Friday 21 October 2011

Crossbow Progress





Here's the prod with the rawhide bound on tight with string, one limb has been unwrapped to show the before and after. It will need to dry out some more and be cleaned up before I continue tillering it, I shall leave some of the grooved finish showing as I think it looks good.
I decided against Oak for the stock as it isn't seasoned, I have a nice chunk of Ash I'm using instead. The last pic shows roughly how it will work. The area I'm not sure of is the trigger, do I make it as part of the stock allowing it to hinge at a selectively weakened point at the front, (see the pencilled in arrow beneath the front of the trigger) or do I make a separate trigger pushed into a slot as a pivot it and bound on with twine? (Click on the pic to enlarge it and you will see how the trigger will push the rod upwards to push the string out of the groove)
Hmmm I'll have to think about it. The stock as drawn on the block of Ash looks horrible, to manufactured and not 'primitive', so it won't end up looking like that.
In the second pic you can see the butt end of the stock bends a litte to the left, this will make it more comfortable to shoot, it will probably drop down about half an inch too. I'm torn between making it shoot well and look primitive. Most shotgun stocks have a little cast to make them point correctly, with a dead straight stock it's hard to get your eye in line with the barrel or bolt in case of a crossbow.
I shall experiment with some offcuts of the Ash to get a feel for the necessary trigger dimensions.

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