"I have a ballista bolted to my trebuchet " is the coolest thing I'll hear all day

@HebaruSan

Ай бұрын

Tod lives such an amazing life!

@anthonyduffy6953

Ай бұрын

Ultimate power

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

A nice combo for sure

@sootys4024

Ай бұрын

Like a medieval Ripley!

@silverjohn6037

Ай бұрын

Day? You lead an interesting life if it's not best of month;).

I foresee a scene in the near future where a sheepish bloke has to say to his wife; "I know we had decided on buying a new kitchen but..." before showing off his new ballista.

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

I do hope so.........

Dear Tod, everyone uses modern bowstrings. It would be interesting to watch a video of how these bowstrings were made before, how they were taken out of animals, how they were preserved so that they would not break and see the difference between archery with modern and medieval bowstrings.

@adam-k

Ай бұрын

I will happily watch Todd making traditional bowstrings. However there are several on KZread, making bowstrings from hemp, sinew, nettle , gut or yucca. I didn't know but violin strings are still made from sheep gut. Their strength is quite amazing. Lots of people use bowstrings made of violin strings.

@Luckmorne

Ай бұрын

Most of the ones on his xbows look like rope... not deer gut?

@mrbushi1062

Ай бұрын

Ill watch Tod do anything

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

HI Sergey, I actually use linen for mine which seems to be the most common.

@chrisruzsa2798

Ай бұрын

A war bow is equivalent to an excalibur crossbow of the same draw weight. Because of the modern crossbow string. Which means the long bow or hand held would be like compound crossbow with modern strings. Of its own draw weight too.

Opening shot 'this crossbow is very small, but that one is faaar awaaay'

@StraightOuttaJarhois

Ай бұрын

Father Tod

@Squeeeez

Ай бұрын

Luckily no cows were harmed in this video

That "assassin's crossbow" reminds me of a parlor pistol. Something to gather the lads in the smoking room after supper and plink at targets set up across the room. Imagine playing a game of darts with crossbows.

@steemlenn8797

Ай бұрын

And to motivate the servants if they are not fast enough.

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

I see it as exactly that

Me: "Uh, one of your limbs is hanging lower than the other" Catapulta: "Babe that's just how I'm set up when I'm relaxed"

NOOOOOO! MY CABBAGES!

@BaseyCrown

Ай бұрын

There is no war Ba Sing Se

@frederickheard2022

Ай бұрын

Came here for this!

@johnnytower6169

21 күн бұрын

Underrated comment

Thank goodness for Todd saving us from the evil Savoy cabbage!

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

can't stand them, so I was not sad for the loss

@manfredconnor3194

Ай бұрын

Now we know what happened to the house of Savoy! 😅

Conclusion : for Cabages, use a kitchenknife... crossbows are not suitable equipment in the kitchen..

@molochi

Ай бұрын

Little known fact that those weird crescent shaped arrowheads were actually meant for creating slaw.

@chrisruzsa2798

Ай бұрын

Lmfao.

All these windup mechanisms for the more powerful crossbows make me think of mounting a powerful crossbow to a tricycle (or bicycle with outriggers), with a clutch to switch between using the pedals to drive the wheels and using the pedals to draw the crossbow. Anachronistic self-propelled artillery.

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

I have thought of pretty much the same thing - would have been great. A crew served 6 man rowing bow using the galley slaves.

one thing I've always appreciated about these films is your insistence on putting gopros in peril. The SOUND of various medieval projectiles coming straight at the camera is truly something to behold.

@nancytestani1470

25 күн бұрын

Yes, so cool, right

the medieval equivalent to 'kentucky ballistics' lol love it! *'cutlers trajectoria'*

So that's how Roman chefs prepared shredded cabbage for the legionaries' supper.

i used to be an guard like you until i took a bolt to the knee

I laughed out loud at the sight of Tod aiming his ballista at a cabbage.

The new Tod Cutler daggers are amazing! Never in my wildest dreams thought you would include a hammerhead dagger.

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

Thanks and I am very pleased with them too - if I say so myself, very good value!

Just to second Tod's advert from personal experience: Outstanding craftsmanship AND value for money. Genuinely wasn't expecting so much for the price.... 10/10

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

Thank you

@nonsequitor

Ай бұрын

​@@tods_workshopThank YOU boss. Happy wife with bollock dagger, happy life😊

150 archers shooting 1000 arrows in six hours would make it one arrow an hour a guy, not every minute. Am I miscalculating something?

