Tod is like the rural uncle I always dreamed of having

Me: *with over 2000 videos in my watch later playlist sees Todd has a new video out* Me: "Not a moment to waste! I'm watching this now!"

Tod from Tod's Workshop is on holiday, it's only Tod Cutler today it seems

I gotta be honest im waiting for the one video where the Gopro meets a type 7 needle bodkin.

Tod, I hope to drop you a line regarding information I've been compiling on this subject, but just had to comment to say how pleased and excited I am having watched this. I think we're all geared toward the 'how powerful can it get' / 'how much damage can it do' and 'what could this awesome armour protect from' that our modern texts and videos always slant toward the late and post-medieval periods and top class equipment. This really is a beginning of developing a greater understanding of medieval military archery and I cannot wait for the insights we'll gain from what you test. Thanks for the great work you've done and keep on! Tim

I absolutely love the evolution of this series from inception. It's been really educational and fun to watch you testing things out. I really enjoy the continuing train of thought and research.

Mail and weaker bows! The moment I alone been waiting for... Will you will list the mail details (diameter, width and thickness for both wire and punched, rivet style, manufacturer, material, etc)? Good looks tod

Tod"s enthusiasm is contagious. You have to love this living history science. Tod you ask the questions we didnt know how to. I love this stuff and I have really enjoyed the lockdown longbow series. More power to your arm.

Hey I'm one of the comments who mentioned that early longbows had no reasons to be as powerful as Mary Rose's bows, back during your video about the claim that Longbow shots could penetrate thick oak doors according to Welsh sources in the 12th century, I'm really glad and impressed you keep track of so many comments for your future tests and ideas

Tod, I love your videos mate. These are just so fun and cool. You're not out to test anything with a wastefully high budget, or how tv works where you string along the answer as long as possible. You do the tests, get the job done, and make a quality video.

Hey Todd, Is it worth doing a quick vid showing your testing of the arrows with the long string (or have you done that vid somewhere previously)?

When you are the older brother but everyone refers to you as the "little brother" because of your height and strenght.

im just here for a giddy englishman to shoot at things like the good ol' days

Tod. Thank you for my knife. Arrived fast and safe. Beautiful knife.

Having served in the US army and experiencing and using the equipment we were given first hand, I can say that at least now the people fielding, arming, and armoring a force will always look for the cheapest option possible that will still probably do the job. Because of that I can see people asking, even in a later period, do we really need that high a draw weight, can we get a good enough result with less power and less expense?

nobody can immediately shoot a 160 pound bow, so it makes sense that not everybody did

Excited to see all of the future content!

I love these series of videos. Thank you.

love your content Tod as well as your products. I ordered a dagger of yours for a friend and he couldn't be happier about it

The Lockdown Longbow series has been some of the best video content I know of in terms of highly accessible, relatively scientific, experimental archeology. I love that questions like sharpness and hardness are being brought up. If the arrowhead is too sharp, the point will break or fold on impact, or maybe even in transport. If it isn't sharp enough, it won't penetrate the target (and every archer wants some good penetration when they're shooting) I look forward to seeing how this develops and all the comparative tests that are to come. One thing I'd really love to see is some tests against simple angled wood, metal, layered fabric, and painted rawhide targets. They don't need to be proper shields or body armor, but being able to test what a "glancing" shot from a warbow might mean for some of the materials that don't fair so well if it directly would be quite interesting.

Im so excited of seeing more films Tod. I love all of your films, I watch them as soon as they come out and I bet I can talk for everyone saying thank you for doing these :) The extra testing capabilities you got here are going to be amazing, I cant wait to see the differences in testing.

I have to say that you have branched out in a direction I would never have guessed from your earlier video's! Following the evolution of these weapons is a thing of beauty! Thanks Tod!

I just can't say enough how much I enjoy this KZfaq channel and your content

Looking forward to some serious testing, now with double the bows! Always fascinating!

Very awesome development Tod, really am looking forward to the next round of research you can do with these similes rather than having limited resources.

Excellent video as usual. Thanks for the info and hard work.

Tod, you are the mad scientist of archery! Love your channel. Can't wait for the next installment.

