Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: blackpanem on March 22, 2012, 12:15:04 am
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my brothers in the marines and his birthdays coming up and for some reason he has always been interested in crossbows, so i thought hey maybe ill make him one. really the only part i need help with is the bow itself, what should it be made of? yew?
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You will want to think about finding a copy of a book by someone named Alm, Survey of European Crossbows. It is out of print, and used copies run up to $800 or more, believe it or not, but you may try an inter-library loan to get the info, as the two all wooden Skane bows are only in this book. They were both, I believe, made with yew prods, but I may be wrong. Those are push pin type locks, rather than rolling nuts, much simpler but not capable of really high poundage armbrusts. Keep it to about 100 lbs and you should be fine, And remember that a crossbow prod only has a very short power stroke / draw length.
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I have made a couple out of osage and felt it worked very well.
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i am just finishing one with the pin type of trigger, its made of Osage and seems to work pretty good
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Howdy, I made one with a bamboo backed ipe prod. Ron
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This thread my help http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,28795.0.html (http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,28795.0.html)
It's my primitive crossbow with a Laburnum prod.
Del
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I think all of us (I did certainly) assumed you were building a all-wood skane type bow, but maybe not. You could do one with a rolling nut lock system, as I have seen those kind built, but I am not sure if they are not accurate to historic bows. Some of the great crossbows (siege bows) of enormous weight were made with all wooden prods / bows.
I built a Chinese repeating crossbow recently and used two unglued slats of bamboo for the bow, so that is another material option.
Dane
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ok thanks guys! ill post some pics when its done!