Hi, kids.
You may recall my creating a thread for a Spanish crossbow around the end of last year. Here is a new project that is coming along well, and the primary purpose of this one is to try out some new or modified design and building processes.
I won’t make this very detailed, but just post some pictures and answer any questions anyone may have.
Basically, though, this is another Spanish crossbow, made from yellow heart, as was the last one (since I had some leftover wood and find this particular wood just so nice to work with), but I have modified the design to allow for the use of a foot stirrup to span the bow, something that wasn’t done with the actual historical bows. They were military weapons, and so had a relatively high draw weight of 500 lbs. +. That of course was more than sufficient against the lightly armored / unarmored enemies the Spanish were facing in the New World. And since they had higher draw weights, they were never built to be spanned by hand, but with goat’s foot levers.
I expect this weapon to be done in the next few weeks, in time for the New England Primitive Skills Gathering in Woodbury, CT in June. Always a great event, it will be fun to run the 3D course with this crossbow (not for score, of course).
Enjoy.
Dane
