Wrist-mounted crossbows - Would they work in real life?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ต.ค. 2014
- Just some musings about the concept of a wrist crossbow, which we so often see in sci-fi, post-apocalyptic and fantasy movies as well as video games.
What would be the challenges and issues if one were to try to make a functional wrist bow? In the video I briefly explain the basics of how bows and crossbows work (poundage, draw length, powerstroke, kinetic energy) and why a crossbow needs to have a higher draw weight to yield the same damage potential as a bow.
The example of the historical assassin's crossbow replica comes from Tod's Stuff: www.todsstuff.co.uk/crossbows/...
His video demonstration: • Tod of todsstuff shoot...
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Skallagrim - ruining your fantasies since 2008.
And Lindybeige too ;)
yomauser Lindybeige is a meme after the MG34/42 video
😂
They main thing I can take away from these videos: If it was never used, it's probably for a reason.
pretty much but wrist crossbows were used.....kinda
wrist crossbow sounds like what a ninja would use because its kinda silent and its easily portable
This so much. And loads of people need to start realizing that.
These days, weaaboos and other people who talk garbage about weapons from their basement dwellings and never held a melee weapon in their life, tend to forget one crucial thing about the medieval times: These things used to decide over life and death on a daily basis. You can be sure that if something that peoples life depends on is constructed and doesn't work even sliiightly as well as "the other thing", it disappears pretty quickly.
D ninjas used a short blowgun that shots a thin dart; its more accurate and deadly than a wrist XBow
yomauser
Uhhhh "Ninjas used"...weeaboo comment detected.
Firstly: No one in history used a "short blowgun" because then your range is less than 5 meters before the dart goes wherever.
Secondly: That only works if the dart is poisoned, and if it hits exposed skin.
Thirdly: Poisoned darts were used for thousands of years by indigenous tribes in south american rainforests (Why do you think its called "Poison dart frog") for hunting, before Ninjas even became a thing.
wrist mounted rocketlauncher, is it practical?
Yes
+Kim Nielsen Kind of. Rockets at such a small scale can only carry a few grams of payload. You'd have an easier time with a breech-loaded shotgun cut down to size. Then you can load up flechette rounds to deal more damage.
+CheffBryan Flechettes are extraordinarily underpowered compared to normal buckshot as very few come out the muzzle straight.
+Kim Nielsen i'm sure your wrist or elbow will met troubles with it.
Filipe Amaral Then custom-load a SABOT-fired flechette? Then you can force all of the muzzle velocity into the projectile, and making them with a lead body and steel point will give more range.
Crossbows dont have pommels. Therefore theyre useless in combat
How else could you end him rightly?
You could try to shoot the pommel with a crossbow, could be devastating.
MightyPotato well, in close combat... but most archers just had swords or maces...
Catch_Me_If_You_Can you obviously don't get the reference lol
MightyPotato Some crossbows had pommels. You can check it out at todstuff channel.
I got the answer! A wrist-mounted trebuchet! Nobody would see that coming!
Wrist mounted ancient WMD's are where it's at!
i raise you with a wrist mounted dragon. if not in a fantasy context then how about a wrist mounted halberd?
Or both, why compromise?
Theodore Sloat I only have two wrists though :( Perhaps I can shuffle some stuff to my ankles.
Or get the wrist mounted wrist
Guts had a repeating crossbow on his CANNON ARM
So it must be real and practical.
Also. Would the avylin from dark souls be a cool idea? I think it looks cool.
u wot m8 th-cam.com/video/ly7bU_3EkH0/w-d-xo.html
Lemonparty.com
I dunno i just wanted to reply in a link too. Didn't really work.
But anyway, I'm not clicking that.
Stupid fucker.
u wot m8 It's a link to the six second mark of this video. You can just click to that point in the video if you want.
could you make a video about wrist-mounted fists? where they used in historical context? also is double wielding them a smart idea?
why would someone ever do that in combat? maybe if they were wearing some kind of protective covering on those wrist mounted fists, like metal or even hardened leather. It would hurt so bad to punch someone in metal or chain armor with just wrist mounted fists. Not so risky on an unarmored opponent, but using such a peculiar weapon would be very high profile and relatively low damage as opposed to putting some kind of blade in the mounted fist. But purely a mounted fist just isn't often as practical.
look on his channel for a google hangout video with swordsage, they discussed about both topics in there
The mechanical advantage and draw weight of wrist mounted fists largely depended on the wearer. By the edict of 1337, all young men were required to train in wrist mounted fists, but unforunately they were defeated in the battle of 1338 by sharp sticks.
Ishvallan .Newgate What, gauntlets?
none more lethal that wrist mounted wrist...more wirst to win.
Wrist-mounted frag grenade?
