5 crazy different medieval crossbows
2024 ж. 24 Нау.
122 270 Рет қаралды
I make all kinds of crossbows and for the first time ever I have 5 totally different crossbows in the workshop, from the tiny 'assassins' crossbow to the huge ballista.
Best mess about with them then!
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Assassins crossbow film is here • 200lbs Assassin's Cros...
Border Reivers crossbow. • 400 year old rapid loa...
"I have a ballista bolted to my trebuchet " is the coolest thing I'll hear all day
Tod lives such an amazing life!
Ultimate power
A nice combo for sure
Like a medieval Ripley!
Day? You lead an interesting life if it's not best of month;).
I foresee a scene in the near future where a sheepish bloke has to say to his wife; "I know we had decided on buying a new kitchen but..." before showing off his new ballista.
I do hope so.........
Me: "Uh, one of your limbs is hanging lower than the other" Catapulta: "Babe that's just how I'm set up when I'm relaxed"
Opening shot 'this crossbow is very small, but that one is faaar awaaay'
Father Tod
Luckily no cows were harmed in this video
Dear Tod, everyone uses modern bowstrings. It would be interesting to watch a video of how these bowstrings were made before, how they were taken out of animals, how they were preserved so that they would not break and see the difference between archery with modern and medieval bowstrings.
I will happily watch Todd making traditional bowstrings. However there are several on KZhead, making bowstrings from hemp, sinew, nettle , gut or yucca. I didn't know but violin strings are still made from sheep gut. Their strength is quite amazing. Lots of people use bowstrings made of violin strings.
Most of the ones on his xbows look like rope... not deer gut?
Ill watch Tod do anything
HI Sergey, I actually use linen for mine which seems to be the most common.
A war bow is equivalent to an excalibur crossbow of the same draw weight. Because of the modern crossbow string. Which means the long bow or hand held would be like compound crossbow with modern strings. Of its own draw weight too.
That "assassin's crossbow" reminds me of a parlor pistol. Something to gather the lads in the smoking room after supper and plink at targets set up across the room. Imagine playing a game of darts with crossbows.
And to motivate the servants if they are not fast enough.
I see it as exactly that
Thank goodness for Todd saving us from the evil Savoy cabbage!
can't stand them, so I was not sad for the loss
Now we know what happened to the house of Savoy! 😅
All these windup mechanisms for the more powerful crossbows make me think of mounting a powerful crossbow to a tricycle (or bicycle with outriggers), with a clutch to switch between using the pedals to drive the wheels and using the pedals to draw the crossbow. Anachronistic self-propelled artillery.
I have thought of pretty much the same thing - would have been great. A crew served 6 man rowing bow using the galley slaves.
NOOOOOO! MY CABBAGES!
There is no war Ba Sing Se
Came here for this!
Underrated comment
one thing I've always appreciated about these films is your insistence on putting gopros in peril. The SOUND of various medieval projectiles coming straight at the camera is truly something to behold.
Yes, so cool, right
Conclusion : for Cabages, use a kitchenknife... crossbows are not suitable equipment in the kitchen..
Little known fact that those weird crescent shaped arrowheads were actually meant for creating slaw.
Lmfao.
the medieval equivalent to 'kentucky ballistics' lol love it! *'cutlers trajectoria'*
So that's how Roman chefs prepared shredded cabbage for the legionaries' supper.
The new Tod Cutler daggers are amazing! Never in my wildest dreams thought you would include a hammerhead dagger.
Thanks and I am very pleased with them too - if I say so myself, very good value!
Just to second Tod's advert from personal experience: Outstanding craftsmanship AND value for money. Genuinely wasn't expecting so much for the price.... 10/10
Thank you
@@tods_workshopThank YOU boss. Happy wife with bollock dagger, happy life😊
I laughed out loud at the sight of Tod aiming his ballista at a cabbage.
i used to be an guard like you until i took a bolt to the knee
"its dead" .. got me xD
Can you create the rapid-fire crossbow designed by Da Vinci in the codex atlanticus? This is a crossbow in which the loading system is speeded up compared to the traditional one. The crossbowman, by opening and closing the tiller could load the crossbow without ever touching the bowstring and without using external tools, thus speeding up the charging process considerably.