I have thoroughly enjoyed these videos Todd, keep them coming mate, they are great chap, very educational

Thank you Tod for your great videos. We always watch these after sauna when we have been at the gym with my sons. Great historical content with entertaining twist.

Excellent content Tod! Your humble and positive attitude is enough to keep me coming back. Cheers from Arizona

Tod, your videos are great. Thank you for continuing to think about how you can improve your analysis across time periods and materials. Steel verse iron heads. Sharp versus not sharp heads. Heavy weight verse lower weight. All awesome adjustments that make the information you get from reenacting history that much more valuable.

Thanks for sharing!

Gorgeous arrows. Love the color of the fletchings. That gold colour is really nice

Thanks Tod, keep up the great work!

In my head little brother becomes Lockdown Jr.

Without equal, the most fascinating, authentic, diligent, informative and awesome channel on you tube. Love it. The lockdown longbow series has definitely made lockdown more bearable. Thanks Tod!

Great vid Tod! Looking forward for what's next.

Todd Cutler in: how I justify another crossbow purchase to my wife. Hahaha I'm up, can't wait for the new vids

Thanks Tod xx

Love ur videos keep up the awesome job

Very interesting, thank you for producing such well-made content.

This is a good idea. Though we are still a little underpowered for a 90-100lbs bow. Remember, Joe shot a 110lb bow with a 63 gram arrow and was getting speeds of 186 fps (56.6m/s). This is probably a bit more like an 80lb bow. Thanks

I always enjoy your videos

An accomplished archer knows the heaviest bow isn't always the best bow for the job.

Looking forward to your next films!

Bid thee greetings to thine smallest squire...

Thank you Sir

Looking forward to more!

You have one of the most amazing KZfaq channels they should give you a show on the Discovery channel or history channel or something science channel I love the information you share even I didn't know about it and I'm learning a lot and I study a lot of this type of stuff so you really got a well written KZfaq channel and really teaching people and make them think

Plonk! The sound ... it is so satisfying :)

Can't wait to see the sharpness tests.

I know I've mentioned it in the comments before, but modern scholarship rejects the idea that the English adopted the longbow from the Welsh. In the first place, archery did not play a particularly significant role in the tactics of Edward I, and what Welsh archers were used were used because they were cheap infantry. In addition, at least half of the Welsh - and quite possibly more - who were recruited used spears, not bows, and the reason they feature so prominently in the wars of 1280-1300 is because they were nearer to the area of operations than elsewhere in England. In the second place, archers and archery was already well established in England. Bows had been mandatory for men with 40-100 shillings of land since the 1242 Statute of Arms - only 60 years behind requirements for Continental possession - and we know that archery played a major role in several battles of the Anarchy and the First Barons War. While we know that short bows were used (as evidenced from Waterford in Ireland, Burg Elmendorf in Germany and Pinueilh in France), that doesn't mean longer bows weren't used as well. This is a point that Clifford J. Rogers has made, that before the 14th century there was a wide variety of bow types, and I think it's one that can't be emphasized enough. As to the performance of the early bows, there are a couple of important things to keep in mind. Firstly, from at least the 3rd Century CE, North European bows were more often short and powerful than they were long and powerful. For instance, one bow from Illerup Adal was 1665mm long (1558mm nock to nock), with a width of 32mm and a thickness of 29mm, and I'll eat my hat if it drew less than 100lb@26". I'd also bet good money it drew more than 120lbs at the same draw length. The same holds true for Nydam, although there the more powerful bows were possibly able to be drawn to 28" despite being much shorter than the longest examples, and also Altdorf, Aalsum and Wassenaar. In England, even in the mid-15th century bows could have a draw length of 28" or less. An act of the 1464 Irish parliament required all Englishmen to have bows of "at least their own height" and twelve arrows that were "three quarters of the standard" (27"). Whether the "one fists breadth between the nicks" is meant to be included in the height of the bow (i.e. the man of average height would have a bow of 178cm length) or something else (perhaps it meant bracing height?) is ambiguous because of punctuation. If the Holkham Picture Bible and the Luttrell Psalter accurately depict bow lengths, then this is probably what the bows of the early 14th century were like. They might have drawn in excess of 100lbs, but having a draw length of only 28" means that they're not as efficient as later bows. That's why I'm especially thankful for the performance of your "Little Brother". I think that, even if you were to reduce the weight of the arrow somewhat (based on archaeological examples of arrowheads and also the general use of aspen/willow/other light woods for arrowshafts I think you'd looking more at 40-50g per arrow), you're still going to end up with an approximation of the older, less efficient style of bow than the later type with a longer draw weight.