Not launcher, straight up pin grenade
And dear god, it actually exists... Oh, vidjagames :/
fly1ngG0PHER how about a wrist mounted nuke launcher. Seems legit
alah akbar
No just run at them while holding a live frag
@@starkiller9789 fallout has a scales up version of that. Not sure if you were referring to that, but, I would like to see it happen either way
Unfortunately, most cool-looking things in video games and movies these days are very impractical.
To me the coolest things are ordinary. Something doesn't have to be unusual to be a fascinating weapon.
HisRoyalCarlness I suppose you have got a point there. But I was just saying, a wrist-mounted crossbow would be quite cool... If it was feasible.
As cool and stylish a weapon might be, if it doen't have a benefit over it's common counterpart it is basically the same weapon, only more fancy. And if you trade funtion for style it is basically a useless weapon.
Practicality is the antithesis of style and flair.
mmmh
Poison delivery. Not immediately lethal.
That could work.
Combine it with some sort of syringe mechanism so the arrow will inject the poison upon impact and boom, great asassin's weapon back when there wasn't much of antidotes against poisons. If the target isn't killed by the arrow, which is higely likely to be the case, the poison is likely to kill or at the very least incapacitate said target for a while.
a modified umbrella or cane would be more practical
Alex Sitaras Points for style.
Aim for the neck. If the poison gets in the jugular, there's no getting it out. It'll spread through the body in a matter of seconds.
I think that there are more practical ways to fire a poison dart than having a crossbow strapped to your wrist. Darts don't require much force, other than arrows that are solely dependant on force to do damage.
A common spring would be enough, really.
Another advantage of just using a little crossbow (or a dagger in his "assassin's creed" video) is that it can be thrown away after use, and you're not stuck wearing "hey I'm an assassin" evidence
+GenericFakeName regular crossbows can't be thrown away?
Devron Sijmons If you scroll up you'll see a video about wrist-mounted crossbows.
the fundamental flaw in this video's logic is that its being compared with the uses and purposes of a full sized bow or crossbow. A wrist mounted projectile weapon of any kind needs to be compared with something like throwing knives. As in, can it do decent damage to an UNARMORED target from across the room. It does not need the same kind of force to travel 20 feet and puncture a throat.
Exactly, it can be used on soft parts of the body: neck, eyes etc. and just to incapacitate them
Very good comment. I would compare the usefulness to a Deringer, for close range, it should be useful.
I consider them more of a distraction thing
"It is cool stuff. No Daud"
Har
Upon playing AC Unity, I have learned that the crossbow isn't really a crossbow at all. The Phantom Blade simply launches a blade at the target with considerably less force than a crossbow. Most kills can only be made with headshots, simply really any blade being shot into your neck is going to probably kill you. Body shots with the Phantom Blade do almost no damage, and it's often more effective to use the pistol in that case
I actually did create a comic book character who uses a similar weapon akin to a wrist-mounted crossbow, but it's actually a nail gun that fires pins with pressurized air blasts via extendable "clamp" triggers. To add to that; the pins it fires are poisoned with his own blood (his actual superpower is that his blood was made venomous), which is extracted from his bone marrow via polypropylene filaments.
that my friend is awesome!
Vincent Macary Thanks! I have several others. :)
NeoDragonCount is it an online comic? If so could you give me a link?
Vincent Macary Sadly no. I kind of started planning a comic universe of my own since I got so pissed off at Marvel and D.C. and I don't have enough confidence in my skills as a visual artist to actually draw those things. Rather I'm more into writing the scripts and maybe I might some day find someone to pitch the ideas to.
My very first script for the comic Kalma: Angel of Death was completed for my final draft of an extensive script project at University (got the highest grade of the entire class) and is so far the only completed script for a full comic book.
NeoDragonCount great. Everyone's gotta start some were. Just do what you want and remember have fun.
I love the fact that you always illustrate with some kind of picture from the period you are talking about. Keep up the good work Skall!
Wrist mounted crossbows. i believe they can be done decently well. the actual bow part, if it was rotated without folding together, that could very easily deal with both concealing it and eliminating a weak point. that could also serve to nock the string aswell, provided the turning mechinism is strong enough.
Learning how to throw knives and then hiding a couple in your sleeve would make you much more effective than with that slow and cumbersome apparatus. I saw some people being able to pull off 5 consecutive throws in a very short space of time all hitting the target from an impressive distance. You'd have to to practice a lot but hey, assassins spend their life training.
I'm with ya on that, throwing knives are far more impressive and cooler.
I would rather carry heavy rocks than throwing knives, heavy rocks are cheaper and just as deadly.
Mason Munts But heavy rocks are again, heavy, cumbersome, and not as concealable.
Mason Munts indeed xD
Mason Munts
Just imagine playing a game like Assassins Creed and throwing boulders at people rather than knives.
in Terry Pratchet's Disk World book The Fifth Elephant there is a somewhat similar weapon but not wrist mounted. It's basically a spring powered gun with a bolt instead of a bullet. Even in his book it's dismissed for it's "one-shot" use, but countered with "it's the one shot that they don't know u have"(or something like that). Basically u put the bolt in the barrel, push it against something immovable and put all ur weight into it until u here a click.
