At first I thought they had it rigged so that both bows apply force to the arrow. But on closer inspection I see that is not the case, which seems a lost opportunity. @PugJesus, do you think the image is accurate, or did the artist miss a key point?
Ah, I dug into this once for a reenactment/recreation build once!
What they do is loop the string around the front bow, and attach it to the rear bow. So instead of just pulling back, you pull both bows towards eachother, meaning you get (theoretically) double the power per centimeter of draw length. You can even do this with double “front” and “reverse” bows, looping multiple times, creating a long pull length with multiple short limbs.
Note that this DOES NOT work like this with the bowstring just wrapped around the wooden bow limbs as shown here. You absolutely need pulleys to make this work on anything you can use without a ratchet (or modern nylon low-friction bowstrings, and it’s still not great).
Interestingly enough, I believe both bows do apply force to the arrow. Chinese siege crossbows sometimes sport a similar setup. The fiber connection allows it to bend back with more force with both prods.
I think I can imagine how that works, but I’d really like to see it in action. Kinda clever, dem’ Cambodian Folks. Ah, one more question, when was the Cambodian Medieval period? Ah here it is…
“The mediaeval history of Cambodia starts roughly in the 10th century, when the Khmer Empire had established its strong foothold in Cambodia, and ended in the 19th century, when Vietnamese attacks started happening in Cambodia.”
https://thebettercambodia.com/the-mediaeval-history-of-cambodia/
I’m glad to see that at least one other person also has trouble spelling medival, mediaval, midiaeval, or whatever.
At first I thought they had it rigged so that both bows apply force to the arrow. But on closer inspection I see that is not the case, which seems a lost opportunity. @PugJesus, do you think the image is accurate, or did the artist miss a key point?
Ah, I dug into this once for a reenactment/recreation build once!
What they do is loop the string around the front bow, and attach it to the rear bow. So instead of just pulling back, you pull both bows towards eachother, meaning you get (theoretically) double the power per centimeter of draw length. You can even do this with double “front” and “reverse” bows, looping multiple times, creating a long pull length with multiple short limbs.
Note that this DOES NOT work like this with the bowstring just wrapped around the wooden bow limbs as shown here. You absolutely need pulleys to make this work on anything you can use without a ratchet (or modern nylon low-friction bowstrings, and it’s still not great).
Interestingly enough, I believe both bows do apply force to the arrow. Chinese siege crossbows sometimes sport a similar setup. The fiber connection allows it to bend back with more force with both prods.
I think I can imagine how that works, but I’d really like to see it in action. Kinda clever, dem’ Cambodian Folks. Ah, one more question, when was the Cambodian Medieval period? Ah here it is…
“The mediaeval history of Cambodia starts roughly in the 10th century, when the Khmer Empire had established its strong foothold in Cambodia, and ended in the 19th century, when Vietnamese attacks started happening in Cambodia.” https://thebettercambodia.com/the-mediaeval-history-of-cambodia/
I’m glad to see that at least one other person also has trouble spelling medival, mediaval, midiaeval, or whatever.
There even are modern bows applying that principle:
Most helpful!!