Thank you! I can't wait to see how the little brother performs. I think that this series has given such invaluable insight into medieval arms and armor that it can entirely change how we look at history. It has for me

Great insight into this video series; each video addresses a single important topic to consider. I think there is some good science going on here. It only makes sense that you would have lower power bows (although 100lb draw is still pretty hefty for most people) so that you could recruit/conscript from a wider pool of people. If the bow has enough power to do the job, that is probably the sweet spot. Larger armies might have also had heavier bows organized into elite units.

to complicate matters further you also need a crossbow that can shoot at 220fps so you can simulate a mounted knight coming towards you at 30mph because that is a very significant increase in arrow energy

Part of the arms race as well is probably just optimization of technique and materials. Like when guns were invented, they didn't just start with a 5.56 NATO, it took hundreds of years of experimentation and optimization to reach what people have today. Bows are a far more simple machine, but optimizing something that simple is probably more challenging, eking every pound of force out of a single piece of wood, figuring out that Alpine Yew was better than English Yew, figuring out how to optimize the projectiles not only for accuracy but penetration as well. Especially considering the documentation on this stuff was probably mostly oral tradition from one bowyer to the next The fact that people eventually figured out how to get so much power out of a single hunk of wood is kind of amazing when you think about it.

My understanding is that most traditional hunting bows around the world have a draw weight of 30-50 pounds. This was enough for taking small game with blunt tips and for poking a big enough hole in a deer that it would bleed out over a few minutes. Have you ever done a test comparing the penetration of that kind of lighter bow and arrows compared to the warbows?

Thanks for the video Todd. I'm looking forward to the new content with the lockdown longbow and his little brother. Makes a lot of sense to me. I imagine archers had a range of bow strength. I don't think a Lord would turn away archers who could routinely hit their mark just because they couldn't draw the heaviest draw weights.

I really love those lockdown longbow videos. They're so informative and fun, could watch them all day long. Out of interest, what kind of crossbows are those two?

Best series on the internet

You're showing the arrows!! awesome

Imagine the fiberglass technology was discovered in the Medieval, lots of changes would have happened in the way wars were fought before the early firearms became popular.

Even the sound of the junior's release is cute.

The sound from Little Lockdown ist just satisfying.

Great video Tod! If you're worried about arrows splitting, try wrapping the butts with silk thread. Nylon works, too. Might help!

I have enjoyed your video. Mission accomplished.

Great stuff! Always great stuff. It stands to reason that not every archer would be able to shoot the very heaviest bows. Every one of them would have sat somewhere on the bell curve in terms of max draw weight, speed of shooting, accuracy etc in the same way as they would for height, strength or inside leg measurement. Its the natural order of things.

If I were British I would be doing exactly what you are doing lol. Cheers man. Keep up the invaluable work you do bringing history to life.

I love the channel i cant wait to see the little brother in tests against leather and harded leather

I hate when work gets in the way of me watching Tod's Workshop University Video Seminars!! So 8 hrs late, but still here to attend class. I was impressed with the performance of the Jr bow and look forward to seeing how it fares against armour. Unrelated to this specific content, but I've always been curious about asymmetric bows (Japanese) and how they differ from European bows.

Love the sound of Little Brother. Almost like popping the cap off a bottle xD

To put in my two cents, I don't think that bows below about 60 pounds in draw weight would be used. First because it takes very little time for pretty much anyone to be capable of shooting one and second because if you go for a lighter draw weight than the power of the bow goes down significantly, low enough to not be useful against something like a deer or a human.

Lockdown longbow junior looks promising! I'm sure the next episode will be very interesting...🎯

The wait for those future videos is going to suck!

I'm on board with idea as well. Also, as we would do today, one won't start training with a 160lb bow but slowly work up to it. Those types of forces literally affected the skeletons of lowbowmen. So, there must have been other lighter bows for youth in training and for the average peasant who were encouraged to practice archery (ex. By Edward III)

Loved the noise the weaker one made. PWONG!