I'd quite like to know how a Chu No Ku works. Also medieval English longbow archers used to draw at 100lb to 150lb. It meant they could get amazing distance and impact. However the archers were usually deformed by the weight.
Is there a wrist mounted pommel thrower? :3
I want so see that. in fact, I want to make one
0:30. I have a simpler explanation for a bow/crossbow. It's a super slingshot.
4:38 I find it kinda fun to imagine cranking to the sound of "pop goes the weasel"
During WWII, OSS concocted small crossbows the size of a large pistol to take out sentries silently. To compensate for their size, they used powerful elastic bands and were more like slingshots than crossbows. Though, they were never officially used, they had decent results in testing.
What about wrist mounted pommels?
Are they practical?
He made a vid about hidden blades
+Mary Christine He's not talking about blades. He clearly said pommel. So you can smite your enemies justly.
Very practical, however by international law it is illegal
To late. Someone already commented about that.
my neighbor's cat told me he wanted a good death
End him rightly!
+twan duvigneau take that pommel off that wrist hand crossbow as fast as you can!
As always, I enjoy your pragmatic approach to weapon concepts. The videos you make are educational and entertaining.
Great video! I found myself asking just this question not too long ago, and I appreciate you giving the full reasons for why it might work and the complications and issues that go into it. Greatly appreciate that.
Skellagrim, are you familiar with a manga called Berserk? What do you think of the automatic crossbow that the main character attaches to his prosthetic arm?
+Anon Ymous
I knew I would find a fellow Berserk fan here. Imagine if Godo forged a wrist-mounted pommel thrower for Guts!
I guess Rickert'd do it.
no
fucked gplus yes
*_\/\/_* E E A B -OO-
Small crossbows like modern pistol crossbows are potentially lethal or at least very dangerous. Some models do get decent (lol) speeds up to 180 fps and are powerfull enough to kill small game. Attaching that to your forearm is unpractical and would be extremely silly but cocking is not that hard.
fps is a speed?
***** Feet Per Second.
Fps is speed? Shooting on a game?
Cocking might not be hard if you have both arms available, but if that thing is fixed on one of your arms the whole process get's a lot more unhandy and complicated. It could work but like Skallagrim said, you could load it way faster and will likely be more precise if you just hold that thing in your hand.
This crossbow can run the latest arrows at 1080p 120 fps!
Skallagrim makes all this research, studying, practicing and experimenting seem so fascinating. Maybe I should pick it up one day.
You are correct in pointing out the problems regrading the draw weights needed for crossbows. However there are historical examples of crossbows with very low draw weights being commonly used for a long period.
Specifically the Chinese repeating crossbow called the Zhuge Nu (often horrifically transliterated as "Chu Ko Nu" in the west). These were very low draw weight usually not more than about 20 - 30lbs. As expected of something with that draw weight they did not have impressive penetration or range. The best ones were said to be able to shoot over 130 meters but their actual effective range was probably about a quarter of that.
They were also poisoned, a Ming manual suggests the use of "tiger killing poison" which was said to be extremely deadly and extremely fast acting. According to the manual if you are able to so much as scratch them they will be disabled almost immediately and die soon after. What almost immediately is in actual time is anyone's guess.
But these weapons were commonly used from the 3rd century B.C up until around 1900.
You mentioned poison and as far as I can see there would be no problem with that. Yes carrying sharp poisoned arrows has risks, but it was commonly done in history. As we are talking about a weapon that is supposed to be used by assassins thee is no real reason for them to not use poison.
Either way it is a fictional weapon, but I thought I would point that there is a historical precedent for the regular use of very low draw weight crossbows with poisoned quarrels.
1. Spiderman seems to have it all worked out.
2. Crossbows are weaker than bows? Damn Dawnguard misled me again.
3. If crossbows seem to be so ineffective compared to regular bows, how come they've become so popular? From what I gather, bows are faster, deliver more damage and travel over larger distances
Psycho You misunderstood what I was saying. Crossbows need to have a higher draw weight than bows to achieve the same result. However, the heaviest crossbow is far more powerful than the strongest bow.
Stupid of me. DRAW weight. I thought body weight (which doesn't even makes sense, exdept for less recoil maybe). Forget it. I'm never gonna get it right. Moving on...
+Skallagrim How powerful do you think the crossbows in Skyrim should be, see that they are cocked while held in one hand?
Tom P
In short? Laughably weak.
I think one possible reason for the popularity of the crossbow is that it is easier to aim than a bow (?)
I don't get why they chose a wrist crossbow over a wrist gun. A wrist gun seem way more effective...
A crossbow is silent , a gun isn't ( especially not in the 1700s )
Recoil, it will throw your aim off horribly
in a sword fight, 5 meters really?