Thank you for mentioning the Codex, I had no idea such thing existed. And there is even a website where you can browse all pages online (link is in the wikipedia article). It really shows how much of a genius Leonardo was. I'd love to see Todd recreate some of the machines/mechanisms from the Codex.
@@lazyman7505 Leonardo da vinci is overated!
@@lazyman7505 Leonardo davinci is overated!
Hi Vitor, Andreas Bichler made a fantastic repro of a similar bow, but I suspect they are simply not suited to heavy bows, so not likely to be military
@@tods_workshop I can't argue against you, after all you have years of experience in the field. But even if it's not worth it to build one, i think an episode commenting on the crossbow design would be interesting. I mean he can't be weaker than the Cho-ko-nu and other conventional bows.
Alway fun to see, and that little 'assassin's bow' really is tiny and more effective on cabbages than I'd expected. Be interesting to see something like that scaled up a bit in power - with a halfway decent quality screw and nut with the right thread pitch I'd think you could still operate a much more powerful version. It might even just about become plausible as an assassins weapon over toy - shoot heavy lathe turned all steel bolts for as much momentum and precision as you can get with a heavy limb high draw weight and it might just fly far enough, accurately enough and with some serious poke even though its tiny. And being all metal construction by the looks of it shouldn't be too hard to scale the moving parts up enough that it survives being shot a fair few times.
Well you would barely use it past dagger range anyway. It's not for sniping.
@@gratefulguy4130Indeed, though it has to have range enough to be worth using - if you could just take one extra step and stab the guy you might as well do that. I'd suggest for a serious assassination type scenario its got to have enough accuracy and power out at the 5, 10 possibly even 15 meter range. So you can be far enough away to be largely obscured in the crowds/shadows or hit your target as you walk by the door to their office - a distance so what you are doing isn't massively telegraphed.
There was a larger screwjacked crossbow version according to Payne Gallwey, but I have found him to not be that reliable so I am not sure. I use a bought Acme thread and nut for this, so it it should be pretty good. I also have a film about that bow and whether it would be any good for assassins here kzhead.info/sun/i7yLdqico517ra8/bejne.htmlsi=AfAIgrlHw1BrqOXh
@@tods_workshopNever heard of a larger screwjacked on at all myself, so that is intriguing. Though I am less interested in larger and more interested in adding power to the tiny footprint one - so it may actually become more than just a dangerous toy. Larger crossbow can be spanned in many other ways, so being screw pulled would be interesting, but I can't see the point - seems like it would always be a slower method to cycle a practical power crossbow. But practically powerful at the tiniest sizes so there is no real length for leverage this screw method should be plausible (at least with the really high quality of modern steel machine made screws).
For a massive background about the actual role archery in the Medieval Art of war I strongly recommend Schwerpunkt's videos series.
Wirklich? Ok. Muss ich schauen.
I have a idea! Lead ball projectile!! For the ballista Joerg love that!
I got another Idea. How large can you make a ballista. Never mind if it´s slow to reload. if what it sends away weighs a hundred pounds.
Also for small all-metal one. This thing already looks more like a gun then a crossbow, might as well give it some bullets.
the ballista could be configured for either bolts or shot. The mechanism is not the same for both.
Rest assured, they had that.
I can hear Joerg laughing now!
My cabbages!
I reckon a 25 lb bow and arrow would go through that cabbage, isn't momentum more important than joules?
Imagine having a profession where you sometimes just end up randomly having 5 crossbows lying around to play with. And they go from from the funny, proverbial pea-shooter to an industrial-strength piece of siege equipment.
He does have a cool life doesn't he?
I must say I am privileged
I'll take 1 of each!
150 archers shooting 1000 arrows in six hours would make it one arrow an hour a guy, not every minute. Am I miscalculating something?
No, I was thinking the same thing. That math does not add up... One pr. minute would have seen them launch ~54,000 arrows over 6 hours.