It might be interesting to explore European shortbows at some point. There doesn't seem to be as much known about them (or at least talked about as much) often people reference Central Asian composite shortbows instead, which are a bit of a different thing. While shortbows are less powerful due in part to their size, they have some advantages, especially in terms of speed of use, maneuverability, being more easy to use in cramped spaces, and potentially being easier to carry as part of a set of kit.

Around 0:50 mark - very nice and clean editing. Really well done!

As someone who shoots the longbow at 110# and always felt like I wasn't shooting a real 'War Bow' because of the tendency to slot war bows in at the 150-200 range, I'm excited to see how it fairs.

Very nice videos. I have at home this 150lb little brother and yes, it shoots very nice and stabil:)

Hi Todd, love your thoughts and ideas, and hands on testing of your theories , with the lockdown long bows etc. I've i had an idea about some modern era arrows/bolts made from metal tubing, although it is still possible to have hollow shaft using a wooden shaft and wondered if hunting arrow heads were ever made to allow blood flow back through the head to a hollow shaft behind it and lead to rapid blood loss exiting out via holes down the shaft to effect a higher blood loss and death. In the case of wounded animal it would leave a more visible and obvious blood trail behind it leading to a dead or dying animal easier to find.

One very interesting thing to test (although maybe a bit on the "takes a while" side), would be to look at the impact of atmospheric conditions, in particular humidity and temperature, as well as potentially rain, on the velocity and trajectory of the arrows. For aircraft, a 20 C° difference can mean as much as a 5-10% difference in speed, and they are powered all the way, but also probably have higher drag. While that would be testing the arrows specifically, I reckon those parameters (humidity especially) could have some effect on the bow itself (as well as the string), but I guess that's not really the sort of thing you can test with a lockdown longbow video.

Good one

Todd's being the British Paul Harrell today

Next time you're in a cold field remember we'd all like to be there with you!

I didn't catch if you mentioned the poundage of Junior but I was amazed that it only lost 20fps over a compound bow all be it a little older. Very interesting. As I was watching the film it just dawned on me that - "Yeah not every man at arms is going to be able to draw 160lb and actually be accurate not matter how much training he has!!!" A shoot directed at that gap or weak point in the opponents armour with a 95lb bow is going to far better and more devastating than a shoot from a 160lb roughly in the vicinity of your opponent where only Holy Spirit is the guiding force. Great stuff as always Tod. Keep up the great work. Always enjoyable.

Hi Tod! Presumably you could use the lighter bow to simulate greater distances without loosing accuracy. You would just need to measure when the arrow speed from the larger bow drops to that of the smaller bow at release.

I would love to see a video on historical considerations of arrow spine. It has a large effect on accuracy and can be a complicated subject. I'd really like to know how medieval militaries and hunters approached the subject if at all.

Love this series Tod, keep it coming please mate. G.

I love the way Tod says "little brother"

Love the new addition to the lockdown longbow, I for one am extremely interested in the difference in effective range. Bearing in mind lighter bows were probably used, did this effect the distances of engagement and did they use lighter arrows to increase the distances

That's one satisfying thwack

Tod, Massive thanks for these, your infectious enthusiasm on this project has been such a welcomed distraction. Hope the ducks are enjoying theyre well earnt retirement 😀

Oh man you really rock that beard and moustache!

Looking at the video with Joe Gibbs, it also seems like making the bow lighter enables the archers to shot a far greater number of shots before they are exhausted. Assuming a battle lasts many hours it would be more advantageous to have archers shot at a continuous rate rather than having the rate drop significantly after the first minutes. It might also be possible that the archers shot heavier bows first and switch to lighter bows to keep the coverage consistent.

The Gopro downrange reminds me of the claim of Japanese archery judges sitting next to the target to give style points. That last group at 6:47 looks like it was very tight(?)

Great. And in fact also very logical.

The Little Lockdown also allows you to simulate much longer ranges than you would ever be able to accurately shoot the Lockdown Longbow, just by doing your velocity maths and extrapolating as best you can

Another great video 😁 I love watching them. Which exactly is the smaller crossbow? Where can one buy it? Thanks

Tod you should put some targets up on your targets for the tests ect...see some sweet bullseye's!