As far as i know its ment as distraction if you kill your target its just a bonus
shiroOmaji Then what's the point? Just throw a rock if you want a distraction
There is no better thing after a long day of hard work to sit down and watch one of your videos Skall ;)
great demonstration in the video and very informative. i liked your editing and effects as well
Skallagrim: The guy you watch if you want to know that fantasy is fantasy and doesn't work in real life.
See also: killjoy.
See also: Should be a consultant. Why is he not a consultant?
I'll be an annoying viewer and ask you to make a video on the assassin's creed hidden blade. It's basically the same principle as the wrist-bow concept.
Actually, the hidden blade is pretty legit. But yeah, I want to hear his opinion too.
I think that thing would work pretty well. There is no major flaw that stikes me even though it is just a fancy, more complicated dagger with a trigger mechanism that you have to work out.
Geographus666 (This is theoretical, I am in highschool so not sure if it'd work) I could possibly draw up a diagram of how the hidden blade would work. It would have to be manually re-loaded but… still
well, same with the wrist crossbow you CAN make it work. but a simple dagger can be hidden and deployed as easily and you can do much more with a dagger in your hand rather than strapped to your wrist
it could work, but people used to check sleeves for hidden daggers, so the wristblade would be discovered in a situation that they were being checked for. They also rely on quick quiet kills, and 1 stab isn't usually lethal, and definitely not instant quiet kills all the time. And trying to parry with them like they do in the game would likely break the mechanism more times than actually helping you to stop the blade. There are reasons we didn't find these machines historically, but we did see creatively hidden daggers/knives for subtle killing.
Good video. I had not thought much about the draw length vs draw weight before, so I certainly got a better understandig from this.
The explanations of the bow mechanics alone is worth the watch. :D
is there a professional term for that kind of bow? kinda looks like a mongolian bow they shoot from horseback
Yagami Banksy It's a horsebow. This particular design is of Scythian origin.
i see, thx for responding :) i must say i admire your fascination for and collection of weapons :D watching your videos was a reminder to myself to get me a sword and a bow :) cool videos
Yagami Banksy I believe there called a composite bows
Jung Choi I think composite means it's made from layering composite materials.
Yagami Banksy But more importantly, where can I get one?
For me, a wrist-crosbow would serve as a form of missdirection or distraction in a close encounter fight, not a ranged alternative.
It would be a 1-time, use thing to try and decisivly win a encounter.
Typicaly, it would serve the same purposue as throwing stars/knives.
For those that don't know, the primary basics of these light throwing weapons were not meant to cause extream harm or deth of oponents.
They were meant to distract the enemy by causing minor nuisance wounds, or to make them flinch and create an opening.
With a small crosbow attatched to the arm, it would be used to try and take a pot-shot of my oponents face in hopes of potentialy hitting his eyes, or maybe just have him freakout by the incomnig projectile to overeact and make himself vurnable for a qucik strike with a sword. :P
Just about to comment that.
+Ebithril Yeah, maybe use it to distract enemies when trying to sneak past them. You could use it to shoot a barrel behind them and make a noise so you can run past the enemy.
Ice Blade Hehe! Well, that is an idea aswell! XD
But, if the object was stealth, then I wouldn't use a wrist mounted crossbow for that! :P
I mean, the crossbow would make some noice itself.
Not to mention, when the person you are distracting gets to the barrel and see a fucking arrow imbeded in it, I am sure he would atleast raise alertness to a possible intruder! XD
Better to just use a rock or something then. :P
Ebithril Now that I think of it, noise wouldn't be the best in stealth. If he sees a rock was thrown, he'd definitely tell somebody that he has concerns of an intruder throwing a rock to distract him. I think it'd work best by putting some poison on the end and taking out ranged enemies and silently as possible. They might also find a tiny arrow in their neck and won't be too concerned but definitely worried about intruders coming in to attack them, which by that time you'd be gone.
"What gives the bow its UMPH"
description 10/10, well done
I found this to be very informative, well organised and entertaining. Just so you know.
For me regular crossbow is more cool than wrist crossbow.
Well OSS and SOE used crossbows for silent assassinations in world war 2. They used Rubber bands instead
This reminds me of ballistic knife. Its taking something which just has too many problems to start with for something under powered and gimmicky. Why would you take something that works and make it "cooler" but less efficient
Still, it is a cool idea. :P
Really cool videos! Please, continue doing such a great job!
It's kinda funny when you reallize that just by knowing some basic physics stuff you could figure out how unreallistic some of those videogame/movie weapons are... I think average people are just too lazy to think about that...
There are two more problems:
1) *Strengh on paper means nothing.* The question is how fast the spring can relaxe. Steel is much worse than wood/horn/tendons. Thus the medieval crossbows needed even higher draweights (I believe a modern crossbow of the same performance requires only 1/3 of the drawweight)
2) The kinetic energy is m/2*v^2; it is difficult do increase the projectile speed, thus the bolts need to be *as heavy as possible* (like early handguns, which had 24mm lead balls instead of 9mm).