@Soren015

Ай бұрын

No, I was thinking the same thing. That math does not add up... One pr. minute would have seen them launch ~54,000 arrows over 6 hours.

@xpoback

Ай бұрын

They made a video about that siege, shooting arrows from a tower to see how much this affects distance. Yes, it's every hour, not minute.

@3eightiesopinion524

Ай бұрын

Its harassment just to keep heads down

Imagine having a profession where you sometimes just end up randomly having 5 crossbows lying around to play with. And they go from from the funny, proverbial pea-shooter to an industrial-strength piece of siege equipment.

@klondikechris

Ай бұрын

He does have a cool life doesn't he?

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

I must say I am privileged

"its dead" .. got me xD

Can you create the rapid-fire crossbow designed by Da Vinci in the codex atlanticus? This is a crossbow in which the loading system is speeded up compared to the traditional one. The crossbowman, by opening and closing the tiller could load the crossbow without ever touching the bowstring and without using external tools, thus speeding up the charging process considerably.

@lazyman7505

Ай бұрын

Thank you for mentioning the Codex, I had no idea such thing existed. And there is even a website where you can browse all pages online (link is in the wikipedia article). It really shows how much of a genius Leonardo was. I'd love to see Todd recreate some of the machines/mechanisms from the Codex.

@killerkraut9179

Ай бұрын

@@lazyman7505 Leonardo da vinci is overated!

@killerkraut9179

Ай бұрын

@@lazyman7505 Leonardo davinci is overated!

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

Hi Vitor, Andreas Bichler made a fantastic repro of a similar bow, but I suspect they are simply not suited to heavy bows, so not likely to be military

@vitorpereira9515

Ай бұрын

@@tods_workshop I can't argue against you, after all you have years of experience in the field. But even if it's not worth it to build one, i think an episode commenting on the crossbow design would be interesting. I mean he can't be weaker than the Cho-ko-nu and other conventional bows.

My cabbages!

@johnman559

Ай бұрын

I reckon a 25 lb bow and arrow would go through that cabbage, isn't momentum more important than joules?

I have a idea! Lead ball projectile!! For the ballista Joerg love that!

@exploatores

Ай бұрын

I got another Idea. How large can you make a ballista. Never mind if it´s slow to reload. if what it sends away weighs a hundred pounds.

@alexturnbackthearmy1907

Ай бұрын

Also for small all-metal one. This thing already looks more like a gun then a crossbow, might as well give it some bullets.

@ArmouryTerrain

Ай бұрын

the ballista could be configured for either bolts or shot. The mechanism is not the same for both.

@30035XD

Ай бұрын

Rest assured, they had that.

@Zephyrus0127

Ай бұрын

I can hear Joerg laughing now!

Alway fun to see, and that little 'assassin's bow' really is tiny and more effective on cabbages than I'd expected. Be interesting to see something like that scaled up a bit in power - with a halfway decent quality screw and nut with the right thread pitch I'd think you could still operate a much more powerful version. It might even just about become plausible as an assassins weapon over toy - shoot heavy lathe turned all steel bolts for as much momentum and precision as you can get with a heavy limb high draw weight and it might just fly far enough, accurately enough and with some serious poke even though its tiny. And being all metal construction by the looks of it shouldn't be too hard to scale the moving parts up enough that it survives being shot a fair few times.

@gratefulguy4130

Ай бұрын

Well you would barely use it past dagger range anyway. It's not for sniping.

@foldionepapyrus3441

Ай бұрын

@@gratefulguy4130Indeed, though it has to have range enough to be worth using - if you could just take one extra step and stab the guy you might as well do that. I'd suggest for a serious assassination type scenario its got to have enough accuracy and power out at the 5, 10 possibly even 15 meter range. So you can be far enough away to be largely obscured in the crowds/shadows or hit your target as you walk by the door to their office - a distance so what you are doing isn't massively telegraphed.

