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why are histories so skewed?

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meanewood:
Just because someone is using a 130lb Warbow doesn't make him a expert on medieval  history!

If you go to that type of event, you have to accept there will be a truck load of BS circulating

Ringeck85:

--- Quote ---Also, the vast majority of crossbows were wooden not composite.
--- End quote ---

Stuckinthemud, I would love to read up on this if you know any sources (primary or secondary) that state or show/mention this?  I know that certainly most crossbows were not the best steel prods that you needed a crank for (I think those are absolutely amazing!), but wouldn't wooden prods be considerably weaker? I suppose they would be a lot easier and cheaper to make, possibly be slightly less vulnerable to water damage, but pack considerably less punch? A lot of people have the misconception that crossbows are like automatic armor piercers, when it depends a lot on the prod material, draw weight, draw length, bolt weight, aim and angle of the shot, distance shot, and probably a bunch of factors that my coffee-deprived brain can't think of right now.

stuckinthemud:
There are several on-line articles that are a fascinating read but this (themcs.org/weaponry/crossbows/crossbows.htm ) by the Medieval Combat Society is a real eye-opener when you read the timeline at the end of the page, here is one entry:

"1321 Marino Sanuto a Ventian known as Torsello delivered a list of weapons for a proposed crusade and lists crossbows with wooden bows two-foot stirrups, and that composite bows were better in dry areas than in countries with humid climates, M. Jahns, G. Kohler."

or

"1344 and 1366 Dover inventories show 126 crossbows, 34 of which had composite bows with two-foot stirrups and 9 composite bows with one-foot stirrup, and 3 large windlass crossbows, G. Kohler."

That's only 43 of the 126 crossbows that were composite.

or

"1362 Burgundian accounts list 189 light and heavy crossbows with composite bows, and 382 light crossbows with wooden bows. Additionally crossbows with one-foot stirrups, two-foot stirrups and windlasses are listed, and rampart crossbows, B. Rathgen."



There are several yew crossbows still surviving, and, at least one identified as red oak, but I suspect is more likely to be yew.  Also, I suspect that a bow needing a two-foot stirrup might be pretty potent when you consider how physically strong fighting men of that period needed to be.  Wooden bows are certainly easier and cheaper than metal or composite but in a cold wet climate might also perform nearly as well?  For the person paying, easier, quicker, cheaper might be motive enough to ignore 'not quite as good'

Ringeck85:
Fascinating I will look into reading those when I can!!

I think crossbow design is probably very different depending on when we are talking about too.  In the 1300s, I would suspect that the metallurgical skill was much rarer for steelcrossbow prods (I wonder when the first of those were produced? Probably in that century...).

But I would think during the 1400s, since steel production/quality overall in Europe improved dramatically, and by the 1500s crossbows with well forged steel prods were pretty common, I think (?) as by then smelting furnaces burned hotter, steel production was more advanced in general, and quenching/tempering steel was mastered in more places, especially for high quality armor productoin (did you see that brief documentary, "Secrets of the Shining Knight" where they reproduced a tempered steel breastplate and tested it to be "bullet proof"?). 

 Another Example: crossbows were used more often than matchlock arquebuses by the early so-called "Conquistadors" in their misadventures/conquests in the New World. I'll look into whether any of those might have been wooden or composite...I don't think they were heavy crannequin or windless though, probably an easier goat's foot or something?  Not sure...

bowman123:
most European crossbows are made of wood?, that makes so much more sense!! I was wondering, although long wide and cumbersome to use normal bows as a crossbow prod, it would be expensive to just back every prod out there with horn and sinew unless you are in China where most single shot crossbows were composite.
I would imagine those wooden prods be similar in powestroke compared to handbows maybe slightly lower. The trigger mechanism still works for longer crossbows just need to ajust the trigger stick a bit

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