PS: if you ever intend on building an assassins sleave-launcher: use pressurised air or powerful rubber bands for poison darts. Both have the advantage of not using a bow, that would stick out.
Why even bother with a bow? Why not use some kind of spring mechanism? It would be smaller and easier to hide
or something filled with an explosive that propels a small piece of metal at almost the speed of sound
a bow is basically a spring
Marko Ahonen Oh yes , i did not think of that.
I was referring something more medieval and that would still be useful as an assassin weapon
spring mechanisms are extremely weak
Uryendel Yes but as the man said it would get in the way. I spring would not. Im not sure when kind of springs were around in medieval times but overall a spring could do the work of the bow without it being in the way.
No point in making such a small crossbow if you couldn't kill someone in one shot with a normal bolt. Poisoning the bolt would also be pointless as well because you could just use a blow dart for that which is much smaller and lighter usually
InDeepPudding pointless pun unintended loool
Great video!! As always!
Dang! Love to watch you draw that bow!
Quite frankly, it seems like if you were really attached to a wrist mounted device for stealthy assassinations, it would make much more sense to use an air-powered pneumatic launcher. This avoids all the issues of trying to cram enough mechanical advantage into a wrist mounted device, and needs nothing more than a barrel connected to a reservoir tank you could wear under a coat. Seems much more practical, really.
or just a glock.
what if it was spring powdered?
+Brandon C The physics is identical, however that is notheless a good idea, probably smaller width wise. Although my guess is that it would wear out more quickly, reloading mechanism might be sligthly more of a pain to make, and maybe a spring with such a high K constant is hard to find...
Point is, though, the main problem which is reloading is still there, and will take the same amount of effort/time.
Brandon C Might as well be paper spring powered
Also remember that when you use a crossbow that you dont need your foot to reload it (as Skall showed us in the pic) you can not jog around while you reload it because...ahh..hhmm...because you loose stamina ..yeah.the speed of your feet is related to the reload...
This was your Dawnguard instructor..thank you very very much :)
thanks for the ballestrino!
What do you think is more effective a English long bow or a compound bow the same size?
Depends on what the compound bow is made of.
amarplaysgames Both longbows and compound bows can have a wide variety of draw weights, so that's not enough information to make any statement.
In fact, welsh (english) bow is actualy not as mch amazing as it seems. It takes a lot of strenght to use that, but its still not that much strong. So if you want to have really awesome bow, look for japenese one. Its technicaly hard to shot, but its worth it.
Krystof Mraz No. Japanese bows are not that impressive, in fact they're pretty damn weak.
I don't even know why you'd think that unless you're some sort of weaboo.
Krystof Mraz "It takes a lot of strenght to use that, but its still not that much strong"
That makes no sense. Longbows found on the Mary Rose had 150 pound draw weights and could punch through breastplates at short distances. That is a very strong bow by any standard.
WristBow Mk II (100% selfmade from scratch)
Probably not the most effective of weapons but I wouldn't want to get hit with that.
NowhereManForever Yeah, the draw weight on that one has got to be pretty meager. You probably wouldn't want to get hit with a hand-thrown rock either. :)
Probably. I just like the idea of it because I like the mechanics of it and it looks badass even though it's probably the least efficient solution in any scenario where you could use it.
Doesn't count, it uses modern materials. :P
Usammity what do you mean it doesn't count?
***** Honestly, shoot a well sharpened bolt into someones neck with that thing, and they'd be done. An assassin wouldn't shoot for center mass anyways. The victim being able to call for help after being shot would not be ideal. Just a theory
EDIT: Wasn't talking about that. Assumed that video was one i'd already seen. some really young kid made another wrist mounted crossbow that shot actual bolts with steel tipped heads, which looked a lot more deadly.
Love your final comment - "regardless, it is cool stuff" haha
I just asked a similar question on one of your other videos. :) Didn't know you already addressed this. Thanks :)
I actually think a small crossbow like that would be quite effective if you used bolts with obsidian tips, and *then* poisoned the bolt. If the bolt fully penetrates the flesh, the tip breaks apart inside of the body and begins tearing through the inside of the body while also spreading the poison. If the tip fails to fully penetrate, then you still have the poison on the tip to do the work.
how about repeating crossbow from manga/anime Berserk? it's bases from chinese repeating crossbow. It seems more practical to me
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeating_crossbow
Samurai Jack...I just remembered that that's an actual thing...:-D childhood memories!!!
It was really used in battles so it should be more ore les usable....
