[Regia-NA] Re: crossbows

[rmhowe]

Jeffrey Fulton wrote:
> 
> Ours is wrapped in rawhide. It has a stirrup for pulling it, plus we have a belt hook (that we have never used). I was using my steel 150 lb. one in an indoor range once, and we were crowded over to fit too many people in, and I got too close to the wall.  The stock slapped me like a stepfather would slap a red-headed stepchild.  I was lucky not to lose teeth.
> Thanks for the heads-up on the Quebec merchant, I almost ordered a goatsfoot lever for my steel 150 lb. one, but I wasn't comfortable with them.  They sold my friend a bow and craniquen one and he is happy - but it was there at Pennsic and he paid cash and walked away with it.
> 
> Jef/Bjorn

I guess pushing down towards the ground in my case was a good idea
compared to getting a shot in the chops with the stock, huh?
Sorry you got hurt.

There are a lot of ways to pull a crossbow.

One is to use a hooked pulley between your belt and the end of the
stock. As you stand it cuts half the weight of the pull.
The hooked pulley grabs the string on one side of the tiller.
Your foot stays in the stirrup, and you go from a French squat to
a stand as you guide the string to the nut with the hand that
is not holding the tiller end.
It might make it easier on you and the parts could be had at
a hardware store for about $7-10.

I bought one of the better belt ringed double-claws he had from Master
Iolo last Pennsic. $15 each.  I had originally intended to buy whatever 
his top crossbow was - but I was quite honestly disappointed with the 
quality of anything that was left. Then someone walked up with a $300 
Dubek crossbow that had an engraved prod. I got really anxious when I
was informed he had two left. Some kind person showed me the way.
I immediately tried to buy their best crossbow but no sale - it was
reserved. So I ordered one to spec.

When I was at the National Archery Association's Instructor's Course
at some state park near College Park, PA in the late 60's we had
several people who had been at the Teelawooket Archery Instructor's
School the year before (which was the only other place the NAA taught
archery instructors at the time). One of the men there with them
was a mid-west high school phys ed instructor. This was one very
remarkable
man - as in he did something people will remark on very long thereafter.

It was common then in target archery to do an initial draw, breathe,
do a secondary small draw, aim and release.

They called out Primary draw, secondary draw, aim, release....
and.... 
Wonderdummy released the BOW and broke his nose very spectacularly.

(In forty years this is the only time I have heard that one.)

Those tournament bows could be fairly heavy. This was about the
time the very first compound bows came out, before they ruined
much of the target archery competition and publications for most of
3 decades. Everything over here went Compounds/Hunting just like
electronic cameras are doing to analog photography now.

I suppose this may be a rare form of physical dyslexia.
Not so good on righty / lefty or sword hand / shield hand thinking.
I really hope he didn't teach gymnastics. I wonder if he reproduced.
Reminds me of a machinist shop foreman at the plastics factory.
Stuck his fingers in every cutting machine in the shop until he finally
lost the end of his thumb in the bandsaw and quit in self preservation.

I have most of the major crossbow (and archery) books including 
Egon Harmuth's Die Arbalest (the successor to Payne-Galwey in German) 
and some rarer stuff. I've been collecting archery stuff since I was 
a teenager and I'm 50 now.

At one time I competed in tournaments and shot on several teams.
I taught archery locally and to camp counselors in the summers.
I shot with some champions but averaged 279 to their near 300's.
I practised twenty hours per week, and my teacher was a three
time former F.I.T.A. world champion and was later on the first U.S.
Olympic Committee. (O.K. Smathers from Brevard, N.C., USA.)
Another man in the Asheville club took the National Indoor Barebow 
Championship (with NO fletching at all (a machinist by trade)) 
shooting 899 of 900. He could hold on target for two minutes. His 
groups of six were a little bigger than a quarter. So one shot bounced
out of center. The next year there were two perfect 900's and his 
record was broken. 

My muscles won't do that now, so I bought the windlassed crossbow.
They will do that - a little for a little while on a good day.

I meant to say the prod was from Belgium. They fabricated the
windlass and stock in Canada. Personally I would love to know the 
source for the Belgian prods they use. Maybe someone in Regia knows.

The Dubeks do very pretty artistic etching on them. The mother paints
on the design resist and I think the father nitric acid etches it.
Being new Polish immigrants in a French speaking area they don't do
English very well. Especially the parents.

My prod's design is very well done but a 1/4 inch off center which 
makes it look like 1/2". There are hounds chasing birds and hares in 
foliage on either side, my wife's totem chipmunks (a surprise concession
for her) are near the bow clamp irons, and the Dubeks' trademark crossed 
twigged acorns are sorta between them but definitely well off-center. 

