Thanks so much, Lee. These kinds of comments really help motivate me to keep producing.
My little world, as you so aptly put it, can be viewed as kind of strange, but it keeps me honest and out the trouble.
I get my inspirations from a ton of sources, and try to keep my mind and eyes open to new ideas and new inspirations. One of the single great English language books on crossbows is by Sir. Ralph Payne-Gallwey, "The Book of the Crossbow." It is a 19th century work by this wealthy guy who dabbled in crossbows and other stuff, Roman seige engines, and other things. He isn't totally reliable, and can show an ugly jingoisitic side to him that is part of his life and times, but overall, it is a good work, available cheap as a Dover reprint, and worth having. There are some good websites such as arbalist guild, a site much like this, full of cool folks, some also members of PA (Orcbow is one, remember him?. Frode is another. My name over there is stoneagebowyer, so come over and say hi). Museum photos are another source of weapons worth looking and getting ideas from.
The late Roman bow I am about to start is a wierd little weapon, and comes from 2 sculputures found in France / Gaul. Stubby, no stirrup, the rear of the tiller has a kind of turned handle thingie sticking out, and the tickler is bent pretty radically down below the handle. I am basing the way I am going to make the handle on a 2nd century Roman spatha replica I have here, and it should look nice
The wood I plan to use will be flame birch for the tiller, and the table surface maybe using bloodwood or some other exotic tropical. I doubt the Romans had tropical hardwoods, but this is not a replica, as that would have to be made of stone lol. Probably a purist would nash their teeth, but I am not making an exact anything, but something based on what I find interesting at during the hear and now.
Later, I want to build a nice stubby cavalry bow, with a curved down tiller, again based upon real examples, but not any one in particular. There are a number of regional styles of tillers, but no hard and fast rules or lines that you can or cant cross.
After that, a gastrophetes, which is really a small catapult, but it hurls a big bolt, and should be cool and fun to shoot. The espringal is on the table, and I should get to that probably this or next year.
Here are a few more photos. A few hopefuly will show the bolt clip in action. The clip simply keeps the bolt on the weapon, and is pushed aside when you want to shoot.
Last, a couple of pictures of my sting making jigs.
Simple stuff, as a crossbow string is a fat thing, much fatter than a bow string. The endless string method is the way I do them, and have a jig for tension as i serve the center serving. I am starting to make my strings using B50, though I will try fastflight and see how that performs. The one on the jig is linen. Later, I should do a posting just on string making.
That last shot shows the gut that I used to secure the rolling nut into the socket. This serves only one purpose, and that is to keep the nut from popping out as you shoot.
More soon guys, including testing and shooting vids and photos. I still have tiny little things to do, such as covering the tickler pin with bone inserts, but other than that, the weapon is ready to string and be tested and shot in. Thanks to all of you who shared this journey thus far.
Dane
