diaspora Archaeology Network.Then go for it by going to Pitt Rivers Museum,crossbow 1884.16.2,which gives a superb photo of the ''Split stock'' crossbow used by some African tribes.It must be some 30 years since I saw the documentary about pygmies using them,so happy hunting!Regards,paul.

I'd like to see a place for very ancient weapons such as Greek gastrophetes and manuballistas (which I like to call scorpio-minor in the case of all-wooden machines). Here is one I have in the works, based on the Xanten find and using Vitruvian dimensions.

And I agree, those wonderful Chinese weapons deserve a place of their own.
BTW, the black plastic washers are strictly for the photo. The real ones will be either machined or cast.

Dane

Chinese you said : http://armborst.forum24.se/armborst-about52.html
Mr Gerd-Jürgen Zunk has built a copy of a Chu-ko-nu. I had 6 arrows in the air at the same time.....i was howling....

Do you think we need another section for early crossbows and similar bows?

How dare you!?

...Haha...No problem dude...in fact - good call!

I like variety and by the sound of it you guys do too.

*Definitely agree on a separate forum for ballistas and other crossbow like siege weapons.

*Also I understand there is a demand for a separate forum dealing with crossbows with wood prods.

*Splitting perversions and modern/compounds is another good idea.

...Now the medieval section is a toughy since I'm not too fluent in the periods *my loss* and I'll need your help there, so lets wrap this up. We can either edit the name a bit if it's possible or we can do a whole separate forum if such big a change is really necessary. Give me a bit more ground to work with and I'll do it - no problem.

So what did we settle on?

---

A bit off topic...I've been busy with my little bow a few minutes at a time these days...mostly working on it at night and trying not to make any noise. That thing definitely deserves more crazy lovin', and I'm about to turn on some beats and really give it to her tonight...drive my neighbors crazy ...*I'll let you in on the joke...its a reference my friend made to the squeakiness of my work bench and it's similarity with the sound of a rocking bed*. ...yes, the gutter is strong within us...

Speaking of gutters by the way...I was arguing with this one German guy (Joerg Sprave) about him calling his projects crossbows(well slingshot crossbows) a while back, but that's not the important part (after talking to him a bit, I can realy care less what he calls his weapons), the important part is - despite them being somewhat simplistic wood prototypes - he's got some wicked stuff...Link...check him out, who knows, maybe we'll add a slingshot forum on here as well.

It's a clip some German channel did with him, a sort of parody for the film "Machete" only with plungers instead of machetes.



So, how are your projects doing guys, you have anything to throw into the hat?

Ivo

Not really anything new. I had a new "riser" made for my Scorpyd "manuballista" and it shoots real awesome accurate from my limited range testing so far. Built this one so I can up my power using side by side dual extension springs.
I'd like to build the Jennings next so I have a "railess" manuballista and learn a little for a railess Scorpyd build. I first had to think of a few real reasons why one would build a railess Scorpyd as they are so bloody fast and accurate as they are. The only real reason I came up with was a lower weight and smaller dimensions.
Over the next month I should have at least one more "bow" done, hopefully two - the Jennings and the Middleton. The excal paradox is just too sweet to chop up right now.
I would not mind seeing a ballista category as what I build is not a crossbow as it lacks bow limbs. My ambition is (or was) to create a whole new category of sports weaponry - alternative powered weaponry (crossbows)which could include not only torsion machines, but spring powered machines, air powered, etc etc. A place where non conforming weaponry would fit right in.
BTW - there is www.slingshotforum.com where JoergS is a mod and reg. contributer there.

Working on it guys

Hey looks good. Thanks for your work Ivo

Lots of different variations are going through my head right now and I can't settle with either one

For the early crossbow forum I got:

• The Original Crossbows...or...Early & Medieval Crossbows...
  
• Traditional Crossbows
  

For Gun stock era Recurves/D-Bows I got:

• Modern Classic Crossbows...or...Modern Recurve Crossbows
  

For compounds I think simply

• Compound Crossbows... will do the job.
  

For the not-so-traditional (no actual "bow" or low power props) :

• Ballista Crossbows
  
• Mech-Bows...or...Combination Crossbows...or...Crossbow Perversions
  
• Slingshot Crossbows
  
• ...perhaps even do LARP Crossbows, Fantasy/Acting Prop Crossbows, ...
  

Some of them may be Forums on their own while others I'm having difficulty choosing the name for. It's been a long week for me, working two jobs, so I'm counting on you guys. Let me know what you like, don't like, we can even vote on it if you'd like. ...I'll leave the forum the way it is right now until later.

Ivo

PS: I'm also adding a few new forums: Photography & Video, Video Games, Software, and perhaps a few others as they come to mind.

I like this a bit better. Though I would vote for "Traditional Crossbows" instead of "Original Crossbows". more of minor thing.

I like the Mech-bow name and the ballista forum.

Yeah that two job thing sucks. I feel your pain, did that for long enough

Yeh, The "Original" Crossbow had this extremely short term appeal to it, so I mentioned it anyway. I do however like the "Early & Medieval Crossbows" name for the first forum and do an additional forum called "Traditional Crossbows" that would hold what Jake and Orcbow(and I'm sure many others out there) like to build - All Wood Crossbows that aren't necessarily related to the historical ones.

So I made a few changes to the forum layout.

Basically I just polished up the base platform to build off of. The rest is up to you...

I noticed there was a suggestion to add Asiatic Crossbows. I picture it as a section touch on everything from the Chinese Chukunu and their War crossbows (Bronze-lock)...to the Vietnamese Jungle Bows and perhaps more from the same category.

If you have a better name suggestion, deff let me know...or just let me know if you like the one I came up with for now.

Also you probably noticed that I compiled the "design discussion" and "project showcase" forums and put all under a single forum with respect to the style being discussed. I'll explain my action:

I've been looking at the forum from various angles for the past month and realized that some areas of the forum might benefit from a little chaos...think about it...discussions are good and we talk about all kinds of things, but new projects don't appear too often. So, to save room and give our forums a bit of "color" I mixed the two. Now if someone does a project tutorial, wants to show a finished bow, has a specific question directed at a specific style of crossbow/component...they can all be viewed and discussed conveniently in a single forum without jumping back and forth all over the site. Lets see if we can benefit from a little chaos, shall we?

Ivo

chaos matches my mental state and designs. Im for it.