16th century Spanish "ballesta" crossbow - with shooting videos and testing info

[Del the cat]

Yup, an alloy would be okay, not sure which material would be best in that category. A fellow countyman of yours, Todd (I know you know him, since you posted a goat's foot of his) uses steel I think pretty much exclusively in his crossbows, and his work is just top rate all around.

I'd like to try steel one day, but currently lack the ability to machine in the sear. Perhaps one day I will invest in a little benchtop milling machine. That would open up all kinds of avenues for making neat toys. Casting in bronze would also be really interesting. I have an unfinished furnance I need to get back to, crucibles, etc. The chances of a horrible firery death has kind of made me hesitant to continue in that direction, though.

Dane

I don't actually know Todd, I just pulled that goats foot pic off the interweb.
The steel nut on my big bow was all cut by hand, just the hole in the middle was turned. There's not too much material to remove for the sear, it's all the material up the top by the fingers that took the time amd sweat and time and more sweat... It was made back in days when we had a coal fire and I case hardened the sear in that. Damn gas central heating, no good for metalworkin'
Del

[Dane]

Google him and check out his stuff. He also forges some amazing medieval knives and other nice stuff. Hence, his name is Todd's Stuff.

I may end up giving making a steel nut a go one day. I can reduce the size of the nut a bit to help lighten it up. I drill and tap my antler nuts for a steel threaded rod that I make the sear from, and I guess I can just do the same for a steel nut. I actually enjoy filing metal by hand, as tedious and difficult as it can be. A milling machine would really make my life easier in this regard, though, so perhaps this coming year I should save up for one for my next birthday present to myself. A milling machine would allow me to make small half-scale Roman and Greek siege engine parts, too. Full scale one too, for that matter.

So many projects, so little time.

[Shaun]

Your pivot point CAD drawing and angle on the end of the trigger has me wondering... could you just place a compass at the pivot point and mark the arc at the end of your trigger and get the same result? Much more primitive and direct method if the idea is to make it work without pushing the nut forward during the stroke.

[Dane]

I'm sure you could with a single axel design. Mocking up components with cardboard or foam core or balsa wood is also a good way to mess around with ideas. With more complex triggers, Sketchup is a great tool. Since we all have computers and the Internet, not having the technology is not an issue here.

Dane

[Del the cat]

Your pivot point CAD drawing and angle on the end of the trigger has me wondering... could you just place a compass at the pivot point and mark the arc at the end of your trigger and get the same result? Much more primitive and direct method if the idea is to make it work without pushing the nut forward during the stroke.

Yes, that's the easy way, but you must open the compass out to the distance between the two pivots. If you draw a radius from the nut pivot which meets a line from the other pivot at 90 degrees the sear will be sliding out on that radius and won't exert any rearward force.
I always use 'Cardboard Aided Design' (CAD )
Del
(Sorry if I'm poaching on Dane's thread )

[Dane]

Poaching in ye old king’s forest, knave? Feel free to post whatever you wish to discuss, Del. I am always glad to have new ideas and ways of looking at things.

Remember that I am not trying to replicate medieval design methods, and how I design and build a crossbow is almost certainly quite different than how it was done in the 13th – 16th centuries. I think it would be arrogant and misguided to even consider that I am doing that. Hand tools are preferred, but modern tools, including computers, are nice to have. There must be many old guild secrets lost to us, so we will never know for certain how an arbalester working in 15th century Dresden or 16th century Madrid would have taken a project from conception though completion, where he sourced his raw and finished materials, if he purchased goods or services from other craftsmen, how many men worked on particular project, how long it took to complete a commission, and so on. Were work instructions verbal or were the men who built crossbows literate? Were they transient craftsmen or did they have permanent workshops? What status did they hold within weapons making in general (probably armor makers and sword smiths were at the top and projectile weapons makers were lower in status, I am guessing)?

Which, I think, just buttresses the notion that the more we know, the more we find out we don’t know.

Dane

[Onebowonder]

So, in the 15th centrury, would a Sword Smith not have considered the first son of an Arbalester a worthy match for his third daughter save he brought limited or no demand of dowery?

OneBow

[Del the cat]

So, in the 15th centrury, would a Sword Smith not have considered the first son of an Arbalester a worthy match for his third daughter save he brought limited or no demand of dowery?

OneBow

I think a couple of Owls or a sack of ferrets would be required to ensure the match
Del

[Dane]

If the swordmaster refuses the dowery, simply elope to Burgandy or some other strange foreign land where labor is cheap, learn the craft of sword making, and then crush the old man economically with shoddy goods.

[Dane]

Well, now that the bone bearing blocks are glued into place (with an issue I build in by not thinking things through carefully, but a mistake that I have rectified already, more on that as we go along), and now it is time to create the trigger inletting.

I've already determined the pivot point for the trigger axel, and marked that on my tiller from the outside. Then, out came the files and about an hour's time was what it took to make my sear. Pictures later (meaning I didnt take any but will).

