This video has so many fantastic features that I don't even know how to begin praising them individually. But here it goes, anyway... Your SIL is just amazing. The craftsmanship alone is off the scale, but the enhancements you added (like the field stripping) are simply ingenious. The looks are stunning too - I mean, you even DECORATED it! Bringing THE Joe Gibbs in is a major and unexpected excitement! He is no doubts one of the most competent guys on the planet, when it comes to shooting authentic war bows. We are all just lowly amateurs in comparison. To see him shoot the SIL more than twice as fast as a regular bow, that blows me away. What does NOT surprise me is the fact that to him, the 120 lbs bow felt like a 160 lbs with the SIL attached. The man spent many years building up the muscle set required to draw a bow out the conventional way, and now the motion is a bit different. It is as clear as day that he would have to get used to this first. I am pretty sure he would very soon not feel much difference anymore. Friction is NOT the issue, the SIL maybe adds 5 lbs of a draw weight due to friction - it does not matter if you draw it out empty or under load. Your "Attack of the Joe Clones" part is a one-of-a-kind, first-ever, mind boggling masterpiece of editing. It is absolutely terrifying to watch. You get an idea how effective a whole battalion of SIL equipped archers would have been. Amazing. 800 archers, shooting 4000 arrows in 8 seconds? At least 2000 of those arrows would be in the air at the same time. Imagine how it would have been to be on the receiving end of that attack. Wow. Some say that in the battle of Crecy, the English had 14,000 archers... 70,000 arrows in five seconds. Archery warfare on steroids. Because of these features (I am sure I forgot to mention some anyway), I officially declare this video to be the BEST INSTANT LEGOLAS VIDEO ever. I do not say such things lightly. Congratulations! For me, the absolute best part was when you said the SIL may inspire people to think about medieval history. My little invention, having THAT effect on people? I have no words to describe how proud you just made me. I could go on and on, but sorry, I now have to watch the video again. And again :)

I laugh a loud when Tod's say let me show you its features and then i suddenly hear jörg laugher... Haha

What a wonderful cooperation of a true German inventor, a true English bowmaker and a true English bowman.

this is what's possible when people share ideas without ego attachments. bravo! so cool to see two passionate engineers/designers collaborate and improve on an already amazing idea

That Laugh overdub tho

Absolute Mad Lad Edit: That group of 5 Joe Gibbs loosing 25 arrows in 10 seconds is terrifying.

JoergSprave is pretty damn brilliant. He doesn't only build weapons, but he invents new designs as well. Good to see that this community is acknowledging each other, and Joerg is one of my favorites in this community. I'm a big fan of his.

Screw Legolas. This is something that Gimli would have carried.

14:55 I honestly think the reason he get's tired so quickly is the speed, normally the time between each shot is more which means he get's to rest a bit between each shot, but when he shoots this fast he has virtually no time to rest, it's like comparing sprinting to distance running, one you burn all your energy to get a burst of speed but the other is sustained output.

As Joe was mentioning at 13:00, from a body mechanics standpoint, having the rear handle be horizontal considerably lessens the effectiveness of the short head of the biceps brachii. I wouldn't be surprised if that had a big effect on Joe's draw. It also prevents the brachialis muscle from being recruited. That would have a smaller effect, but not negligible. If we say the current orientation is at 0 degrees and vertical would be 90 degrees, I think about 60 degrees would be the ideal orientation from a body mechanics perspective. Were the bone runners lubricated? A little oil might help a lot. As far as the handle on the front, perhaps putting it on a hinge so that it folds away most of the time. Defending a siege or something, that handle could be very useful if you're waiting for a chance to send an arrow at someone who's popping in and out of cover, but you probably wouldn't want it all the time. Fantastic stuff, cheers!

Wow ! The footage of several legolas being shot at the same time just allows your imagination to see what a formidable attack it would of been back in the day.

When the five "Joes" were standing and shooting next to each other, it reminded me strongly of Age of Empires lol :D

Always a joy to see Joe shoot, whatever he is shooting.

"I hope I haven't bored you with another Instant Legolas film" Please, we come from Joerg's channel. We have these about as often as warm dinners.

