Late Gothic Crossbows and Accouterments

[Glaive203]

Originally Posted by Matchlock

Preserved at the City museum of Cologne, Germany.

In the first picture, the bow is of course inversed; this had been corrected by the time the second picture was taken.

The open curve of the composite bow is due to not having had a string attached for hundreds of years.

The detached bow of a huge wall crossbow also at the Cologne museum.

Michael

This is a false statement. Any horn bow or horn lath pulls forward like that when unstrung, even completely new ones.

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Glaive203

... This is a false statement...

What a vivid way to make your point, Glaive203. Remarkably over an observation posted four years ago.

[David Jaumann]

Hello together!

It has been a while since I posted the last time!
I have been to Nuremberg and I took the promised pictures of the crossbows exposed in the "Germanisches Nationalmuseum".

The first crossbow was made in about 1475. The bow seems to be strong (500kg of drawweight is possible). Therefore I was quite astonished that the trigger is so short, even though the lock is a one-axle lock mechanism. How is it possible to pull the trigger without much effort? It must be much easyer to pull the long trigger of a 14th or early 15th century crossbow with a weaker prod, so were the crossbowmakers during the late 15th century able to construct more efficient one axle-lock mechanisms than before?

The second late 15th century crossbow is the one with the obsolete stong reflex horn and sinew prod and the weird trigger. I have had an exact look at it and it seems to me that the bow and the trigger were not originaly attached to the stock. The prod seems to be to broad for the stock and the belly is too round to fit exactelly. A bow with theses dimensions must have a draw weight of much more than 500kgs, but the stock seems to be very thin and fragile (much thinner than the stock of the first crossbow). The stock has several quite dark horn inlays that look simular to the inlays shown in "Die Hornbogenarmbrust" (Abb. 91). The only inlay with a different colour is on the lower side where the unusual trigger is located. I have the impression that the original horn inlay was removed in order to fit in the seccond trigger. What do you think?

Best wishes,
David

[David Jaumann]

I´m sorry... something with reducing the sice of the pictures didn´t work! I will post the pictures as soon as I have a soluion!

[fernando]

Originally Posted by David Jaumann

I´m sorry... something with reducing the sice of the pictures didn´t work! I will post the pictures as soon as I have a soluion!

If you wish, you may send them to me for resizing and posting, David
fernando@vikingsword.com

[David Jaumann]

pictures...

[David Jaumann]

more pictures...

[David Jaumann]

more pictures...

[David Jaumann]

Thanks for your offer Fernando!
I have installed a suitable program, so I was able to reduce the sice of the pictures by myself! But I can send you some of the unreduced pictures if you want! The problem is that I can only send five pictures with one email!

best wishes,
David

[fernando]

Great pictures, David.
No need to email them to me.
Appreciating these ones is quite satisfactory

[David Jaumann]

Thank you!

I forgot some pictures! Here you can see that the prod actually doesn´t fit to the stock. What do you think about the trigger?