They made a video about that siege, shooting arrows from a tower to see how much this affects distance. Yes, it's every hour, not minute.
Its harassment just to keep heads down
I enjoy all of Tod’s Workshop videos
Always handy to have a trebuchet around as a base to torsion your balista with.
Yes it was rather. Last time I had to peg the frame down with massive posts so this was much easier
Another Tods video, thank you Tod🎉
"very aggressive looking cabbage" is officially my favorite thing I've heard today
Hi Tod. I always imagined that crossbowmen and bowmen would use cover when it made sense. Like ambushing some enemies from behind trees or shooting out of bushes. Or taking cover behind those low stone walls the farmers build. Would really love to see a video about shooting from behind cover. Like the great video about the pros and cons of shooting from a tower.
Absolutely wonderful video Tod
Great, I made a crossbow in metal work at school....40 years ago, had to get a letter from my parents.It had springs and didn't really work.Goats foot lever. Love the Joules numbers. Nice work.
"Bolts are much more finnicky to make than arrows" Wait what? Can you elaborate on that please? I've never heard that and would be fascinated to hear why. I figured they might be easier since less material, and possibly cheaper too. They tend to be the same cost if not cheaper in games as a result, so I'd love to see or hear why they're tricker to make
That's what I was thinking. Do you still have to make bolts to some specific spine or can they just be completely rigid?
Very good video. Thank you.
at 8:21 lockback fodlers were invented 15th century spain accordingt o Bill Claussen, i had a viking era folder when doing reenactment, and then there was the roman swiss army knife....
Thanks and I will look into that
Awesome thanks
Great video. Are Roman ballistas still considered crossbows if they are torsion weapons instead of tension weapons? (Eg. They don't use a bow prod to store energy)
In Australia Torsion weapons are not legally considered to be crossbows, also not really medieval
@@ArmouryTerrain Interesting.
No they are not, but I stretched the point - sorry. Regular bows are 'flexion artillery' whilst these are torsion. The vast majority of medieval (non explosive) artillery and missile weapons was flexion, but they did use torsion as well - look up 'spingald'
@@tods_workshop Gotcha, thanks!
Awesome video as always!
8:16 I'm sure I speak for many by saying that I'd be very interested in seeing an early example of a locking folding blade. Even if you don't have an example to hand, if you just wanted to show a picture and talk about them, that would be a great video! Perhaps an idea for some time in the future. Like what kind of mechanism did they use? What are some of the earliest types like? What kind of blades and handles were used? That little thing you mentioned in passing sent my imagination wild.
Another great video Tom I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
"it'll have some poke" Love it
“Cabbages are tougher than you think”. Not what I expected to learn from this video. Love all that you do Tod
Yeah, I wasn't expecting them to bind like that
Man, you have no idea how much I'd like to see the ballista tested against some plate armour.
Awesome, the cabbages deserve it really. Cheers!
Badass, as always!
Once again, Toddy great work. You’re having just far too much fun
Hey Tod, love your videos! Have you ever thought about filming an episode about the affect a wet/muddy field has on someones fighting ability when wearing full/heavy armour? I would love to understand just how disadvanted the French Nobles were in the Battle of Agincourt
Gracias
Hi mate, I am modding total war Warhammer 3, and making the weapons more realistic is 1 of my main goals, your videos are great my friend thankyou
Lovely.
that cabbage looked quite scary indeed, luckily it was taken care of
Bro, that cabbage was badass.
Would be fun to see the tiny crossbow design scaled up to something being impactful.
epic as always
Lovely video.
It’s funny how this kinda changes my perspective on old crossbows. I always thought they were a powerhouse and the draw weights make them sound insane. But I got a cheap 60lb compound bow about 12 years back (oh god I’m old) and we wanted to see what it could do. So I shot it through the door of an old ford falcon, and I mean through the door, it was right in there But these crossbows seem comparatively under powered, I’m guessing it has to do with the length of stroke/pull/whatever he mentioned
Jo Tod, you should try getting some balistic gel. In most EU countries it is dirt cheap, especially if you buy a whole lot. And on top, it would serve as a much better showcase what such a weapon does to a human. You could also cast your own balistic gel around organ alternatives or your traditional fruits / vegetables, which is usually even cheaper and even more representative, but come obviously with the draw back of extra work.
