Can I Make a Crossbow From Scratch? 

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Something that I don't think you've explicitly called out, but I think is really cool, is that you're developing one other part of society along the way too: society. The initial question is can one person do it all, and the answer is no. As technology advances, there comes a point where you need more and more specialization to successfully complete even one project, and you're showing the value of that with both having your own team members divide and conquer, as well as bringing in guests like Adri as their skills are needed.

biggest advantage the crossbow had was the fact that anyone could pick it up and be trained in a matter of days if not hours. A longbow took a life time to train with in order to build up the strength required to use it in war. At one point in England, it was a requirement for all boys and men to train with the longbow in their free time to the point where in 1349, football was outlawed entirely because Edward III was concerned it was distracting people from their training.

I can't remember if you ever made one or not. But making a hand plane is a pretty fun project and not too complicated. Might make for a good video if you have a lot of wood working stuff coming.

14:48 I’m glad it broke while stringing and not firing. 17:36 really show how much energy that bow has.

when you get to the gunpowder videos, remember that ballmilling, or properly milling the powder makes all the difference. the longer the better.

wow, it's always a pleasant surprise when you guys make an improvised weapon and it actually seems to function properly.

The care on focusing the Steele name on anvil, was so cool 💕

where did you find an elven black smith? Thats pretty OP.

The wood work scene reminded me about the importance of the relationship between the master craftsman and the apprentice. Something that is as old as the craft it's self and remains to this day.

I love when you bring Adri in because I know that they bring talent and competence to HTME and share the most important "everything" in HTME: technological knowledge.

I fully get why you didn't want to use homemade steel for the crossbow, but it would have been nice if you had "unlocked" spring steel, like you did with other materials after the reset. Maybe made homemade high carbon steel, then made a knife or something out of it. Still a very cool video, though, and it's nice seeing you springing back after the shop fire.

So happy to see more of this channel's awesome work! Lots of love for the whole team behind these videos and the patrons that help fund it all!

He didn't mention how they added the significant advantage of being able to hide while you reload (or have others reloading) Or how they are easier to hit a target due to your not holding the strain of a warbow.

It's impressive for sure, but I'd love to see it tweaked a bit since it's close to being a good implementation.Tweaking the length of the bolt should help with being front heavy and feathers might be a good idea as well.

Tod from Tod's Workshop could've been a viable resource for this as well, as he makes historical crossbows pretty often.

Does Adri have their own channel or somewhere I can see their work other places? I always love it when they come on the channel.

This is awesome. A ballista would be cool as heck to make.

6:17 holding a piece of steel with tongs in a forge with the pinky up is just too perfect! love this smith!

so thankful to see you back up and making new things!

Honestly a very informative video, i love all these videos as it shows us all the tech we're surrounded by came to be. Huge fan of what you do! 👍

regarding the bow VS crossbow, there is also the fact that crossbows were much easier to use from inside castle defenses and murder holes, where a big bow could not fit.

Super cool build! Love the blacksmithing! Good info too!

Great work

One of my favorite videos yet. Incredibly cool.

I really like the contrasting blue light with orange metal, very cool!

Hell yeah always nice to see Adri

This is so cool, love the simple crossbow trigger.

In a totally different vein on the same topic, I've been having a ton of fun making Adderini crossbows with my printers. They are just fun to shoot!

The fact that you loose the bolt head is actually accurate. If the bolt head falls off in combat after its shot it does 2 things: 1 the bolt can no longer be picked up and used against you, and 2 the bolt head can end up in the target making it more lethal.

Been so excited for woodworking hand tools to get introduced to the series, planes are gonna be so fun!

very cool show on the creation and history of this historic tool!

Nice! It looks really practical and easy to carry!

I love that the anvil is an Alec Steele one. Excellent content!

Hey man that sucks that your shop burnt down, my apartment was burnt in an electrical fire a few months ago and most of my stuff was destroyed. It was hard to deal with at first but stuff is replaceable and the main thing is that nobody was hurt. Hope your rebuild is going well.

Always a good episode where we get to see some blacksmithing. Excellent work, and I love your nails, Adri!

Another advantage of a Warbow/Longbow compared to a crossbow is less difficult to make and less parts that can break/malfunction. Additionally a Warbow can be a beast of a weapon that can outshoot some crossbows. Check out Shadiversity and some of his videos about bows/crossbows/archery in general. Anyway this was still a great video and I personally would love to have a Crossbow & a Longbow & plenty of Arrows/Bolts for both.

Looking forward to seeing you build a m16 from scratch!=) Great work as always!

Is really good to see you recoveriong from the fire

Keep rebounding HTME i love your vids

Oh yeah I made a couple 80-110 Skain lock bows out of PVC a few years back. Good fun for a lighter crossbow.

Aaaa glad to see more of Adri! They're great :)

I think Asian tribal style crossbow using bamboo and wooden prod would be more simple and appropriate than going for steel.