12:12 This is clearly because of his hand placement. It’s 5cm back from where it would normally be, giving him less leverage over the last (and most difficult) bit of the draw. Friction has a small role to play but I think it’s primarily his different physiological positioning around the bow, as mentioned.

Hang on a minute. I'm interested in history, but know little about weaponry. Yet I've discovered this channel and I'm hooked! Informative, well presented and just good fun. Top work chaps.

Listening to 5 of those things is terrifying imagine your charging a position and you hear a hundred or so of those things open up. NO THANK YOU

that intro got me, at first glance I thought you'd made five!

What an awesome weapon concept! Just from looking at the Medieval Legolas in action, I can already see why the bow is much more difficult to draw. In order to obtain the usual 30 inch draw of the bowstring, Joe has to pull the handle all the way back to 35 or so inches of draw length. That's a lot of extra scapular retraction Joe has to achieve just to get the same power out of the bow. A worthwhile design change might be to relocate the string-holding pawl to be as close as possible to the drawing hand without encroaching on the space for the fingers. Then a 120 lbf bow might feel like a 130 lbf bow instead of a 160 lbf bow.

great video!! loved the multi shooting...imagine that on an ancient battle field!

Jorg has finally put it into production.

Upvote for that Joerg laughter

Holy moly I need this for my Bow. It´s amazing to watch. Good job on this

This is wild!!! Several good points were mentioned such as the unneeded sightsetc. The bowmen of this time shot game with their bows to eat. Sights were and are too slow for rabbits etc so they simply got good at hitting what they wanted to hit. This is a really interesting appliance. There is likely a market for it

Loved the "Let me show you its features!" with Joergs laugh in the background

12:18 I suspect one more reason it was so tiring for Joe is that there's so much less time between shots for his muscles to relax and recuperate. Compared with the crossbow vs longbow clip, I believe he fired his 5th arrow at the same time the clip showed him firing his 2nd - pulling over twice as often for the time taken. That's got to take its toll. Nice work, Tod - and great to see Joe again. I was taught as a kid to pull back with the shoulders instead of the arm, but I never really understood how that worked until watching Joe.

Great vid, great content (quality) and volume of content were perfect. Double thumbs up

Having watched the video with the testing against the armour, I noticed that John opens his bow a lot less there. I believe that the weight that is making John feel shooting a lot harder is due to the fact that the mechanism forces him to much higher loading of the bow. A shorter mechanism, tailored to width of John's opening would probably remediate that.

Imagine an archer shooting the legolas, his squire loading a second legolas, switching bows when the magazine is empty to keep up the rate of fire. And multiply them by 50 on a parapet. It would be like facing 500 archers. I would not want to charge that wall at all.

imagine using an instant legolas on a static frame like a balista holding it, with two people. its basically a machine bow right there

Super cool mate! Just talking with Joe over a mary rose warbow. Cant wait! Thanks for all the cool content. Youre helping to keep out knowledge alive.

I think you are absolutely brilliant at building such amazing weapons 🤗

That edit of the “five” men shooting together is exactly what makes me think this thing would be terrifying and absolutely would have had a place in history. You wouldn’t put this in your best bowman’s hands - you get a horde of strong peasants capable of raining Hell on the enemy. BLOCK OUT THE SUN!

Joe did just move a total of 3000lbs in a short period of time. That can't be easy. What a beast!

Looking forward to see next episode!

Absolutely awesome, the 5 man team unleashing 25 arrows quickly, was a great demo. Like an archer assault team. I had a thought, why not turn the handle at the back 90 degrees? Might explain some of the issues with the higher pull feeling, as I reckon you'd be using different muscles in a different movement.

I have to say, the "5 Joe's" fast barrage of arrows was very intimidating and super cool! Thank you Tod and Joe for the amazing video. And thank you for putting the effort on developing this new concept in archery. You guys and Jöerg are making history, literally!