Very nice video. I was thinking about getting into cabbage-hunting myself given that I often see a pretty big group of these just sitting around my neighbours farm all day long. So the ballista is definitely the way to go for this job?
Farmer walks up to adventurer: I used to be an adventurer like you, until I took an arrow to my cabbage. Adventurer kicks Farmer. Farmer: My Knee!
As made famous in a theatre show, where they had a bad day, the blank firing gun didn't work, the rubber sword fell apart the antagonist kicked the opposite number who proclaimed ' The boot was poisoned' and collapsed dramatically. The play was saved by an over acting savoy cabbage. .😅. PS supposedly West Side Story haha.
"So Bob, that's the bass boat....but Janie tells me you bought a Ballista?"
I had a look at a small crossbow about 2 feet long with the steel prod about 18 inches wide. Northwest Military Academy in Wisconsin. Most likely a windlass system to draw it as they estimated the draw with the 1-inch diameter string at 1,500-pound draw weight with 6-inch-long bolts that they had for it. Unknown age unfortunately as it was donated to the school by the family of a collector who had died who had been a student there long ago.
Never underestimate the savagely threatening cabbage.
I loved the knee reference :)
I'd love to have that ballista if I had the money. I don't even have enough space in my yard to shoot it, but still. I'm honestly jealous of whoever ends up buying that beauty.
Those wooden fletchs on the bolt look like they could create a lot of additional damage on both entry and exit from the body - nasty!
They do
Using your own trebuchet as a workbench is wild
I wonder how often those windlases get dryfired as the loading mechinism swings into the trigger by accident.
Great video
My Balestrino just arrived recently from your Workshop. It's a lot of fun to shoot. I wonder if it is the one you used here.
I have a maille sleeveless shirt and its really cool. I found it in a house I rented with my son and his mother, the guy that lived there before us left a bunch of cool stuff behind including a 5 gallon pail full of honey from bees he kept and sone real handcuffs. The shirt used to fit me but there is absolutely no stretch and I have gotten bigger, maybe someone could adjust the size IDK it is still super cool and my son likes to wear it sometimes so its all good.
Still curious if there are some impact force sensors out there that you could adapt to measure the force of bolts hitting your targets. BTW it was nice to see you on a recent episode from History Hit on archery!
Ballista maintenance looks eerily Harley-like.
I like the tiny one.
Nice video. Good that you noticed that you were filming against the sun and changed the position of the camera.
I think we can reach one very definite conclusion from this video... *that cabbage is dead.* Even if we have learnt nothing else here, we can definitively say that cabbage is no more. It has expired and gone to meet its maker. Fun video!
I'd really like to see how different a ballista with sinew bundles rather than rope preforms. Its probably an impossible thing given the cost of sinew and the amount of effort you need to just clean and separate the fibers, but given how strong the stuff is, I wonder how much better it would be. If they were using something as hard to procure and process as tendon, there must have been some significant advantage that it provided over rope, at least in dry weather.
I would like to see a video of the difference in range between warbow and crossbow 😊
I'd like to hear more about why bolts are harder to make than arrows? I would think the longer shaft of an arrow would be more difficult to craft.
Sorry, this is already my third comment on this video, but I'm just commenting as I'm watching. Todd, you should definitely consider reaching out to Scott at the Kentucky Ballistics channel here on youtube. He LOVES owning, testing and having fun with big, rare, and expensive weapons. I already mentioned you to him, and he liked my comment, so if he wasn't aware of you already, then he probably is now. If you haven't already sold the ballista, there's a very real chance he'd jump right on that. And he might want to get some other weapons as well.
ooo, 5:54 did you get that bodkin / 'modkin' point from RichardHeadLongbows? Used a bunch for arrow making they're great.
So this test concludes that the ballista is the ultimate personal defence weapon when faced by angry cabbages at close range.
"Cabbages are tougher than you think." Words of wisdom, if I say so myself.