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

There was a larger screwjacked crossbow version according to Payne Gallwey, but I have found him to not be that reliable so I am not sure. I use a bought Acme thread and nut for this, so it it should be pretty good. I also have a film about that bow and whether it would be any good for assassins here kzread.info/dash/bejne/ioyGqKadnM6rqto.htmlsi=AfAIgrlHw1BrqOXh

@foldionepapyrus3441

Ай бұрын

@@tods_workshopNever heard of a larger screwjacked on at all myself, so that is intriguing. Though I am less interested in larger and more interested in adding power to the tiny footprint one - so it may actually become more than just a dangerous toy. Larger crossbow can be spanned in many other ways, so being screw pulled would be interesting, but I can't see the point - seems like it would always be a slower method to cycle a practical power crossbow. But practically powerful at the tiniest sizes so there is no real length for leverage this screw method should be plausible (at least with the really high quality of modern steel machine made screws).

For a massive background about the actual role archery in the Medieval Art of war I strongly recommend Schwerpunkt's videos series.

@manfredconnor3194

Ай бұрын

Wirklich? Ok. Muss ich schauen.

I'll take 1 of each!

Always handy to have a trebuchet around as a base to torsion your balista with.

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

Yes it was rather. Last time I had to peg the frame down with massive posts so this was much easier

Hi Tod. I always imagined that crossbowmen and bowmen would use cover when it made sense. Like ambushing some enemies from behind trees or shooting out of bushes. Or taking cover behind those low stone walls the farmers build. Would really love to see a video about shooting from behind cover. Like the great video about the pros and cons of shooting from a tower.

I enjoy all of Tod’s Workshop videos

Another Tods video, thank you Tod🎉

at 8:21 lockback fodlers were invented 15th century spain accordingt o Bill Claussen, i had a viking era folder when doing reenactment, and then there was the roman swiss army knife....

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

Thanks and I will look into that

Great, I made a crossbow in metal work at school....40 years ago, had to get a letter from my parents.It had springs and didn't really work.Goats foot lever. Love the Joules numbers. Nice work.

"Bolts are much more finnicky to make than arrows" Wait what? Can you elaborate on that please? I've never heard that and would be fascinated to hear why. I figured they might be easier since less material, and possibly cheaper too. They tend to be the same cost if not cheaper in games as a result, so I'd love to see or hear why they're tricker to make

@kazesim88

Ай бұрын

That's what I was thinking. Do you still have to make bolts to some specific spine or can they just be completely rigid?

"So Bob, that's the bass boat....but Janie tells me you bought a Ballista?"

Absolutely wonderful video Tod

“Cabbages are tougher than you think”. Not what I expected to learn from this video. Love all that you do Tod

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

Yeah, I wasn't expecting them to bind like that

"very aggressive looking cabbage" is officially my favorite thing I've heard today

Man, you have no idea how much I'd like to see the ballista tested against some plate armour.

Great video. Are Roman ballistas still considered crossbows if they are torsion weapons instead of tension weapons? (Eg. They don't use a bow prod to store energy)

@ArmouryTerrain

Ай бұрын

In Australia Torsion weapons are not legally considered to be crossbows, also not really medieval

@Intranetusa

Ай бұрын

@@ArmouryTerrain Interesting.

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

No they are not, but I stretched the point - sorry. Regular bows are 'flexion artillery' whilst these are torsion. The vast majority of medieval (non explosive) artillery and missile weapons was flexion, but they did use torsion as well - look up 'spingald'

@Intranetusa

Ай бұрын

@@tods_workshop Gotcha, thanks!

"it'll have some poke" Love it

Very good video. Thank you.

Awesome thanks

Farmer walks up to adventurer: I used to be an adventurer like you, until I took an arrow to my cabbage. Adventurer kicks Farmer. Farmer: My Knee!

@lightwoven5326

Ай бұрын

As made famous in a theatre show, where they had a bad day, the blank firing gun didn't work, the rubber sword fell apart the antagonist kicked the opposite number who proclaimed ' The boot was poisoned' and collapsed dramatically. The play was saved by an over acting savoy cabbage. .😅. PS supposedly West Side Story haha.

Awesome video as always!

Awesome, the cabbages deserve it really. Cheers!

Once again, Toddy great work. You’re having just far too much fun

Another great video Tom I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up

that cabbage looked quite scary indeed, luckily it was taken care of

Would be fun to see the tiny crossbow design scaled up to something being impactful.

Never underestimate the savagely threatening cabbage.