Correct me if I am wrong, but weren't those tremendously low power and inaccurate because of the stance you had to take while firing?
that's the thing, that's why maybe you could mount it on your hand so it could give much more comfort and accuracy. aside from low power issue, this maybe could be solve from material/design perspective. at least it's repeating not single shot :) . . .
oh this brings back memories
First thing that comes to mind is Berserk and Gut's crossbow that was part of his prosthetic arm. I also remember there was a villain in that series named Adon who used one, but the bolts it fired were laced with poison (and he used them as sneak attacks when the opponent thought he was going to submit). I don't think they'd work for anything other than style, but when poison gets involved, I won't necessarily knock on lethality.
Still, there are better choices.
Check out inverted/reverse draw crossbows. The design allow for longer string/bolt travel when compared to similarly sized traditional crossbows. The design even pulls the limb inward when cocked making it more concealable and easier to wield. Just a thought on this theoretical concept.
Berserk. Nuff said.
Next we have arm cannons
BERSERK!
It actually kinda makes sense in Berserk. For one thing, Guts is a fucking huge and muscular dude (God's sake he swings a 300 lb sword) also, the bow wouldn't put any tension on his joints because it's strapped to his artificial arm
And it's actually a full-sized repeater crossbow, not a compact wrist-mounted mini-crossbow.
dude it's more like a rapid fire crossbow that draws itself and fires at crazy speeds, not really something that was possible with medieval tech. But then again a hunk of iron as a sword isn't also thay realistic.
I'm glad someone else had Guts in mind during this video
same
Easiest way to overcome most of these drawbacks is to replace the crossbar and sting assembly with a more sling-shot like setup. elastic or springs that are easier to draw, less clunky, and allow for a draw all the way up to your elbow. I used to make them out of office supplies and random stuff I found around the house when I was younger.
Wrist crossbows would be great for shooting lines for tree climbing.
If you've never done it, typically you use a sling-shot to shoot a pebble tied to a bit of fishing line over a branch, then you use that to pull a larger load-bearing rope you can actually climb. There's no need for power, accuracy, or range when you're aming over a branch, but keeping the hand free and the shooting device firmly attached to your hand is potentially VERY handy.
Here is a video of a homemade version of the Phantom Blade from Assassin's Creed Unity WITH a working folding crossbow. It's made from just wood pieces, not even metal, and it works perfectly fine. Like I said on another video, not trying to be "that guy". Just showing what I have seen.
Assassin's Creed Unity Phantom Blade (Prototype A) Designed by ImDeePain Reborn
Dude the bolt the shot out of that bow could not even go through a piece of cardboard. If something like that was strong enough to be a weapon it would need to be huge or it would simply break even if it were made of steel.
Okay first, I believe cutting and piercing cardboard is tougher than cutting or piercing skin, so you cant really make that assumption. Also if you watch the video where he makes this device, the materials that he uses are similar to balsa wood, which is thin, flexible, and most of all BRITTLE. If something that could snapped easier than a pencil can produce an effect like this, then imagine what proper engineering with durable metal materials could produce. Especially considering the differing amount of tension that can be produced and resisted merely by changing the materials. Also, size and force needed must be to scale. Higher does not always mean better,
jamzacez "thin, flexible, and most of all BRITTLE" - "Flexible" and "brittle" are almost opposites.
"I believe cutting and piercing cardboard is tougher than cutting or piercing skin" - If you are using poisoned projectiles against naked people at a short distance, that's perfectly fine.
"Especially considering the differing amount of tension that can be produced and resisted merely by changing the materials." - You still have to crank the damn thing by hand. And if you want more power coming out of it, you have to put more power into cranking it. You're pretty much still gonna have trouble getting any lethal potential without poison, even at short range.
Also, the replica this guy build seems to be a more practical version, the one shown in the assassins creed unity trailer is even more impractical. I mean, it draws itself with what seems to be a spring loaded mechanism... if the spring is strong enough to draw the crossbow, why not shoot the bolt with it in the first place?
***** Flexible and brittle sound like they are two different things but they aren't. Rubber is flexible but doesn't break. The wood he is using is flexible, but breaks. Maybe I should have worded it differently, but the point is the same. Also, np you don't have to "crank" it. A real crossbow isn't cranked, you just pull the string back, and if you are using steal parts and cable you can get a much higher tensile strength that you can on the model built here.
jamzacez Of course flexible and brittle are two different things. A material is brittle if, when subjected to stress, it breaks without significant deformation. Flexibility is the ability of a material to deform elastically and return to its original shape when the applied stress is removed. Not only that, but they are mutually exclusive. A material with high brittleness has a low flexibility and vice-versa.
Ok maybe crank isn't the right word, what I meant is draw or span the bow by hand. A more powerful bow is harder to span. And for such a small crossbow with such a short draw, even if you crank up the draw weight to 300lb , you're still not gonna get a high enough energy out of a tiny projectile. Not enough to be able to count on its lethality. Then you need a mechanism to span it because there's no way you can pull even close to 300lb with one hand. The balestrino's screw jack is pretty effective and small, but even so, there's the extra weight and space taken up by the mechanism.
