Hi it's Tod from Tod's Workshop and Tod Cutler here and we have a totally pointless and
gratuitous film all about crossbows. Because for the first time ever I have got five of completely
different scales and sizes in the workshop at one time so if you can't make a film about this,
what can you make a film about? So we have got a ballestrino at the end here so 17th century,
all steel, probably Italian and it shoots teeny tiny little bolts, drawing about 220lbs. We've
got a latchet bow here round about 1600, also drawing about 220lbs, teeny tiny bolts as well,
not quite so small. Goats foot bow drawing about 380lbs, munition grade 15th century, kind of
normal size bolts really. Then we got a windlass bow drawing about 800, 850lbs. Big chunky bolts,
and then we got a catapult or a ballista at the end. I don't actually know what the draw weight
is because it changes every time you set it up, because you have to tension the bundles, but it's
going to be around about 450,500 lbs in draw weight. But a really really long power stroke,
shooting these. So the first thing that we have to do is to charge up our ballista there and once
we've done that we can see what it does against well our guy and of course cabbages. Traditionally
these things are melons, but you know, cost of living. It's cabbages. See you in a minute. So
this is a Roman ballista or catapulta from around about the birth of Christ. Now these rope bundles
here you have to put in under tension right at the beginning, you don't just put them in slack,
but then what you need to do is if you leave them all tense they will lose their ability to throw
the arms back, so you need to slack them off. So the first thing you need to do when you know,
warriors are on the horizon, is you tighten them up. I've got a very big spanner,
I've also got it bolted, clamped well to my trebuchet actually because this really,
really does take some force to get the thing rotating. Now what I want to do, it's not a lot
of force yet, but you'll see, is I want to get the bundles equal. So what do I mean by that? Equal
tension is you just do it by by looking at the arms and getting the arms to balance,
so when the arms look about right which is not yet, then you're done and you turn it over and
you do the other side. If you think it can get a bit more tension then you turn it over and you go
again. So this is a bit of a slow process it's not one that you can do in a hurry,
so I'll be back in a little bit. Beginning to think I put a bit too much tension on the other
side. Oh hell let's just go for it, come on let's see what happens, be brave Tod. I've tightened
this up as much as I can, but also to allow the string to get into the trigger mechanism because
if it's too tight against this I can't even get it to load. So there we go. So I can draw 180lbs
on a crossbow, this one is drawing 180 at about 5 cm/2". It'll have some poke. So our first bow
today is going to be the ballestrino and it is this thing here. Basically it's an executive toy;
they're sometimes called assassin's bows, I really don't think they were, got a video on it,
and what you do is you set the trigger, you twist it. There's about 10 of them thereabouts
in existence and they all seem to have this twist mechanism for loading it. So it's now spanned,
it's not about killing, it's not about hunting, it's about I don't know......
shooting an apple off your friends head at the end of the table. Let's see what it
does. Oh I got him in the knee, how about that. So I'll do that again. So you unwind it,
push the whole mechanism forward, engage the trigger, wind it back. So like I say
it's about 220 lbs in draw weight. But this is the thing, the power stroke is really,
really short, so because it's so short, doesn't have the time to put the power into the bolt.
Oh just to the uh left of the guy's head and just for the record those targets out there,
they're available as posters delivered to your door or as a download from the site.
So that is the ballestrino, our next bow is the latchet bow. So this is round about 1600,
Border Reivers bow, so Northern England, lever action, lovely little thing about
220lbs in draw weight. Did a video on this one recently, it's got me on a mobility scooter,
really have to go check it out. Top trigger. Oh bounced off his helmet, guess you heard
that. Just to the left of his head, so we're going to go again and into
the shield. Call it a day on that one. Our next bow is a munition bow so it's
around 380lbs something like that, goats foot goes on, draw back, triggers engaged, nice and
positive. Got him there; didn't penetrate the mail and the gamberson but then again
it's actually a target pile on tha,t it's not for war, so needle bodkin or something would
have behaved quite differently. Let's see if we can let's go for his head. Oh
right, well ever one to be disappointed. Let's go again. Touched the helmet,
but again little bit of a funny bolt. Bolts are weird, you have to make them really,
really carefully so I always test shoot, but they're much harder to make than an arrow
is. Right, so our next up is a windlass bow, set the
nut, wind her up, it's a little bit slow but don't forget the
other crossbow men you're facing have exactly the same problem as you do,
but then you have to unwind it. If you don't, really messes you up for the next
shot.
Nice! Let's go
again. So windlass goes on, it's always a problem trying not to tangle the ropes on these things,
got to be quite careful really, but the thing is archery seems to be from the records a fairly
subdued activity in war, it's not manic like you so often see in, well medieval films,
but of course Lord of the Rings. It's nothing like that. There was a siege very near here
in fact where over a 6-hour period about 150 archers shot a thousand arrows, it's about what,
it's about one per guy every minute. Nice that'll do and that is a case in point actually why
crossbows were quite popular. You can be really accurate and don't forget this is not my job,
I only shoot these things occasionally. Anyway enough of that guff, we're on to the big boy.
Hi I've just interrupted the film for another Tod Cutler related interesting fact. And today
we have the horn handled folding knife. Now they didn't invent lockback folders until
round about 1600 something like that, so we had a thumb tag and that's how you hold the
blade open. Sometimes a little stiff, sometimes it's loose as you like. Thumb tag does the job.
But anyway you'll find this and all sorts of other amazing pieces on Todcutler.com
and
now we wind the thing back until the
point I get scared and that is going to do
me. Nice so needless to say neither Hadrian or I are legionaries have
been training on this for years but you get an idea of what this weapon is about
and if you like the look of this thing have a look at the website it's up for
sale. Just passed his head. So as you may have noticed this cabbage, very aggressive looking
cabbage it's very close but it's late in the day and I'm running out light so I've got to be fast
and I don't want to miss, so this thing packs a whopping couple of foot pounds, couple of joules,
very, very little power but still wouldn't want to get hit by it. Now we have our latchet bow
so this has I think from memory round about 12 Joules something like that which is for
reference about the same as a paintball gun. Again don't want to get hit by it and that's got a nice
sharp broadhead on it. If you wonder how hard a savoy cabbage is, this is quite unexpected.
Anyway uh harder than my tummy. Now we have a munition bow and this is around 45 maybe 50
Joules. It's dead. So windlass now produces around 90 Joules,
but that depends massively on the weight of the bolt that you
use. Now this is something that you might not have thought about,
war bolts very often had wooden fletches on them, they last longer in storage,
but also can't quite see it but that bolt passed all the way through, the fletches are intact,
the same thing happens on ballistic gel. Those flights actually create part of the
wound channel as well, it's not just the shaft. You get an effectively a broadhead result out
of the fletchings. Does it on flesh, does it on cabbages. So let's see what the ballista
does. Got it I think. Now of course the whole headstock actually obscures my view,
so I've had to set the shot up beforehand and hopefully it'll be
good. Nah. So it's time for our traditional conclusion, but really what is there to
conclude? Bows come in all sorts of different sizes, I love making them, I love shooting them,
they're great fun, different powers, cabbages are tougher than you'd think and this thing is
going to be for sale on the website. But before you go, don't forget to subscribe
and we've also got a Patreon page where we do loads of little films around the workshop and
you can see what I get up to when I'm not doing this kind of stuff. See you again.