Ibex - A fitting name

Skarek · Post by **Skarek** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:12 am

I got happy when I noted the appearance of the Ibex crossbow a few weeks ago. I think it is very fitting that the Ibex has been reintroduced into the world of crossbows.

The life of Ibexes has gone hand in hand with crossbows from almost the beginning. Their horns has powered thousands of crossbows over hundreds of year. Sometime around the early 16th century the steel bow made the ibex horn bows obsolete. Now after 500 years of silence they have returned. A more fitting name could not have been found.

I'll end this post with an interesting article, Crossbow making in Venice during the 13th century (23 MB). This is an article about an old guild document from the crossbow makes guild. An as you might know Venice was famous for their horn bows...

Grizzly Adam · Post by **Grizzly Adam** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 6:02 am

I've always thought the construction of composite horn bows of any type is a fascinating study ... though I think the Japanese bamboo yumi is even more amazingly intricate in design.

Thanks for the link, Skarek.

wildwindom · Post by **wildwindom** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:20 am

Thats one cool looking animal!!

Stash · Post by **Stash** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:16 pm

I'll bet it was just because they couldn't think of anything else that had an "X" in it.

mikej · Post by **mikej** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 9:58 pm

cool lookin animal where are they found

kennisondan · Post by **kennisondan** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 11:24 pm

quite interesting sharek, I much rather discuss crossbows with you ... maybe another time we can discuss those other things.. LOL
I realize you are just interested..
so .. the ibex... was the horn set joined at the center to form one bow ? what a natural..
I am going to read more on that now..
thanks
dk

Skarek · Post by **Skarek** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 3:22 am

kennisondan wrote:quite interesting sharek, I much rather discuss crossbows with you ... maybe another time we can discuss those other things.. LOL
I realize you are just interested..

Yep, I'm interested. I like to discuss hard things to try to get an insight into how the world words.

Anyway. About the horn bows. Strips of horn was made and ribbed so they couldn't move against each other. The thing was then glued with bone or fish glue. After this had dried you added a lot of sinews that was glues in layers. Sometimes the back had a strip of wood. The concept is that the bending is done in the sinew layer and the compression of the bow is done in the horns. By this tecniche horn bows on around 1200 pounds could be produced.

Here you have a conceptual sketch what they look like iw you cut them in half (a quick translation by me from a Swedish picture).

Moxie · Post by **Moxie** » Sat Mar 07, 2009 10:01 am

First, let me say those horns opn that Ibex are something else. What an amazing animal.

Second, that article was very interesting to read. Enlightening to say the least.