Just saying lots of people HAVE made a wrist crossbow, like man at arms with their Phantom Blade.... Sooooo.....
+Andrea Adkins
Soooo... what? That doesn't mean it would be effective.
+Skallagrim it shoots small nails upto 30 feet. Again its highly inneffective and can only pierce soda cans, watermelon or cardboard. Wont do any significant damage to a human
+nordac parallax poison.
it wouldn't kill them instantly
+nordac parallax neither would a normal crossbow bolt.
In the Mad Max series the wrist mounted crossbows were used as a last line of defense or an offensive option for the drivers of the vehicles since they can only spare one hand. That is the most effective use for wrist mounted crossbow's I have seen.
great video
Meanwhile Daud, Corvo, and Arno Dorian are crying in the corner.
If you look at the Welrod of World War II fame, it was designed so that the magazine was the grip and it could be taken out to allow you to stuff a Welrod with one shot up your sleeve. Some gun-smithing manuals suggest working on it as a low-end project and even suggest putting on a laser sight for extra accuracy.
I just rewatched this video and I got some ideas. with modern materials the weak points could be neglected, and that can be used for cocking faster. That would be a point for an assassin, specially since youre probably looking at unarmored targets at mid range, you dont need a war bow poundage, otherwise just use an actual war bow from a distance. Another way it could be imrpoved is by making it some sort of compound version of it.
I would say the main point would be surprise and concealment
i could see a concealed version with 2 bows (to split the draw weight) and could use the motion of the opening to draw it back (depending on how its designed) or having the bows fold up so the draw motion would be in the opposite direction than the way the joints bend, helping to stabalize the joints slightly
This just reminded me that experimental "weapon" wristed-mounted with a mini-flamethrower. Some small container with fossile fuel or flammable oil, a pressure valve connected to a pressure vessel that would "load" some air-pressing to the main pipe, protected by an isolating material, to throw up. The main problem exists on the starting igniting spark, because installing a lighter, or something that could start ignition would consume the remaining fuel (what was too limited), or would be time losing unpractical, being intented for premeditated accurated short attacks, and not defensive cases.
If you design it to fold out when you use it, you might as well design it so folding out is the entire spring mechanism used to fire it. Rather than making it bow as you draw it, you make it fold in half, and once it's loaded, you can hide it under your sleeve. This does have the drawbacks of having to unhide it before you can fire, and that if you keep a crossbow loaded too long it will get weak.
You could try to just make it small enough to fit in your sleeve, but if you're going for stealth, it's easy to make one that you hide under your shirt.
I think a wrist mounted projectile device that used springs or elastic held in place by a catch and trigger would be a better design. If shooting small bolts of some kind from a groove or tube the force would not be that great but could certainly pierce skin and cause injury. Since it would be a more compact design you might even have two or three bolt tubes mounted together on the same wrist device. Seems like a secondary weapon to cause distraction to or deter an aggressor. I suppose it could also be loaded with tranquilizer darts which would give you more options.
I actually did see a kid here on youtube who made one that was mounted to his wrist and it worked surprisingly well. Granted it didnt have as great of range or accuracy as a normal one would, but it was still very mpressive for something that isnt really supposed to work.
I actually purchased a crossbow pistol with a draw mechanism styled like a goat's foot lever. It may not seem like much, but when it's firing aluminum tipped, metal bolts, it's extremely deadly and fairly accurate for something of its size. It's not extremely small.. about the length of an average forearm and I could see something of its size being strapped to some sort of bracer.
Skall looking out for cats. Thanks man, the internet needs guys like you. Entertaining video! Thanks for replacing video game music.
Can you imagine a wrist mounted crossbow where the strings pulled back by a sort of winch device and it's triggered not by something on the inside of the hand, but like they do with those wrist cuffs that have lazers on them (like leela from Futurama) where the stance sort of has the trigger hand supporting the weapon hand?
Funnily enough I heard about this assassin crossbow at Spring War on the weekend. I was told that it was designed to go through an unarmoured target's neck and it WAS, in point of fact, commonly poisoned. Mean stuff.
Not to mention there are other options like a traditional sling, a wrist supported catapult, or even a spring-stick. I guess there is small range advantage over some of those with a cross bow though.
Curiously, egyptians had a wrist dart slingshot who were pretty effective (since few egyptians wear pretty light/leather armor and most none at all). They also repelled mounting, it was considered ridiculous and unholy (in a religion predominant society), that's why they used the chariot, They're strategy was basically one soldier lead the chariot (and they had a enourmous variation of comands for the "ins" and "outs") and the other fires with the slinghot. When they ran out of darts, they just draw the swords or spears and change the tactics. If you seek some history in the unification of Ancient Egypt and the hyksos invasions who caused it you'll see a lot of these strategies and it's good and bad things. Thanks for the review, though!
what if they had a extendable limbs on the bow? like when you wanted to use it, you can flip out the limbs and retract them when you were done using it. before you open the bow up, the bow string can be place into the arrow retention fairly loose. then when it folds open you would just have to cock it back far enough, (possibly the same way tod of toddstuff did it)
Weakpoints....
