Chinese crossbow replica

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:18 am

View from the side.

The bow was finally made of sinewed bamboo. There is no horn (as Stephen advised...)

The sinew is covered with tree bark. I love the color.

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:23 am

View of the cocked mechanism. It works very smoothly.

You can also see the quarrels, 10 of them. 2 feathers, no nock at the back, they are quite heavy (515 grains or 33,5 grams) and long (64 cm from the back up to the back end of the field points)

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:26 am

The mechanism released

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:31 am

View from the front.

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:37 am

In order to serve the string, I had to remove it from the bow. The string follow is already quite high at about 9 cm...

Maybe this will diminish when the dry winter sets in Beijing, as the sinew should shrink.

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:41 am

A view of my new serving. Not very traditional I'm afraid...

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:51 am

See, the crossbow is ready to shoot but the tillering is unbalanced, I'm afraid the right limb might fail later.

I weighted the bow at around 55 pounds. This is not too powerful...

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Fri Oct 07, 2005 3:58 am

My first 3 quarrels in the target.

I clocked 10 of these, the slow ones were doing 128 fps, the fast ones were at 130 fps and most at 129 fps.

I plan to try lighter quarrels to see if I gain speed.

rob · Post by **rob** » Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:09 pm

romain
whats the draw length on your crossbow ?

Russ Mitchell · Post by **Russ Mitchell** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:23 pm

Rob: very different from the Europian style, ain't it? Fascinating.

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 1:55 pm

I don't know if you can say "draw length" about a crossbow, but let say that the distance between the nut indentation that keep the string and the tip of the stock is 64 cm -> 25"

Now, the total length where the string pushes the arrow (between the nut and the fistmele) is 46 cm -> 18"

It's because of this long course that the speed of the quarrels is quite decent, considering the low draw weight.

West · Post by **West** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 7:22 pm

Yes, I wonder why European crossbows used extremely short draws... The longer draw is considerably more efficient, and shoots a longer projectile = higher sectional density (and in theory, greater penetration.) I made a long draw crossbow with a much simpler mechanism of wood and antler, and it can easily outrange and out-penetrate my European style crossbows (of roughly the same kind of mechanism). For comparison, the longer draw, "Chinese" style, had a draw of 14", compared to 8" for the European styles, at around 140# each. (All had wooden prods.)

On a side note, it's curious that your quarrels don't have nocks, Romain. I'd have thought that the advantage of that mechanism, aside from ease of pulling the trigger, was that you could nock the quarrels onto the string prior to shooting.

jaroslaw · Post by **jaroslaw** » Thu Apr 27, 2006 8:00 pm

wery nice crossbow Romain
european popular crossbow 3 kg stell bows = circa 67 m/s bolt 66g
effective draw lenght max 15 cm , draw force circa 1200 lbs

Bede · Post by **Bede** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 1:16 am

Early European crossbows had a long draw too, but when they changed from wooden to composite bows, the draw became shorter. Later steel bows also had short draws.

Because of the short power stroke, the bows were made heavier (I have seen pictures of bows with pulls over 2000 pounds).

I think the European design was intended to make the crossbows smaller and more convenient in enclosed spaces like castles, but the weapons actually became heavy and cumbersome. The great draw weights meant devices to mechanically pull the string were used.

Romain · Post by **Romain** » Fri Apr 28, 2006 8:43 am

On a side note, it's curious that your quarrels don't have nocks, Romain. I'd have thought that the advantage of that mechanism, aside from ease of pulling the trigger, was that you could nock the quarrels onto the string prior to shooting.

I have asked advices around and nobody confirmed that I should carve nocks... I might try a few experiments myself, just to be sure.