Still, the channel has grown quite a bit. I remember following Tod a some years ago when he had just a few thousand subs. I always hoped he could take off one day.
But remember with historical short draw lengths, the actual energy imparted by such a monster is "only" on par with a war archer's bow. Both lethal, but not as different as you'd assume just knowing the poundage.
@@Tekvorian fyi well-made Plate will maybe get a dent from this crossbow.it's the lucky shots into the gaps and through chain+padding that have a chance to pierce flesh. Tod has a video called arrows vs armour where he tested out a Warbow being shot by a professional archer, with arrows made by a professional fletcher, arrowheads made by a professional smith, and a piece of chest plate alos made by a pro. it's really quite amazing how much protection plate gives.
470 lb crossbow is really not enough for plate armor. For plate, you you need 1200 lbs great crossbows. It can generate up to 500 Joules of energy, in comparation of 150 Joules, what strongest War Bows can get.
@@Tekvorian It won't piece plate armor, not with the common metallurgy available back then. Crossbow bolts were made to pierce mail and gambeson, which they did to great effect. Plate also wasn't that common anyway, only really wealthy knights could afford a set of plate to be made for them, and yes plate had to be custom fitted for the wearer.
Jeez. ... I kindof can't believe this quality of info just exists on youtube... free, if you know where to find it. Long live the internet! (And kind, passionate chaps like Tod!) Anyhow... thanks ever so much for the video, it seems really, truly top tier. I mean it. 😊
Dear Tod, The crossbow's got me completely surprised by its power, the way the trigger and other parts have to be done, and really just how this was used in battle. Suddenly the 14th century is looking like the renaissance across the board: Complex art, weapons, architecture, lenses, mirrors, it's amazing how your work brings to life what it must have been to be a soldier in those times. The powerful crossbow must have been what the machine guns were in the trenches in WW I: an equalizer, a weapon of fear. Now the 14th and 15th century speaks to us through the crossbow you built.
@@ME-hm7zm Matchlock No, flintlock yes. Crossbows at those poundages probably are not meaningfully faster than a flintlock. Unless you are going the "Crew Served" route.
Yeh I’d go the goat leaver over the belt. Maybe with something attached to the leaver so it hangs from my belt when not in use instead of constantly ditching it on the ground
That draw with belt, i'd bet that you'd be knackered after a dozen of them. The physical cost of using a bow is something that people forget, to draw a heavy bow needs a lot of energy. If you have to draw a bow 20, 30m 40 times suddenly you're not after raw power but repeatable shots.
Always in awe of the craftmanship exhibited by Tod and others of the ilk. Breathtakingly simple in conception but amazingly skilled in construction. Absolutely wonderful. Flaxen Saxon.
Blimey, I thought you were going to do yourself a mischief using the spanning belt near the end, Tod; no wonder you don't like them. It also made me wonder how often crossbowmen did a face plant trying to get one foot through the stirrup. Sort of like me trying to get my pants on in the morning. :-)
Great video. I believe the Romans stationed garrisons of Syrian archers with composite bows in Britain for quite some time. So while wet weather may have caused some maintenance concerns for composite materials, it was not an insurmountable problem and could be minimized.
Amazing work Tod, you rule I always look forward to new videos from you! That goats foot lever is f'n awesome, I can't believe how much power you can get out of it and how fast/easy it is in comparison to the cranequin or the belt. I'd also like to hear your thoughts on Joerg Sprave's bow magazine-whatever-system
I only just understood how the latching system works, that the string is able to bypass the catch, and by hitting the nut at the back it swivels the catch up into position. That is so damn smart, very cool!
I checked out Andreas Bichler as you suggested. Yes those are incredibly good looking bows. Have a look the beautiful shield he also constructs as a target for his 1200 lb bow. Cannot believe he shot a hole in it. I see someone below commenting on your subscriber number. Don't feel bad. Andreas only has 700!
Steel crossbow was not popular in central Europe for the same reasons composite wasn't in England. The weather. You simply could not hatch it in winter as steel gets harder when cold.
Definitely see why one would prefer the 'goat's foot' lever, but maybe a trained person with a lighter bow could be faster with the belt. Great video and gorgeous (albeit practical) crossbow anyways!
Can you possibly do a video on how medieval crossbow makers were able to physically string the bows? I have seen that you have a modern press but what did people do with only hand tools, pulleys, gears. Would be a really good video.
JanoTuotanto, it’s also more resource intensive with the prerequisite of an expert smith and lots of metal available. A gaffe lever would’ve offset it by just using wood but still would require a skilled craftsman. The belt hook & pulley method was earlier but didn’t require as many resources or skills to make.
A spanning belt can be extremely inexpensive and lightweight, while a goat's foot lever is solid steel (heavy and expensive) and needs an expert to make it.
