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After seeing some videos and blog posts, and with my friend's birthday coming up; I decided to try make a toy crossbow. Surprisingly it didn't take long to construct, maybe an hour or two of work (probably would take others shorter, as long as you are focused). Here is the result:It only pulls about 10 kg (at the most) in draw weight. I learnt about bundle bows in Stephen Coote's book; Ancient Skills. This video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14s8i0GBjAo and this bushcraft usa blog post: http://bushcraftusa.com/forum/showthread.php/56167-Primitive-Crossb... , are really good.

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Shrafter
Comment by Russ on January 18, 2015 at 20:27

Here's the crossbow that got me interested in the primitive Asian type crossbows. Yours kinda reminded me of it. 


Newbie
Comment by Wing Szeto on January 18, 2015 at 17:17

Thanks Russ, yeah the one of the reasons I even considered making one was because a friend of mine bought a toy one similar in shape to the one I made. There is real potential in taping round bamboo pieces together, with enough pieces at the right lengths I think a powerful bow could be made in 15 minutes! So great for a survival situation (I don't think they are very durable). I know Stephen Coote has made a powerful-enough bow from three kanuka saplings tied together ( you can read about it in the book Ancient skills)

From my limited experience I think the trigger piece has to be rounded on the top edge, the flat or grooved on the side - flat on the side so the string will sit there and rounded to the string will slide up without taking the trigger piece with it! Also I think it helps to make the trigger stop/notch slanted so when the trigger piece is slid back it rises at an angle, forcing the string to slide off the trigger.

I hope to make a more powerful crossbow sometime.Good luck with your crossbows!


Shrafter
Comment by Russ on January 5, 2015 at 8:46

I like your crossbow. It is much in the style of the Montagnard (Vietnam) crossbow. I've really gained an interest in these types of crossbows because of their simplicity. These crossbows had at least 3 types of triggers. I've tried the one you used and could never get it to work right. More experimentation needs to be done. Yours is the first I've seen with the bundle bow with the uncut round bamboo instead of the split bamboo pieces. Very interesting.

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