I marked out things on the outside of the tiller, and on the bottom. Just like sculpting a marble horse, where you remove all the marble that doesnt look like a horse and you are done, I removed all the wood that wasn't the slot and the slot emerged. This work is not hard, and I used a bit of the same steel as the trigger to ensure I didn't make the slot too wide, as I dont want the thing to wobble all loose in the slot (loose like, say, a tavern wench, but only her morals, of course), but not so tight that it has no chance to enjoy the darkness of the slot.

Keep your chisels razor sharp and this makes things way easier. I got the slot close, then used the chisels sans mallet to shave the sides until I was satisfied with the width. Keep in mind that wood expands during dampness (you all know that), so I want to ensure that if the enemies of my lord attack the keep on a damp day, I don't have a stuck trigger, which is embarrasing. I will surly then get kicked out of the arbalist guild.

From the side and bottom:





Chiseling:






Test fitting:






And finally, the slot with the trigger resting in it. It looks good to me, so next time I go into ye old shoppe, I will then continue to deepen and refined the bottom of the slot. The wood there will act as a stop to keep from depressing the trigger too much, and also, I will be drilling in a hole and inserting a coil spring for the trigger, so it pops back down into place, ready for the next time I span the crossbow. If that sounds vauge and confusing, I am too about most stuff, and will cover that as I finish up this area of the crossbow.

Dane

[gstoneberg]

Lookin good!  I always smile when I see you've posted.

George

[Dane]

Thanks, George. I am glad you are enjoying this journey. It's fun to post something substantial and get all stupid doing it. Now that the trigger area is close to being done, the major steps are going to be making the arrow groove, inlaying whatever stuff I like into the tiller (many of the Spanish crossbows had crosses, so that may be a good way to go), finishing the tiller all pretty-like with our good friend TrueOil, making some strings (endless loop style, but flemish twist strings are also very doable, if not so historically accurate), finishing and fastening all the metal parts, and going out and shooting stuff. I'm trying to get this done in time to celebrate my birthday on the 24th, but if that isnt possible, then it should be done soonafter, and I can get back to other crossbows I have in the works.

Dane

[Dane]

Ah, today was a happy day in the shop. I began by doing about 15 more minutes work on deepening the trigger slot. It was nearly there, so it didn't take a lot of work, but the trigger needed a bit more room so that I could center the axel hole. I also did a bit more work on the opening in the bottom of the nut socket, and hopefully, the pictures will tell that tale.



This shows the completed (or nearly completed) area I have just been referring to. The end of the trigger, which I have been calling the sear point (for lack of better terminology, perhaps a gunsmith has a different term) will then slide into the sear slot and against the sear in the rolling nut.

I then marked the axel hole, used a center punch on it, and then put it in the drill press vice and drilled a 3/16" hole, which is the diameter of the trigger axel. It doesn't have to be this massive hunk o' steel, since the crossbow is pretty light, and if it was a heavier weapon, I'd scale up accordingly.




Next, I slipped it into the crossbow and too see if everything was where I wanted it to be. I had already drilled half the tiller / stock with a 3/16" drillbit, and wanted to make sure I got this right before I drilled out the other side. I had to do a very tiny bit of adjusting to get this thing just a shade deeper, and instead of removing more wood, I clamped the trigger into my bench vice and filed the top.




I took very little metal off, perhaps 1/128" or even less.
In that last shot, you can hopefully see what the sear facing end looks like.

Now, I drilled the other side of the tiller / stock for the axel pin.



This next image is a little file work I needed to do to adjust the access hole for the trigger, and the last couple of shots should illustrate why I had to do that. I used a small triangular file for this work, with the tiller / stock clamped into the vice so I had both hands free to do this work.



Now, I tapped the pin into place:




It worked! Huzzah. And last, a couple of shots to show the trigger end as it looks when the trigger is not depressed (meaning the end is up and engaged against the nut sear), and depressed upward as if the weapon had just been shot, showing the trigger end down, as if it had cleared the sear, allowing the rolling nut to be rotated forward as the crossbow is shot.




Ye of eagle eye may be saying "man, it sure looks sloppy in there." I do have to clean things up a bit, smoothing and sanding and filing and whatever else it takes to get the inside of the nut socket all ready. this is probably the sloppiest looking area thus far, but I am not too stressed about it, and it will be fine in the end. I'll also be waxing the inside of this socket and getting it all slick to faciliate a fast release upon shooting.

That is all for now,  and more again soon.

Dane

[killir duck]

it's looking good Dane i can't wait to see it finished

[Dane]

Thanks, Killir duck. I've got a lot of momentum, and that entire lock system was the slowest single part of this build to undertake. Now that it is just finesing stuff to do, I expect to be able to get the inlaying done by the end of the weekend, get that arrow groove chiseled in, and begin doing final shaping of the metal parts and get those installed.

Dane