Hi Tod! I am making a hand made crossbow, but i have some stumblings. How do You make the string? Do You have any vídeo or link about that theme? Thanks, great channel and sorry for My English.
This was a very interesting video. I had never seen either of those mechanisms (at least in my adult memory, I saw many many museums as a child and I'm sure that at least the spanning belt I've seen before, but it counts as never seen before for any sake of conversation). I kept thinking I wish you should try to find someone who could make a demo composite crossbow for you, someone who already does something like that and wouldn't have to work so hard to do it, just for the show and tell of having one. I understand you're hoping to sell these articles but I really think your channel has been good for general museum value.
Where the Goat's foot lever's ever attached to crossbows? Seems clunky putting it on and removing. Could it not be attached where it hook on to the body. the string engagement and draw operates the same. But once the string is in the nut, the level is pushed just forward enough to release the string hooks, the hooks flipped over to behind the string and the lever folded back to rest on the stock. Realizing that some changes to the shape of the sliding bars may be needed to allow the lever to rest all the way back and flat on the stock. Thoughts?
Wing Nut Bert, there is a similar fictional design used by the character Hild in the Vinland Saga manga. But in real life, the closest thing they had to a built-in lever mechanism was the Latch crossbow (Tod does have a video of shooting a copy he made) as well as internal lever-action crossbows like the Balestra Veloce (in Da Vinci’s Codex Atlanticus), the crossbow from the Codex Loeffelholz that Tod’s colleague, Andreas Bichler, made/shot on his other channel, and the crossbow-wheellock combination hunting piece that they exhibit at the Met Museum in New York (they do show it on the Met’s website).
The goat's foot looks so easy. I think I'd rather just throw the entire bow at the enemy rather than use the spanning belt! The noises Todd made told you everything you need to know about using the spanning belt! 😵
Amazingly interesting. Back in the day, I wonder how many nut sacks were wrecked if something snapped with the belt. The lever seems a much more reasonable solution.
Well done Todd, in the era this crossbow was used say in battle, what was the preferred way of cocking the bow. Also do you have a replica of an original cocking lever or device,..Thanks, Richard.
I've got a question: what is the advantage of the belt system compared to a goat's foot? It looked slower, a bit more awkward, and that you had to use more force My only guess is that it's possibly cheaper because it uses less complexly forged steel And also, great video as always :)
I'd say the advantage is that you can't misplace it in a muddy or hectic situation, like you could the goat's foot. Also, it seems less particular to the specific length between pre-draw string and the shafts coming out of the stock.
Out of curiosity, were there many crossbows where a goats foot sort of tool was built into the stock? I imagine a crossbow that could be redrawn without having to use a separate tool might be useful in birding.
@@tods_workshop Thanks for the reply! I figured that would be the case but I also assumed someone would have tried at some point. By chance have you done a crossbow/musket comparison test?
@@Vespuchian Now you made me think what a scaled up balestrino would look like! I'm guessing it could technically maybe be made back then, but prohibitively expensive and offering no real benefits (other than no seperate bits to span it).
I'm a bowyer from Pocatello Idaho. You sir are one of my new favorites. If there is anything you could tell me about, it's how to find my first yew staves. It is quite a mysterious wood. Mabie you might know someone or something?
So, if you have a really heavy, 500lbs to 1000lbs crossbow shooting a bolt with a long, needle tipped tempered head, think like a pilum tip. Would it pierce plate armor?
Tod has a video showing a "Latchet Crossbow", featuring a built-in lever to draw it. Not the same as a goat's foot, and not nearly as powerful as this bow, but still pretty cool. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-M0m5udFoPnA.html
The closest is probably Balestra Veloce, invented by Leonardo da Vinci, with the lever on the underside, but there's a whole host of different lever-action crossbows. There's several other historical self-contained spanning mechanisms, the most famous probably being windlass crossbows, followed by rack and pinion. These both saw military use.
Kaerius, the Balestra Veloce is also eerily similar to the crossbow that in the Codex Loeffelholz that Andreas Bichler constructed. It’s also vaguely similar as that crossbow-wheellock combination hunting piece that they have exhibited at the Met Museum in New York.
Spanning belts: fuck that I'm just gonna take the necessary decade off to learn to use a long bow. =/ (Although, that said, shooting a crossbow always looks far less stressful than shooting a longbow.
I have worked on calculations to create a cocking mechanism that would reduce the strengh to cock a crossbow. I would like to take patameters from this 470lbf crossbow. What is the power stroke to cock it? By power stroke, just to align terminology, I mean the length of cable, from its resting (uncocked) position, till it's cocked (470lbf to deliver).