Badass, as always!

So this test concludes that the ballista is the ultimate personal defence weapon when faced by angry cabbages at close range.

I loved the knee reference :)

Hey Tod, love your videos! Have you ever thought about filming an episode about the affect a wet/muddy field has on someones fighting ability when wearing full/heavy armour? I would love to understand just how disadvanted the French Nobles were in the Battle of Agincourt

I'd love to have that ballista if I had the money. I don't even have enough space in my yard to shoot it, but still. I'm honestly jealous of whoever ends up buying that beauty.

Lovely video.

Those wooden fletchs on the bolt look like they could create a lot of additional damage on both entry and exit from the body - nasty!

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

They do

Ballista maintenance looks eerily Harley-like.

Bro, that cabbage was badass.

8:16 I'm sure I speak for many by saying that I'd be very interested in seeing an early example of a locking folding blade. Even if you don't have an example to hand, if you just wanted to show a picture and talk about them, that would be a great video! Perhaps an idea for some time in the future. Like what kind of mechanism did they use? What are some of the earliest types like? What kind of blades and handles were used? That little thing you mentioned in passing sent my imagination wild.

I wonder how often those windlases get dryfired as the loading mechinism swings into the trigger by accident.

Hi mate, I am modding total war Warhammer 3, and making the weapons more realistic is 1 of my main goals, your videos are great my friend thankyou

Lovely.

epic as always

Using your own trebuchet as a workbench is wild

The first target "I was a adventurer like you. But then I got a bolt in my knee"

I like the tiny one.

I'd like to hear more about why bolts are harder to make than arrows? I would think the longer shaft of an arrow would be more difficult to craft.

"Cabbages are tougher than you think." Words of wisdom, if I say so myself.

Gracias

Great video

I would like to see a video of the difference in range between warbow and crossbow 😊

I think we can reach one very definite conclusion from this video... *that cabbage is dead.* Even if we have learnt nothing else here, we can definitively say that cabbage is no more. It has expired and gone to meet its maker. Fun video!

I had a look at a small crossbow about 2 feet long with the steel prod about 18 inches wide. Northwest Military Academy in Wisconsin. Most likely a windlass system to draw it as they estimated the draw with the 1-inch diameter string at 1,500-pound draw weight with 6-inch-long bolts that they had for it. Unknown age unfortunately as it was donated to the school by the family of a collector who had died who had been a student there long ago.

I'd love to see your take on a laminated horn crossbow arm.

I have a maille sleeveless shirt and its really cool. I found it in a house I rented with my son and his mother, the guy that lived there before us left a bunch of cool stuff behind including a 5 gallon pail full of honey from bees he kept and sone real handcuffs. The shirt used to fit me but there is absolutely no stretch and I have gotten bigger, maybe someone could adjust the size IDK it is still super cool and my son likes to wear it sometimes so its all good.

My Balestrino just arrived recently from your Workshop. It's a lot of fun to shoot. I wonder if it is the one you used here.

Nice video. Good that you noticed that you were filming against the sun and changed the position of the camera.

Very nice video. I was thinking about getting into cabbage-hunting myself given that I often see a pretty big group of these just sitting around my neighbours farm all day long. So the ballista is definitely the way to go for this job?

It’s funny how this kinda changes my perspective on old crossbows. I always thought they were a powerhouse and the draw weights make them sound insane. But I got a cheap 60lb compound bow about 12 years back (oh god I’m old) and we wanted to see what it could do. So I shot it through the door of an old ford falcon, and I mean through the door, it was right in there But these crossbows seem comparatively under powered, I’m guessing it has to do with the length of stroke/pull/whatever he mentioned

4:05 : "i was an adventurer like you once, until i took a balestrino bolt to the knee"

Still curious if there are some impact force sensors out there that you could adapt to measure the force of bolts hitting your targets. BTW it was nice to see you on a recent episode from History Hit on archery!

Jo Tod, you should try getting some balistic gel. In most EU countries it is dirt cheap, especially if you buy a whole lot. And on top, it would serve as a much better showcase what such a weapon does to a human. You could also cast your own balistic gel around organ alternatives or your traditional fruits / vegetables, which is usually even cheaper and even more representative, but come obviously with the draw back of extra work.