Machine thinking has a video several years old about the first all metal lathe "the 1751 machine that Made Everything" (not lath like this crossbow) but I can't wait until you get there. Also I think you'd enjoy that channel and its few vids

-Title "Can I make crossbow from scratch?" -the video showing 95% of the bulid done by Adri..... -Basically you only helping Adri bulid the crossbow

Good work on the smith

Thanks for the Tutorial

HTME has their own ELF blacksmith. I dont care about what anybody else sais that guy would have been an elf if we were in a fantasy universe.

Love your guy's videos, keep it up👍

If you guys do get to gunpowder and by extension gun making id love to see a video on pepperboxs they're so fun and alot easier to manufacture than something like a revolver

So to finally answer the question "How to Make Everything?"- Ask Adri!

cutest... smith... EVAH! 💞

Finally the video I've been waiting for

Little complaint here: The steel you're using for the bow is so pure and refined it would be nothing short of MAGIC in the middle ages :P

14:47 Omg, I literally cried when the prod snapped 😭

Always love it when we get to see Adri!

The absolute main pro about a crossbow is that you can hand it to just about anyone and within a certain range they can hit, with the full power of the crossbow. With a bow on the other hand it takes years of practice.

I saw A alec steel anvil in the blacksmith shop! so in a way you have 3 diffrent channels in this vid. pretty good work on the bow!!

Great video ! And thanks for throwing me down the rabbit hole of crossbows lmao

Reminds me of a crossbow I built in middle school, took an old piece of wood, some galvanized steel from a barrel ring, some paracord, I “routed” out the well for the trigger mechanism with an electric drill, and overall it worked really poorly for any kind of bolt but it was absolutely excellent for nerf darts and really packed a punch in all our nerf fights

Love the Steele anvil.

The blacksmith looks really cute.

Finally, wood planes have been shown on the channel! I can't wait for Andy to make his own wood planes, including the forging of the metal. It could start with a stone-blade plane which needs frequent re-sharpening and a though type of stone (i.e. granite), then a copper followed by a bronze blade, then an iron blade, and optionally a sand-glazed terracotta blade could also be tested (heck, maybe even a compacted-cement one), because it would be interesting have and compare all of those. Not only that, but those which are not going to be used anymore, could be auctioned, to help support the channel.

This is super cool!

Put a light twist to the crossbow bolt tip to see if the bolt screws to the target inside and helps the bolt rotation with fletching.

Brilliant, dude! Fantastic work! 😃 Your friend there, I'm calling him Legolas from now on. 😬 Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

I have done this! But mine wasnt made of classic materials heh. You can make a rly grt crossbow out of PVC for the arms (theres a way to heat treat PVC for makin regular bows too) and just some wood cut out in the rite shape. We used toothbrush headss to make the perf thing to hold the front end of the bolt in place so we cud turn it upside down and the bolt wudnt fire, but wud fire easily still when the trigger is pulled (or somethin else pushes up the string in the back). We used sheets of plywood that we glued together so we cud make much lighter crossbows and cut them out with a CNC machine rather than by hand. Also let us easily cut the hole for the trigger. I cant recall the bowstring we used, but it wasnt just regular bowstring but was instd somethin else that we just used as such for the crossbows. It was remarkably sturdy still, i remember goin out with my friends i built it with and just firin bolts at brick walls from 20 ft away hundreds and hundreds of times to test that durability spec and also test out the bolts we were usin to make sure they cud withstand repeated firin at hard targets. Which was to simulate armour worn by our fellow LARPers is the main thing there, which wudnt be anywhere near as hard as that wall; for crossbows in our game (Amtgard) you just arent allowed to shoot someone within 20 ft tho cuz ya cant half draw a crossbow like a bow. Overall the methods we used and materials meant that one of those crossbows cud be sold for prty much the same price we wud sell boffer swords for; which drastically improves the likelihood of folks utilisin the Archer class and enjoyin the awesomeness of a crossbow; which just, imho, looks so much more thematic than a foam covered golf club core... Even if they took the time to shape it like a sword (like the guy i helped make these wpns wud do) rather than go the quick and easy wrap sword method that just looks like a large billy club. I used one of those crossbows for the whole yr i was with that guy cuz that simple to make wpn is just so devastating on the battlefield as i can literally point and click to kill my foes xD That guy ended up pullin a dick move and kickin me out with little notice over a petty slight (id had a trip planned and found out rite before i was rdy to leave that he wanted my help with a project that weekend but i didnt wanna cancel on my other friend i was goin with and he said it was fine... But then i got back from the trip and given less than a week to leave bcuz i wasnt "helpin out enuf"). But his wpnsmithin techniques were on pt and i feel that information deserves to be free. So i rly hope someone uses these instructions to recreate such a crossbow. The shape is prty easy to figure out, and the PVC doesnt even need heat shaped, just closed flat at the ends if ya want a better look to it, it has enuf natural pliability that the arms will bend. Feel free to ask me for more info on it if anyone readin this does decide to recreate these. Screw shitty landlords like that guy.

