Medieval style crossbow

This is a medieval style crossbow that is made mainly 

from old scrap metal

If you just want to see this thing 

shooting click here

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If you want to see how I made it

keep scrolling

I started off with this piece of aspen. I drew two lines

and cut away the bark.

Then i drew a line down the centre and cut it in half.

I planed bouth pieces so they would fit together nicely.

I bent a pece of steel to this shape for the trigger.

Then I ground off all the rust and cut it to lenght 

(I had tho rebend it a bit lather).

I made the nut from an old weight (no not hi quality steel but 

it seems to hold up fine for this crossbow) I cut it off

with an angle grinder.

I shaped it round and marked drew the shape

of the nut.

I cut out the shape with a hacksaw and chaped it with files.

Here I layed out the trigger and marked what I have to cut away.

I used a chisel to carve out space for the trigger leaver and

the nut aswell as a spring.

I test fitted the trigger and drew out the basic shape of the crossbow.

I held the parts together with screws in the scrap parts.

Aaand I cut that too far.

So I had to fix it.

Onece the glue was dry I smooted it out.

Then I cut and chaped it with a rasp.

I made the bow from a car leaf spring.

When I had separeted out one of the springs and cleaned it up I used 

a piano hinge as a ruler to draw out the tapered shape of he bow.

And then I cut it out with an angle grinder.

I used a thicker grinding disk to cut the string notches.

I found this pece of metal.

And from that I cut out the bow holders and the wedges.

I drilled, cut and filed the sloths for the bows.

Then I just filed until this fit together.

I cut out theese slots in the bow holders and marked 

it out on the stock.

At this point I glued the halves together.

I drilled and filed out the slot in the stock and I did it 

in the totally wrong spot.

So I had to make this plug. It worked as a reiforsment for the 

front of the crossbow aswell.

Then I redrilled the slot and filed it untill the wedges

fit.

I cut the sturup out from a piece of square steel tubing.

 

I makred out the spots to bend it acording to my own foot. Then I bent it to shape in the vice.

I filed out a notch for the sturup in the bow holders.

 

When i first put it together the it was quite bent.

So I just hammered it straight (or close enough) with a

wooden mallet.

 

To finnish it of  I made theese copper plates to hold the pins 

in for the nut and the trigger. I also finnished the stock 

with some simple olive oil.