Something like this when you are defending a castle would make a lot of sense to my mind. If you are on the defense you are bound to be quite heavily outnumbered so being able to lay down a lot of fire in a short time period, specially from a hidden position in a tower for example could give your enemy pause for thought about your numbers, but also blunt the attack, if they suddenly take a volume of fire they did not expect it could be enough for people to step back and consider their plans. All in all it sounds like a sort of device you want to use when you lack the numbers, could hence also make for an amazing ambush weapon, sitting the undergrowth of a forest along a trail, enemy troops move by and suddenly all hell breaks loose, 4-6 arrows each and then you just run for it or you can close in to finish the job. And finally volume of fire is always a thing, if you are on a battlefield where they could swiftly close in on your archers, being able to quickly lay down a lot a fire could be a deciding factor as at that point you are not after endurance.

Well made. I'd say the biggest struggle I saw in Joe was with the overdraw (because the handle to pull the mechanism extended draw length by a few inches, which makes it really hard to pull further back), not to mention changing the orientation of his bowstring grip.

Fascinating stuff (archer of 40 years and ex-instructor). I'm normally a chap who doesn't believe in trigger releases, compounds etc (but I do use a sight as I'm mainly a target archer) but these designs/mods etc are wonderful ;)

One problem I can immediately see is that the handle is set further back than the bowstring--Joe's having to draw further than he usually would Edit: turns out he's not and I'm wrong!

Upon seeing the 5-archer edit: *screams in French knight*

That's a good idea followed up with some well done engineering. Cool.

Stuff like this needs to be put in the post-apocalypse tool-kit

This was impressive with just 5 simulated archers. Imagine if you had a whole battalion...🤯 you could turn the tide of a battle in minutes maybe seconds. As for the grip and friction, I think a vertical grip would be more ergonomic. You have to bear in mind Joerg is used to shooting sling shots wich have horizontally oriented rubber, bows have vertically oriented string that is thinner than the rubber. This probably throws off Joe's muscle memory. Edit: The front handle isn't a design flaw imo. Joe has just trained to hold his bows closed handed. You don't need to shoot like that, in an open grip you simply let the bow rest in your palm and as you draw back the weight of the bow keeps it in place and when you release the recoil from the arrow going forward pushes the bow backward into your hand. You can also see where the extra friction is coming from in Joe's draw. When he starts the draw the bow is ever so slightly forward away from his chest and as he draws further back pushes his chest out for leverage rather than relying on just his arms. This movement is hindered by the stiff frame wich is designed only to slide back and forth, not rotate. Perhaps a joint on the handle to allow for some flex during draw or some rollers in the slide to alleviate friction would help.

When a game let u choose which upgrade u want for your bow Me: *M A G A Z I N E*

That is awesome! It should be in a film! With the heavy bow, it does look like the radius and ulna are twisted so more exertion is needed to hold the position.

Having in mind that Joe felt the 120 pounds bow as a 160 pounds bow (even though it may be caused by Joe not being accustomed to the SIL system) it would be interesting if you could add a pulley system to actually take advantage on a more efficient way of the bowman's strength. It would be a huge advantage if the instant Legolas allows Joe to feel the 120 pounds bow as a 90 pounds bow 😸

Im just imagining Jeorg saying his classic "Let Me show you it's features" as he sits on a throne and an army of every weapons youtuber (Skall, Shad, Metatron, etc.) rises from the bushes armed with Instant legolases and just aim them at some poor bastard

At some point I'd like to see a range and penetration comparison of the "Instant Legolas" to various standard bows and crossbows.

Wow i haven't watched joerg sprave in years, awesome to see him still doing what he does best

literally didn't notice the tshirt until the end. Nice! I love it.

I love how Tod is like an enthusiastic noble man with a new toy getting his best archer to try it out and see what he thinks and Joe is just like 'Yarp 'ee be 'ite bey but I'd rather me bow'

Even if someone doesn't aim shoot it properly, the hailstorm of arrows from a formation of just 25 guys with this contraption could have easily scared away the opponents. Only one word.... RUN

Joerg may be the engineer, but you are definitely the craftsman. Your device is beatiful in every sense of the word.

Great craftsmanship!! Very impressive

Imagine 50 of these firing and reloading in ranks, or a walltop full of defenders armed with them. 😨

He was tired because he was trying to shoot rapidly. There's little recovery time compared to shooting a regular bow. Over the course of 5 shots, you'd start to feel it.