Andy: The next step from a bow is a crossbow. Andy: _makes arbalest_

Watching Adri work iron is honestly mesmerizing.

usally you´d drive a pair of wedges between the bow and the stirrup to tension it more, but what works works I guess.

you can reduce the dipping in the bolts flight by adding fletching

Mr Historian is wrong, in Europe it existed in the form of the gastraphetes on the island of Cicily at least by 420BC. It’s mentioned by a different Roman writer 300 years before the one mentioned in the 1st Century AD in reference to a previous source about the city state of Syracuse

Awesome video.

You got to Crossbow! Omg, you're gonna take over the world in NO TIME!

I cant wait for the future episode where he makes an AR-15 from scratch!

Awesome video and totally love the Sponsor

Ya next you should do various black powder firearms. It would be pretty cool to see.

So love that someone will find a medieval crossbow bolt head on the ground and be very confused.

I think an important thing to note here, is that even though there’s no limit to what you can learn, the importance of specialists is simply because of the need for teamwork and time efficiency. I believe that any person can indeed learn to do it all, and their specialty or “thing” is nothing more than what their current role in an ongoing project is. In other words, your specialty can change just like your job in a team, and what exactly that specialty/role is only depends on your KNOWLEDGE. And that’s the crucial part right there. When they say you master something, I believe that simply means that whatever the things you master are, are simply your favorite things to do. In other words, you master something because you spend the most time doing them. I think “Jack of all, master of *none*” is kinda flawed… A perfect example is engineers. Any kind of engineer is expected to handle a variety of situations. As an engineering student, I can confirm I will be expected to be no less. And your specific major in engineering can be very broad. Civil or mechanical engineering are probably the broadest. Because they both deal with something that EVERYTHING has: Structure and Mechanics, respectively.

Can't wait to see how you are going to make a musket

Well I never thought this would happen!

I don't really agree with the statement that a crossbow is more powerful than a traditional warbow like the Longbow. It's definitely true that in terms of poundage the crossbow comes out on top, some crossbows had a draw weight of well over 1000 pounds whereas the Longbow maxes out at around 200 pounds and only a few people would have been strong enough to draw that. The reason I don't agree is that traditional European crossbows had a very short Powerstroke, the crossbow only drew back a few inches compared to a longbow or a composite bow that drew back a few dozen inches. This means that the bolt itself has much less time under tension and won't accelerate as much as a traditional bow and arrow. Modern crossbows solved this issue but England adopted the longbow for a reason and it wasn't just rate of fire. There are accounts from the English where knights while fighting the Welsh were shot while on horse and arrows went through chainmail, the thigh, their saddle, and into the horse. The biggest downside the warbow has compared to the crossbow is that it takes a lot longer for a person to develop the muscle needed to shoot than that of a crossbow. You could train a peasant to use a crossbow and have him able to defend a castle in a short period of time whereas a warbow might even take years.

Great video I love it

quite sick to see just weapon, make a bucket!

this dude is only dude who can survive a zombie outbreak alone cause hebasically can build everything

I feel like a good idea for what you should try next is base it on the Time travel t shirt. If Andy woke up one day as a pre-modern era man, realistically what could he do. Crossbow isn’t going to make you king of the world. And a aerofoil In Roman times before the engine doesn’t help you. But if you could “discover” and idea earlier than it was made in the real World; what’s the earliest you could actually make it. Glad you guys are back you’re feet after the fire tho.

I would love to see a video on making a flintlock pistol!

Everyone is a pro at everything in the comments. lmao Love your videos, keep up the good work.

should try to talk to tod from tod's workshop for a few tips on how to make the string and bow and whatever

i would plane down the stock a bit after the string stop so the string wont rub on the stock both slowing it down and causing wear on the string.

oooo yeee good shots

From the testing I've seen, crossbows have less kinetic energy than an arrow because your typical crossbow only accelerates a very short distance, whereas an arrow has a much longer one. Even though the draw is much heavier with a crossbow, you actually get more force with an arrow--leading to more damage. That might help explain the switch back to bows. I think the test was using a ~160lb draw weight, but that's not unheard of in medieval bows, and the crossbow draw weight was something like 800lbs.

Yes finally I was wondering when you will invent the crossbow

Next project: the Arrowhead remover that was forged to extract arrowheads from a British prince’s skull

Very cool

I cant wait till he starts making black powder weapons.

Nice Alec Steele Co anvil! 😉

Great video, a little confused though as when talking to the dr of crossbows he said it started in China in 248bc but there were gatrophetes used in 399bc

I wonder if I can make a similar thing with some leaf spring, paracord and a the runner of a pallet.

this is awesome