5 crazy different medieval crossbows
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- Опубліковано 24 бер 2024
- 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!
The ballista is listed here todsworkshop.com/collections/...
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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"
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 UA-cam, 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
Funny how the idea of "parlor guns" has never really died out. They've just become much safer and, to some, less exciting
Opening shot 'this crossbow is very small, but that one is faaar awaaay'
Father Tod
Luckily no cows were harmed in this video
NOOOOOO! MY CABBAGES!
There is no war Ba Sing Se
Came here for this!
Underrated comment
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.
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'*
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
So that's how Roman chefs prepared shredded cabbage for the legionaries' supper.
i used to be an guard like you until i took a bolt to the knee
I laughed out loud at the sight of Tod aiming his ballista at a cabbage.
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😊
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!
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.
"its dead" .. got me xD
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
My cabbages!
I reckon a 25 lb bow and arrow would go through that cabbage, isn't momentum more important than joules?
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.
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
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!
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 ua-cam.com/video/XXRFDdlkEzw/v-deo.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).
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
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.
Another Tods video, thank you Tod🎉
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!
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
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.
"very aggressive looking cabbage" is officially my favorite thing I've heard today
"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?
“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
Absolutely wonderful video Tod
"it'll have some poke"
Love it
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
Very good video. Thank you.
I wonder how often those windlases get dryfired as the loading mechinism swings into the trigger by accident.
Awesome thanks
Awesome video as always!
that cabbage looked quite scary indeed, luckily it was taken care of
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.
Lovely video.
Another great video Tom
I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
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!
Gracias
Never underestimate the savagely threatening cabbage.
Ballista maintenance looks eerily Harley-like.
Tod - great as usual. Idea for future vid: I've always wondered if compound crossbows or bows could have been constructed with late medieval level metallurgy and woodworking techniques, if they would have been basically superior in every way (like modern camed compound bows), Ever considered giving this a try? (seems most things are invented almost exactly when the materials allow, many minds make short work of a problem etc, but I think this could possibly be one of the only examples where a better design wasn't discovered, would be interesting to see if there were any show-stoppers here, or if our ancestors really did miss this)
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
Great video
I loved the knee reference :)
"So Bob, that's the bass boat....but Janie tells me you bought a Ballista?"
I like the tiny one.
Badass, as always!
Lovely.
So cool, fascinating. Is there a small crossbow, called a an arbalest?
Bro, that cabbage was badass.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Using your own trebuchet as a workbench is wild
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.
Nice video. Good that you noticed that you were filming against the sun and changed the position of the camera.
Very fun video.
Thanks
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 be interested in the evolution of trigger mechanisms, or how we got away from these huge levers.
Dig back and I have a few videos on them. Basically this set up was unchanged from around 300AD to 1500AD and then more complex triggers started to come in and by 1650 what we would see as a modern trigger system was here. The main reason is to stop the full load of the bow transferring onto the trigger lever, so a couple more stages and you are there
So this test concludes that the ballista is the ultimate personal defence weapon when faced by angry cabbages at close range.
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
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!
When you said bolts are much harder to make than arrows. I am very curious how so?
Looking at the old trebuchet in the background - You ever thought about making an onager Ted? I bet that would be fun to let loose.
Hi Tod, have you ever considerd having a mass longbow shot to find out how bows could and couldnt be used in battle formation?
I'd love to see your take on a laminated horn crossbow arm.
ooo, 5:54 did you get that bodkin / 'modkin' point from RichardHeadLongbows? Used a bunch for arrow making they're great.
I would like to see a video of the difference in range between warbow and crossbow 😊
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.
epic as always
"Cabbages are tougher than you think." Words of wisdom, if I say so myself.
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.
Sir, can you make a video about mounted crossbow or horse crossbow?
The first target "I was a adventurer like you. But then I got a bolt in my knee"
Hi Tod, really cool Video! ❤ Do you ever tried to do make a functional miniature crossbow? (At around 1/6 or 1/12 scale.)
Hey Tod, any chance of doing plate or brigandine test with the ballista before you sell it?
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
I always wondered why ballistae didn't simply go the "like a crossbow, but _much_ bigger" route instead of the whole rope tension thing. Is that something you could enlighten me on?
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 😂😂😂
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 found Tod's off hand comment of how crossbow bolts are more difficult to make then arrows.
Does the tension on the ballista decrease noticeably from shot to shot, or if you wait too long to pull the trigger?
Is the catapulta the same thing as a scorpio or would that one be a bit smaller?
The catapulta was the family of three bows that were identical except for the size. They came in 1, 2 and 3 span versions (this is a 3 span) and the 'Scorpion' was the nick name for the 1 span version
i think i missed something. What was the ballista used for? to pierce heavy armoured knights?
Hang on there was a siege near you where they shot one arrow per minute that sounds more like a fun fare than a war ..Did they have the bean bag throw as well ?