It could work, if you don't consider the 'weakpoint' to be simply attached to the device.
You could also create a mechanism to 'grip' said weakpoints with your fist to help aid it, or hold it up, the human hand can have a very strong grip from training.
If you are using one of these, your goal isn't likely to snipe anything further than 25 meters away since you can't aim it's sight properly.
In fact, I have one idea: Like a slingshot, except the drawing portion is with your left hand, pulling a wire that goes over the hand where the device is. When you pull that wire, it uses a pulley system to draw the bow back, letting go of the wire can shoot it. These require a lot of complicated mechanical integration, but it also makes it less reliable if this is built using older dated tools.
Lets say there is a ring with a string attached to it, and it hangs above the backside of your hand. You grab it with your left hand, pull it, and you will put pressure on the device. Either you let go to fire, or you design it to 'lock' after pulling a certain level of force, you can install a trigger into another portion of the device, or near your wrist.
While it MAY just be a little gadget, the ballastrino looks like a lot of fun to just shoot cans with and stuff. It's an executive toy for the 16th century, but it's a COOL executive toy from the 16th century.
In Mad Max two for instance, it's used by the motorcycle gangs, which I'd call the modern equivalent of mounted archery, and they need something that's small and compact because theres not a lot of room, especially with two to a bike, and they need their hands free so they can hold on.
With that narrow margin, I can see a use for it.
on the sneaky, under the sleeve option, what about a reverse draw crossbow, the limbs could be connected through the body to have a strong join (so it would be one structure), and braces a few inches up to create pivot points. that might work.
Awesome vid.
i subscribed to you like 2 weeks ago and im watchin so many videos of you... i like how you're approaching those stuff :D
and i am playin Assassins Creed atm (all of em) because theres a new one coming out soon so i want to know the storyline again so i understand whats happening in the new one hahah :D
I think for a short range attack, a blow gun with poisonous dart is more practical. But for a close up combat, a wrist crossbow can give you a lot of advantage by injuring opponent's critical parts (like neck, wrist, eyes), or even forcing opponent to give up good posture means a lot in dead or alive fight. So, it doesn't have to be as strong as regular crossbow(which is designed to penetrate armor), and it travels less distance, it may just be plausible. But in any case, a hidden dart gun launched by spring seems better fit for the kob.
I think this would be practical for certain forms of cavalry, allowing the rider to have an easily accessible ranged weapon, while also holding the reigns and a weapon such as a lance or shield
also, wouldn't a reverse draw crossbow be much more compact and managable
Skallagrim nailed it. And the point of a wrist-mounted crossbow is that it is low-tech. Like in Mad Max II, only Humungus and Mad Max have a gun, but Wez has an armbow, and the compound is defended with a giant crossbow. So steam-powered or pneumatic cocking devices don't make sense, except in a steampunk fantasy world where gunpowder surprisingly has not yet been invented or is unobtainable for some. Sill, we all want one (don't we?), or we wouldn't watch Skallgrim's channel and blather away here!
It'd be cool if in the future you did one of these going into detail on claw-type weapons, like Freddy Krueger, Wolverine, Catwoman, etc.
My friends and I designed but did not build a model for a wrist xbow. One was a physicist and another was studying engineering, so we had the math and design components. Skallagrim was correct, it would be very weak against any armor, but would pierce flesh and cloth just fine. It had a very limited range of less than 30 feet so was only effective at close range. After 30 feet, its strength and accuracy dropped off sharpely. We used a flexible steel recurve, that would fold in two and lock in place. The draw strength was from a single action goat lever attatched. The entire mechanism was on a steel bracer that went from just below the wrist to just above the elbow.
Adding to your Poison comment. One would believe that the most effective use of a bow that has very little distance in the power stroke would be indeed to use Poison. If you only have one shot and it takes a long time to reload it while potentially being attacked, it's not possible. Though most depictions of Wristbows are precision shots (jugular for example) or against unarmed targets.
The counterpoint to using them is very little to no penetration, one reason Crossbows were more popular was the power of a English Long but easier to use by common soldiers. Some of smallest conventional crossbow I know of are for small game of which the Cobra Self-Loading is one. It is a pistol-grip mounted mini-crossbow and has a 50-80lb draw, not something that's going to do too much damage to a large creature like a human.
I would say using Poison or being a very precise shot with say a Barbed tip that would cause severe ripping when removed hastily (as a victim may try) would be the only way to make Wristbows and effective(ish) weapon. Even then only for a surprise shot followed by more conventional weapon usage such as a dagger, axe or sword.
I have seen a wrists mounted assassins cross bow in the Leeds armoury which is a huge wepons museum in England