I just pulled some numbers off of google, but 45 ACP has around 559 joules 45 Magnum has around 1,772 joules 5.56×45mm NATO has around 1,797 joules, and 7.62×51mm NATO has around 3,346 joules The crossbows range from "a couple", "around about 12 joules", "around 45, maybe 50 joules", and higher for the windlass and the ballista

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

All true, but the momentum of an arrow or bolt is very high compared to its energy and doesn't tumble so in fact a 45J bolt will pass through 50cm of sand and still be dangerous, but it will stop all of the above rounds. Different beasts

@spencerwong1993

Ай бұрын

@@tods_workshop good point! I think what stood out to me was the difference in energy when going from a purely mechanical propellant to chemical propellants

@b.h.abbott-motley2427

Ай бұрын

Note that a reconstruction of a 15th-century horn crossbow spanned by a cranequin managed nearly 200 J at rather high velocity. It was made by Andreas Bichler. Yew warbows manage 100-150 J.

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

@@b.h.abbott-motley2427 yew long bows top out at around 130j for the monsters and Andreas’ horn sinew was 1200lbs from memory. But ye the performance was staggering; I also have a slight memory that it broke after a few shots so perhaps it was overdressed. Regardless he is a fabulous craftsman

@b.h.abbott-motley2427

Ай бұрын

@@tods_workshop The 150lb yew bow tested for *The Great Warbow* managed 146 J with a heavy arrow. A few historical yew warbows seem to have drawn at least 180lbs, so theoretically a well-made one with a heavy arrow could manage 175 J. Bichler's 1,200lb horn crossbows appears in multiple videos on here, so I don't think it broke. It did perform worse in the second test (168 J), because of how it was stored & the different weather conditions (mainly humidity has a negative effect, but also heat). So horn crossbows do have the disadvantage of changing with the weather & require care to keep them dry for best performance.

The ballista has always been my favourate seige weapon, got to fire one as a kid in Caerphilly castle, unfortunaly can't afford one right now.... in unrelated news my birthday is in about a month's time 😂😂😂

Tod: "Today we have a totally pointless and gratuitous..." Internet: "CROSSBOWS!"

Me in about 2min after I finish my lunch break: "Hey boss, we need a ballista...don't we?"

I'd really like to see how different a ballista with sinew bundles rather than rope preforms. Its probably an impossible thing given the cost of sinew and the amount of effort you need to just clean and separate the fibers, but given how strong the stuff is, I wonder how much better it would be. If they were using something as hard to procure and process as tendon, there must have been some significant advantage that it provided over rope, at least in dry weather.

Very fun video.

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

Thanks

So cool, fascinating. Is there a small crossbow, called a an arbalest?

ooo, 5:54 did you get that bodkin / 'modkin' point from RichardHeadLongbows? Used a bunch for arrow making they're great.

I would be interested in the evolution of trigger mechanisms, or how we got away from these huge levers.

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

Dig back and I have a few videos on them. Basically this set up was unchanged from around 300AD to 1500AD and then more complex triggers started to come in and by 1650 what we would see as a modern trigger system was here. The main reason is to stop the full load of the bow transferring onto the trigger lever, so a couple more stages and you are there

gonna buy it and install on my balcony to send a gift to all the drivers who are saving the world with honking below my windows

Watching that ballista shoot the cabbage was so satisfying. Did you ever do that video on fire arrows being historically accurate and viable or not?

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

Thanks and yes I have filmed the Fire Arrows film and it is just working through the edit

@genesisSOC

Ай бұрын

@@tods_workshop Fantastic, can't wait!

Hi Tod, really cool Video! ❤ Do you ever tried to do make a functional miniature crossbow? (At around 1/6 or 1/12 scale.)

Just a quick video about crossbows before bed, I thought. Now I‘m sitting here researching how ancient roman artillery is regulated where I live…

I found Tod's off hand comment of how crossbow bolts are more difficult to make then arrows.

What did Sir Cabbage do to you?

@Ptaaruonn

Ай бұрын

My cabbages!! 😁

Hey Tod, any chance of doing plate or brigandine test with the ballista before you sell it?

Anything about crossbows is never pointless or gratuitous! Hey that latchet is looking familiar 😁🤘♥️

@tods_workshop

Ай бұрын

Indeed! Thank you for the delay