Simon,
Unfortunately I'm not aware of any analyses/metallographic examinations of the steel used on crossbows, but would be very interested if you find any information on them. We have quite a good collection of crossbows, but no steel ones as early as the XIV or XV century.

One of our curators passed on an intriging piece of information. Apparantly the emperor Maximillian wrote in some detail about crossbows, but was unimpressed by steel bows - which were being used for hunting. According to the account, steel bows were thought to become brittle at the low temperatures of the high altitudes when hunting chamoise and more conventional,composite bows were preferred! Perhaps some metallurgical information here.

I shall send you a draft digital copy of my article on arrow and quarrel heads. If you need a copy of the published RAYB article please let me know your address.

One word of warning. In modern English there's a tendency to use the term "quarrel" exclusively for the projectiles used in crossbows and "arrows" for those shot from  bows. However, it would appear that historically a quarrel was any projectile with a square head.

Good luck with your research,
Dave

David Starley PhD
Science Officer

Royal Armouries Museum
Conservation Department
Armouries Drive
Leeds LS10 1LT
United Kingdom

Tel. 0044 (0) 220 1919
Fax 0044 (0) 220 1917


-----Original Message-----
From: Arch-Metals Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Simon PELLEQUER
Sent: 13 April 2005 00:25
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: metallographical analyses on crossbow steel bows


Dear members of this list,
I am a student in maîtrise of archaeology at the University of Rennes 2
(Brittany). My researchs deals with armour effectiveness against crossbow
bolts in the XIVth and XVth century. I collect datas about armours,
crossbows and quarrels, particularly metallographical datas. I use Alan
Williams'book "The knight and the blast furnace" and the maîtrise of N.
Giraud (Paris 1)"Etude de l'armement défensif métallique, à partir des
fouilles archéologiques en France du Nord du XIIIe au XVe siècle" for the
study of armour, and the analyses of bolts heads from the castle of
Rougemont, by P. Fluzin and V. Serdon (published in the Revue
d'Archéomètrie n°26, and in the V. Serdon's thèse). I recently discovered
that there was an article by D. Starley in the Royal Armour Yearbook 2000
which deals with arrows and quarrels heads, but I can't find it in France,
like other interesting english publications.
But the problem I have now is that I search datas about the metal used for
crossbows steel bows and I can't find any metallographical analyse of such
a bow, even a post- medieval one. Does anyone know where I could find this
information?
If you want any information about my researchs, do not hesitate to contact
me. Thanking you in advance for your help,
Simon PELLEQUER      [log in to unmask]


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