Beautiful craftsmanship as usual Tod, Which spanning method would have been the most cost/time effective to produce in times of war? I would assume the goats foot it seems like it would be much easier to create compared against the pulleys and leather work required for the belt, That said the leather work would have probably been done by somebody and sent to the smith.
Never thought about what the loop at the front of a crossbow was for. Very interesting! Btw now that you mentioned the composite bow... Had no idea such a thing existed! Going to research into that
Makes a beautiful release sound. I don't think i've ever heard a crossbow make that noise before. What is causing that lovely sound exactly in the mechanics?
I hope you don't mind asking, was reading a Bernanrd Cornwell book about the battle of Crecy, what is the effect in reality of shooting a wet crossbow or long bow.? I would be interested in a comparison.
Out of interest is it physical and mechanically possible to have a belt pulley pull a lever to span a bow? I'm thinking of writing such a device into my books and I'm wondering if it is feasible to make. It's not going to be historical but neither is my book.
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Byc887HmUdc.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-kXli68FbqTE.html this is two videos that came up when I typed in Andreas Bichler
@@froschnmaximus9108 He's a good recreateor, see how much much more work there is the horn bow, it's a weapon for the elite. Every one else is spending on protection, a Wisby Coat of Plates or a Helmet an some mail? Most people have better thing to spend there money on then weapons. Do you you buy the new high power crossbow or armour to protect you from it? A Wisby Coat of Plates will likely see you return home, But a high powder crossbow offers you nothing but the maybes of glory. Armour was the safe bet, there's nothing else that lasted as long, nothing that equalled it for a thousand years. From 300bc to 1200ad it was the main armour. After that it faded to areas that had to flex or move, but it faded away until armour left the battle field in the 1890's. The battle of Omdurman in 1898 marked the end of mail, (Battle of Omdurman) [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Omdurman] Until ww1 where a lot of armours still used mail links to join plates against bullets.
Сила натяжения этого арбалета 225 кг, козьей ногой или ремнем на поясе. А можно применить на этот арбалет, современный натяжной ремень с храповым механизмом, такими ремнями закрепляют грузы на фурах.
Tod - I'm sure there's an obvious answer, but why wasn't the cocking mechanism incorporated into the crossbow somehow? It seems like most of the ungainliness comes from it being a separate object that needs to be re-set. I know the Chinese had the cho-ko--nu, but why didn't European crossbows have a goat's foot built in?
How did these sheet steel pieces of armour , steel not iron and sheet , get made Steel not iron turned into 1/8 consistent sheet steel , consistent in temper and thickness , that in turn can be cut and fashioned in a blacksmith shop The archers you have shooting bolts or arrows with IRON, case hardened iron , didn't have steel yet had steel knives , swords , axes And steel armour apparently littering the post battlefield Would like to see the episode where we see medieval industrial steel mills producing sheet steel , Am I way off base , or did this industrial capability not exist and this armour thing we we is 100s of years later invention ?
Spanning powerful crossbows from the belt appears as a key feat of strength in El Victorial (15th century). I hope someday we learn more about the details & people take crossbows as seriously as they take longbows. What could the crossbow equivalent of Joe Gibbs manage?
Due to the tiny draw length/power stroke of crossbows compared to normal hand bows(+more massive limbs, thicker & more massive strings, friction of the string across the tiller), they use all that energy far less efficiently than a hand/long bow. If Tod's crossbow has a 5" draw length & 470lb draw weight, that's equivellent to a c98lb longbow drawn to 30" with a 6" brace height.
Firstly, WRT the spans/arms/WHY of a composite bow of any type, wouldn't the glue process imply less durability over time due to different composite layers flexing at different rates, inducing extra sheer stress along/across that glueline? So eventually composite bows would fall apart over use... unless the glue was elastic in some way once cured (like modern day Copydex, a rubber/latex solution) Secondly, would flaring the stock a little make the bow far more comfortable & easier to use if using the spanning belt (plus incidentally adding slightly to accuracy if shoulder-fired)? A spanning belt can only be used by foot soldiers obviously, so the slight disadvantage of a flared stock if/when used from horseback would be irrelevant (as would the slight weight penalty).. but the rear peg may double as a crude sight too, given a distinct front marker (even if only a paint/dye blob)? Thirdly, is there any internal spring mechanics used within the trigger mechanism? That positive sound when you repositioned the nut prior to demonstrating the spanning belt sounded v much like a sprung pawl engaging..
See his video on the "latchet" crossbow. There was also a crossbow design with a built-in spanning mechanism, devised by Leonardo da Vinci. Unfortunately, it was never realized in his time; but there is a YT video of a modern reconstruction.
I understand it’s not authentic , but why can’t you make a traditional looking cross bow with a much longer power-stroke by using a modern steel prod? Am I missing the reason for the short power stroke on modern made traditional crossbows and modern steel?