I'd love to see your take on a laminated horn crossbow arm.
Hi Tod, really cool Video! ❤ Do you ever tried to do make a functional miniature crossbow? (At around 1/6 or 1/12 scale.)
Wait, why are you selling the ballista? It's one of the coolest things you have and I'm always excited to see it in your videos.
I just pulled some numbers off of google, but 45 ACP has around 559 joules 45 Magnum has around 1,772 joules 5.56×45mm NATO has around 1,797 joules, and 7.62×51mm NATO has around 3,346 joules The crossbows range from "a couple", "around about 12 joules", "around 45, maybe 50 joules", and higher for the windlass and the ballista
All true, but the momentum of an arrow or bolt is very high compared to its energy and doesn't tumble so in fact a 45J bolt will pass through 50cm of sand and still be dangerous, but it will stop all of the above rounds. Different beasts
@@tods_workshop good point! I think what stood out to me was the difference in energy when going from a purely mechanical propellant to chemical propellants
Note that a reconstruction of a 15th-century horn crossbow spanned by a cranequin managed nearly 200 J at rather high velocity. It was made by Andreas Bichler. Yew warbows manage 100-150 J.
@@b.h.abbott-motley2427 yew long bows top out at around 130j for the monsters and Andreas’ horn sinew was 1200lbs from memory. But ye the performance was staggering; I also have a slight memory that it broke after a few shots so perhaps it was overdressed. Regardless he is a fabulous craftsman
@@tods_workshop The 150lb yew bow tested for *The Great Warbow* managed 146 J with a heavy arrow. A few historical yew warbows seem to have drawn at least 180lbs, so theoretically a well-made one with a heavy arrow could manage 175 J. Bichler's 1,200lb horn crossbows appears in multiple videos on here, so I don't think it broke. It did perform worse in the second test (168 J), because of how it was stored & the different weather conditions (mainly humidity has a negative effect, but also heat). So horn crossbows do have the disadvantage of changing with the weather & require care to keep them dry for best performance.
Very fun video.
Thanks
So cool, fascinating. Is there a small crossbow, called a an arbalest?
Hey Tod, I got an email (get them regularily) from Kult of Athena saying they had some stuff by you for sale, and I was quite happy to see you made a version of the Italian dragon mace... I bought the Deepeka one some years ago, but like yours better! Also, it's shinier - haha! Loved it, what materials did you use for the bronze/brass parts? And would you say it's cabbage-testing approved, as all your other stuff? 🙂
Hi Tod, have you ever considerd having a mass longbow shot to find out how bows could and couldnt be used in battle formation?
Sir, can you make a video about mounted crossbow or horse crossbow?
Watching that ballista shoot the cabbage was so satisfying. Did you ever do that video on fire arrows being historically accurate and viable or not?
Thanks and yes I have filmed the Fire Arrows film and it is just working through the edit
@@tods_workshop Fantastic, can't wait!
Good timing, was just logging on to look for the video you mentioned at TORM of getting through the helmet with arrows, can you remember which video it was?
Here kzhead.info/sun/gMpwe6epiH6tanA/bejne.htmlsi=-btTVXh7C6tH2BCE
@@tods_workshop Brilliant thanks
The first target "I was a adventurer like you. But then I got a bolt in my knee"
The ballista has always been my favourate seige weapon, got to fire one as a kid in Caerphilly castle, unfortunaly can't afford one right now.... in unrelated news my birthday is in about a month's time 😂😂😂
I'm wondering if we are excluding some Specialist/hunting crossbows. To my modern brain it seems odd not to have crossbows which are just equivalent to a shortbow/mid sized bow strapped to a crossbow frame that one can hand draw like a bow, while gaining the simplicity and accuracy of shooting a crossbow with only a minor delay.
Anything about crossbows is never pointless or gratuitous! Hey that latchet is looking familiar 😁🤘♥️
Indeed! Thank you for the delay
Our traditional conclusion? Coleslaw!
Tod: "Today we have a totally pointless and gratuitous..." Internet: "CROSSBOWS!"