Theoretical - historical question for Cross Bow makers

[islandpiper]

It dawned on me while tillering a new bow, that the whole assembly looked like a drawn crossvow.  I wonder if that is how they were invented......probably some teenage apprentice screwing around behind his master's back, shooting scraps off the tillering board!!

piper

[adb]

Sorry, I'm not following you... weren't hand bows made first? I thought Xbows didn't come along for quite some time until after bows?

[islandpiper]

sorry, i probably didn't explain well enough.  With my ash board-bow in the simple tillering jig I made ( just a pine 1x6 with a notch at the top and a series of slots for the string)  it looks like a cross bow........    My point was, if a shop was making and tillering long bows, they may have DISCOVERED  the cross bow in this fashion.   Just seems logical. 

piper

[adb]

OK... now I gotcha! Novel idea.

[orcbow]

Well, I don't know if there is a real "eureka" moment when the crossbow  hit the scene. I have learned that the crossbow was developed in China, and was in wide usage by 500 BC (or 2500 years ago).
It probably was a warfare innovation. But the tillering tree idea does seem like a logical step. So maybe it would be interesting to find out how far back that goes.

[Dane]

At some point, someone must have looked at a self bow and said "mmmm..." But how many writings do we have from the rank and file bow builders from any culture? I think it evolved, much like any other invention, in power, sophistication, etc.

The crossbow is ancient, and as Orcbow indicated, emerged from China, the same guys who brought us gunpowder. The crossbow had to have been developed for the same reasons it was loved by Medieval generals. It is much simpler to train a crossbowman to shoot well, much faster than it takes to train a bowman. It would have been more expensive, though, at least for self bow cultures, though composite cultures would have spend a great deal more coin on arming their bowmen.

Dane