Pretty owo

??? 40 pound longbow? Is that not like the pull weight of a child's bow?

Yes 40lbs are not much, but because this crossbow is made to shoot on other poeple during re-enactment battles it's better to don't use to much power, not everybody has a full suit of armour. Safety first!

I guess I was not clear. I have never heard of any "longbow" on the market that was so way under powered as to only have a 40 pound pull. There are lots of kid bows on the market that only have a 40 pound pull I have just not of heard of any "longbow" that only had a 40 pound pull.

Hm, I'm sorry, but 40lbs longbow is quiet normal , at last where I live.
Maybe if you are located in England where archery is a more common and widely spread 40lbs is not much.
A child's bow, on the other hand, starts at 15lbs, larp bows range from 25 to 35lbs depending on the rules of the larp.
And if you don't do archery on a regular basis, 40lbs can be pretty hard after 5h in the open Parcours.
My longbow has a pull weight of 45lbs my girl's shortbow 35lbs.
Sure, if you compare it to the real war longbow with their pull weight of around 120lbs it is only around 1/3 but for ppl who do archery just for the fun and free time exercise it is enough.

On the topic, very Fine work on that crossbow, 200h work, impressive, I really do enjoy watching you re-creating all those Intresting and often lost things and re-invent the ways how they have been made.
Very fine work Sir, very fine work.

I have done some fun archery off and on in my life and I have never personally seen a longbow. I have seen lots of different kinds of bows from cheap traditional bows used by people like me to fancy modern compound bows that cost well over a thousand dollars but I have yet to have seen a longbow. The only place I have really seen a longbow are in documentaries on TV or videos from the net.

I am wondering if we are using the same definition of what a longbow is. What I know of a longbow is is a bow that is between six to seven feet tall and has a draw weight of 200 pounds at the high end.

Oh on the subject of you crossbow, yes it is ultra cool!

Of course most longbows are stronger and the markes follows the preferences. The 40lbs longbow was here just a comparation, to explain what' the performance of this crossbow . And 40lbs can be very painfull, we use rubber blunts, not these scary larp foamheads.

I have bought my first medieval stile crossbow (well one that really works as it should) It has a 125 pound draw. =)

Some day I might buy one of the builders high end 2,000 pound crossbows but I am happy with my 125 pounder for now.

Nice work.


-Badger-

Beautiful, and informative. Did you do your own heat treatment on the bow? Would it commonly be forged straight, or with recurve?

Yes i did the heat treatment, quenched at 870C and tempered with 570C for 1,5 hours. I forged the bow on the shown shape. Without string the bow is just bend a bit, but not to much.

I see, thank you.

Oh i didn't saw this some time ago, it looks amazing! i just bought some plaster to make my forge :) you have inspired me to do some smiting. i got the thought of how much draw strength is the limit for a human powered crossbow, i estimate that a strong human with good training and technique should be able to cock a 400 lb crossbow at least a couple times,i wonder what damage it would do, would it pierce the armor of a knight?

Hey, you see i'm busy -.- tomorrow i travel to northern germany: easter vikingdays.

How much draw a human can lift, depends on the human, but i never saw that somebody pulles more than 70kg without a cranquin, or other tools. That lays on the physicaly conditions. Of course come humans can lift 400lbs, but the bar is something else than a thin bowstring^^ I will build be a 250kg strong crossbow, but to load this thing i will use a cranequin.

Yeah definitely such powerful crossbow would not be practical but just as an curiosity i think it would be cool. By using the legs and an harness a strong human is capable of lifting a weight of more than 500kg with just the legs for a few seconds, so loading it by using a harness with a hook and using both legs it should be possible for a normal human but definitely a cranequin is better, safer and you don't harm your knees ; ) have fun!

There is a world of a difference between lifting 500kg barbells and drawing a 400lb crossbow. I own a 125lb crossbow and that really gets tiring. I also use gloves as to not cut my fingers on the bow string as I draw it.

Why so much diference? does the lbs of a crossbow are different than the lbs used to measure weight (0.453g) ? i also mentioned that it will be drawn with a harness having a hook, not the hands, look up harness lift records, people have lifted more than 1000kg (2222 lbs) with it, so drawing 180kg (400lb) shouldn't be that hard even if its an elastic force. What i said was more of a silly invention to test human capabilities and also i was questioning the damage capabilities of such device.

Vast majority of people just cant pull a bow string that strong. Now if they used a mechanical pulley system anyone can pull a 400lb crossbow. The best advantage to a mechanical pulley is that they can stop at any time and rest where what you are suggesting you either have to fully cock it or fully release it.

You are correct on most of your statements however you don't seem to understand the main idea behind my original comment. I would like to quote relevant phrases of my past comments "i estimate a strong human with good training and technique should be able to cock a 400 lb crossbow at least a couple times" "a silly invention to test human capabilities"

I thought it was more clear i recognized that doing such thing with no aid of a mechanical device that gives leverage but only a harness would be very difficult and that not many people will be capable of doing. The builder of the crossbow in this submission explained me already what you are telling me with your two replies, I don't get why you want to keep mentioning the already discussed and understood.
If i wanted to maximize the damage made by a projectile weapon powered by human energy i would use a pneumatic weapon to launch bolts much faster and heavier than any man portable crossbow.

I would like to say again with the intention to leave clear that i understand the idea i had isn't practical, its difficult, too slow and tiresome, it was just machination i had on the moment, not a novel idea much less a breakthrough. You know, just for fun.

Opps, wrong button.