It would have helped a bit if the etching on the prod was on
center (it's obviously not), and my name and device were not 
upside down on the tiller box as the windlass hangs from the belt
hook or would be used (but they are). 
(Maybe someone was in the cups that day.) 
The bezants of my device are about 1/4 size proportionally in 
the etching to what they should be compared to the accurate xerox I 
gave them and look more like b-b's than bezants (gold balls) place in 
the corners of the shield. The hammer crossing over the dividers like
an A in the center was done correctly. The third etching I had asked 
for was entirely missing. So if you order one, pay for it at Pennsic. 

Had I been able to buy the $800/400 lb one at the same price
I would have been far ahead actually of what I received.
But there is no doubt in my mind that they do the best work
at Pennsic. Having three different people work on the same
project leads to problems, as it most likely did this time.
Who was clear headed at the time I can't say.

The device was clearly supplied to them and so was the shape
I wanted on the tiller in a 4 cross-sectioned drawing with measurements. 
They took some shortcuts and then told me they had done it 
correctly as to design. (Mikal called me from Quebec to ask for 
the final payment and I asked him then.) They had not.

It was rather interesting in that the first time I fired it the heavy
prod-string flew twenty feet off to my left also. All three
strings (made from artificial sinew a la LeatherFactory.com) 
are too long for the prod but twisting them to shorten them worked. 
I have no idea how close it may have come to my face and I'm 
glad it was not one of our family members shooting it at the time.
I fired it and the string just disappeared, which was weird.
Fortunately the relatives saw where it disappeared to and it didn't
slap me in the glasses or nose.

Since I had ordered a pair of bow bracing irons to replace/tension
the strings with putting it back on was not a problem. I suggest
covering the irons with leather or as I did later a fiber reinforced
plastic tubing so as not to scratch the etching. The 2 irons are 1/2"
square stock with 1/2" round sections about 2" long about 2" apart 
on the iron end. Requires two people or one with a heavy table to 
prop under to work them. These were well made, even sandblasted.

Having the windlass's jute pulley cord part at shot nine kinda snuffed
the Xmas crossbow shooting party at the relatives. 

I spent a week trying to find something adequate to replace it. 
Hoped for brown, but settled on black climbing cord, which is very 
strong but stiff in the pulleys so I may go to a lighter weight cord. 
Having one side and not the other break meant the claw put a couple 
shallow dents in the tiller. But by then I had spent about four + 
hours filing, sanding, polishing out the defects and shortened
the longer pulley screws so they wouldn't gouge the stock anymore.

Incidentally, the brass screws inside the brass pulleys are all 
thread as they made them, meaning they will wear quickly, so I 
intend to replace them with screws with smooth shanks I can lubricate 
I have already bought. To make the standard 1/4-20 round headed brass 
screws look period they simply cross slot the heads like an X.

The brass nut with steel insert and the trigger handle,
bow irons, and prod were all very well made and the oak or
ash tiller was excellently selected straight grain wood
as I had requested. The finish was very good on the wood. 

He told me he'd shot it about twenty times before shipping 
it to me. I'm thinking he could not have used that windlass 
to do so and not scratch the stock deeply as I did the first 
time I used it both inside the windlass box that sits on the 
end of the tiller and the wheeled claw that pulls the string
up the stock. Both tiller stock and end were scratched the very 
first time I tried it slowly and carefully. Perhaps he tried
it pre-finished and then finish sanded it. I don't know.

It came fully assembled in a large box without much padding. 
Several weeks after 9/11 through Canadian and U.S. customs. 
So it was done on time anyway.

I asked him later if he had not had enough wood thickness to 
make a stock thick enough so people could not put their fingers
in the way as I had requested (and physically demonstrated and drawn
a plan of). He said yes he had had enough wood to do that way, but
didn't.
This was after I had received it and he'd said he'd done it
my way before I sent the last large payment pre-shipment. 
Read this as you will.
This was the son Mikal I was dealing with. Several friends recommended
sending it back and requesting the work be re-done correctly.
I figured once through customs at that time was enough.

I've been hit in the fingers with an 80 lb crossbow string. That hurt.
I did NOT want anyone, especially my wife, hit with a 320 lb. bowstring.
(But it has since already happened to a lady at an SCA event, and I 
did point out the problem to her previously.) 

It is, however, a wonderful draw to a demo table.
Anne said one man stood there for 15 minutes in reverance and admired
it like one would in a beautifully carved and decorated church.
 
I had envisioned buying it like one would buying a new Cadillac.
A once in a lifetime kinda thing. The 400 lb. example was magnificent
at the same price, but was said to be for a man coming in from Chicago.
That was a 10:10.

Mine is nice in many respects, but definitely a 7:10 at the same price.
So I advise caution. Buy what you see when you see it and you'll know
what you are getting. But their stuff goes awful quickly.

Magnus