Falchion. Crossbow. Quiver. Scabbard. Crazy combo thing that I obviously
completely made up because nobody's seen anything like this before.......
Hi it's Tod of Tod's Workshop and Tod Cutler here and today we are going to look at this
Falchion, crossbow, quiver, scabbard, crazy combo thing that I obviously completely made
up because nobody's seen anything like this before. I didn't. So years ago now I was
going through a fantastic chat room site called MyArmoury.com, I'll put the link in the notes;
we're going to talk about that in a little bit, but actually MyAroury.com go check it out. Anyway,
and I was going through there, somebody posted up a piece of artwork of a soldier with one of these
on his hip and I looked at it and I thought "that can't be real" presumably he's just done
it perhaps as a bit of additional soldiers kit, or the artist did it, you know bit fanciful, but then
other pictures started to come up in hunting and a military context have a look at these.
Now you can see from those pictures that it is both military and it's hunting but
you don't get very many bolts in there. Now what I tried to do was to make my bolt box,
my quiver plausibly as big as I could, so what I did was I made the biggest sword that I could
find, the fattest widest thing, so that was a nice falchion. It's a little bit earlier
than those pictures, but nonetheless I wanted to exaggerate the point here, so I made the bolt box,
the quiver as big as I could reasonably as well and I managed to get five shots in it. Five shots,
not 12 or anything like that or indeed, you know, I've got another crossbow quiver here
which is a much more standard size that has 20 in it right. Now, to get five in this,
so that is going to be military what's this really what is this all about. So I'm going to put it on,
I'm going to shoot a bit we'll go down the range, I'll try and move around a little bit with this,
just see really, just give you my opinion on what this thing is about. Down the range now
with crossbow, falchion, scabbard, quiver, other quiver. So we're just gonna see how it feels;
I'm going to show you my opinions really, I mean I can't do anything more than that
and it doesn't mean that I'm right or wrong, it just means that's what I think.
Now the first thing that I do have to say is you're going to look at that bolt box and you're
going to think well I could get loads of bolts in there but of course these ones, military bolts
anyway, are wood fleched like that so they're not feather fletched and that means even with
the five in here, sometimes I'll reach for one and it'll bind a little bit, so I certainly couldn't
get more than that in there. This one I've got 20 in there, no heads on them at the moment,
you can see but it fits 20, no problem at all. So here we go let's shoot up see what I make of it.
So it's not the fastest of processes that's a little bit awkward I must say, reaching around
your body, oh i've got a big one here so I'm gonna have to put my thumb on it, this is a heavy one.
There we go, so that one was a heavy bolt, we're going to come back and we're going to talk about
that in a minute actually because I think there's something interesting going on here,
because the hunting context I think "well three shots kind of makes sense", I get that,
war makes no sense at all unless things are not quite as they would seem.
Oh that's a nice one, I'll just take this third shot now and then we'll go back and
I'll give you some thoughts about why I think it might be good for a military
context even though it seems a little odd. The first thing I'll say is wearing your
quiver on your right hip is so much easier than reaching around here; this is definitely awkward.
Those first three shots were really awkward, sort of reaching around the body with my right hand,
so it's actually occurred to me that with a little bit of juggling of course, I can draw with my
left hand so we'll just go for another couple of shots to see if it makes any difference really.
Because it is going to be a little new to me and it is going to be a little bit awkward.
Well.....
It's a bit of a handful.
But you know it's possible, so in terms of "is it the world's best invention in terms of a practical
thing makes your life easier?" No. So what's going on? Now I can't definitively answer that,
But I have a theory. So I'm just back now to give you my thoughts on that and I found the
thing quite interesting because it just reinforces the fact that it is not a normal everyday thing.
Now if you've got your bolts on your right hip as you could see I hold my bow in my left hand,
I just pull them out, I put them on, I shoot. Okay everything's easy, I can lodge the goat's foot on
the side of the quiver, on my belt, everything's easy. I'm reaching around for this and actually
in normal clothes here I can just get my fingertips onto the ends of these bolts,
if I was wearing armour or a gambeson or something, I'm not actually sure that I'd
be able to reach down like that, so I'd have to do that transfer of pulling it,
out putting it into my mouth or juggling with my hands or whatever, so it's awkward,
it is definitely not a speed loading device or an improvement or something like that.
So what are they doing with it? Well I think that the answer is actually probably relatively simple
but it is a conclusion that I've come to from years of knowledge of reading of chatting with
people and I got so much of that through MyArmoury and the reason that I love MyArmoury so much is it
it's been an extraordinary place to hang out for the 16 years that I've been doing it and I have
learnt so much from so many incredibly intelligent people who just know their subject area, but the
other thing is the moderation is brilliant. So there's no rudeness, there's no hidden fighting,
there's no bitchiness. People are there to talk about this stuff and that is where
I learned about swords, quivers, scabbards, you know, how to make them, how to tie them. MyArmoury
right? Fletched javelins like these crazy things. MyArmoury. Daggers like this Bauernwehr and this
rondel here. I learn about them through MyArmoury. Shield construction, how thick they should be,
what they should be made of. MyArmoury. It is the most unbelievable archive and I guarantee you,
if you research something you'll find an entry from a shop, obviously not as good as my ones,
but an entry from a shop, Wikipedia or MyArmoury, that's where you find your information from even
if you don't realize it, okay? That archive, that place needs to survive, it's not as vibrant,
as buzzy as it used to be, because you know, the internet's changed, Facebook, instagram, it's all
taken over, but it is still there as an archive and it's still going. Don't get me wrong, join up,
go and drop them a pound, a euro, a dollar whatever it is, it's paypal, dead easy. Please for
me, (and you!) go and do it right and we'll just keep the place going for another year, another
five years. The archive that it is the knowledge, resource there, 18 years of people, intelligent
people talking about this stuff, go and help support it for me, please. Now I've finished my
rant we'll carry on with this, but I did forget to say, I have no affiliation with MyArmoury, I just
love the place. It's just an extraordinary archive that should be funded better really, so please.
What is this about then? Well the thing is I think it's quite simple, I really do. As a crossbowman,
you're issued with the ammunition from the lord or whoever it is, your captain, whatever,
and these things are made to a price, they're made relatively cheaply and they need to go towards
the enemy once; that's it right? But sometimes you want to do a better job or a different job indeed.
And so when you see somebody who is just wearing a gambeson, some fool, well you know your plate
cutter is not going to be so good against it, your needle bodkins, they're great against gambeson's.
Well then you might see somebody who is 100 meters away and they've lifted their visor, well you're
going to take one of your bolts that you know shoots really well, nice armour-piercing one there
gonna go for that. You see somebody who's got a great big feathery plume on the helm, oh well he's
only 60 meters away there's a chance you'll get it through his eye slit. I'm going to get another one
of my super accurates that I've tested before and now the guy's getting really close, he's 30 meters
away, you've got one shot you've got to make it count. You get one of your super heavy ones.
Again it's an armour piercing bodkin, but it's overweight, so just like the crown bolt that
I showed you in previous videos, that packs even more of a punch, maybe even half the energy again
and that might be what saves you, what turns the day. So I think this is not regular issue bolts,
this is the crossbowman's special reserve for special functions, so you'll still have that on
the other hip, but in war that's what you want, a little bit of extra. Anyway, thank you very much.
Quivers, scabbards, whopping big falchion, might do a film on this one at some point,
and well MyArmoury. Go visit. Amazing place.