Absolutely amazing.

Oh my god, I laughed so much at hearing Jorge's laugh!

I can imagine that 5 guys with this thing would be really scary

13:31 RIP anything not wearing full plate harness... Edit: Alright, shields are a thing, but you'd have to be actually using them, requiring awarenes of the archers' presence and reacting to them by rising said shields. My point, although not initially clarified, was about ambush potential to slow-reacting targets such as marching columns. Edit 2: gramatical boogaloo...

This is brilliant!

Just now discoverying his videos. Excellent and unique material he covers.

*Shows DM this video* DM: No *Sad noises* DM: *Secret writes an evil army with archer column armed with this attachment*

14:09 - These things with five guys trained to work as a unit and adopt complimentary firing positions would make a massive difference in the ranks of a defending army within a besieged city or keep. I think it would actually fare better in that urban environment at the 10-20 yard range where the attacking force weren't expecting either an unconventional or decentralized defense.

Cooool! Love you n Jorge

that's just beautiful great work!

@ Tod's workshop Master bowmaker: I humbly offer my opinions on upgrades you may already know. I have work with wood from age 6. 1. Put the finished SIL you made into a bakers oven to kiln to dry it for 15 minutes or so to drive out all the moisture. While still warm cover it all with linseed oil, or lambs fat, or wool oil/ lanolin , or equivalent to keep it from warping, i.e. waterproof it and now fully lubricated. 2. Put it back in the oven to warm it and open the wood pours so the oil soaks in. Pledge also works but may not be historically accurate. 3. Before shooting it run the channel tracks and outside box, arrows, arrow gutter with bees wax or soap on all friction areas. Note: All is dry wood and not lubricated. This equals heavy friction. You may need to experiment with it to see what works best as you are working with Ash. Soap, beeswax, linseed oil, lambs fat, wool oil. Test scrap prices first to see, what works best on ash in a kiln or bakers oven. People who make musical instruments or old wooden clocks maybe of help in figuring this out. As this technology is known to some of them. Axel grease for wooden wheels was also common in ancient times. I hope this helps you to make a better bow experience with the SIL. I truly appreciate and admire your medieval rendition of this fine instrument. You are helping to make living history, " alive". Be blessed

11:00 how the medieval archers would be depicted on tapestry if instant legolas existed

This was a brilliant creative idea fantastic

Love this video, I definitely need one

You are a genius smith, Tod. Material use, your discoveries along the way, and the results speak for themselves. And Joe helped too.

I love the "let me show you its features" and the added in laughter. Instant satisfaction.

This is awesome beyond belief!

The start made me smile😁

That last shooting line would be a fearsome thing to advance against! Great job all!

It seems like joe is forced into a particular draw style with the SIL. He’s got very specific and good technique that he isn’t able to utilize. I think it might be possible to engineer some adjustments that would allow him to get the most out of his ability

So great! I hope you be better in the future. Good tool for hunting

The archer dude is awesome. Gives you a good idea of the build you need to be able to shoot those things...

The Grip at the end was a very important part of Joerg's invention, the ability to hold the drawn bow for longer aim time now it's only remaining feature is it's *speed* ;) I have a *suggestion* thought: how about an *arch* of a grip on the bow over the left hand, you put your arm in it as a glove, when you are at the end of the draw, and right as you reach the final grip, you can safely open your left hand knowing the arch got your arm, so the bow is safe from flying out left, while holding the bow with your thumb just enough to grab the grip at the end

Always appreciate how man times Tod says 'Tod' when Tod introduces Tod of Tod's workshop and Tod Cuttler here. Thanks Tod, keep saying Tod.

Fascinating!

lol his laugh you used is perfect. I love his laugh

Brilliant video! I loved the multiple bowmen shots!

Old world weaponry is so cool, especially when combined with a little 21st century engineering and thinking.

awesome work!

One thing you should consider. It takes a bit longer for the arrow/bolt to pass through because of friction on the way out. So like the flintlocks, you have to keep aim until the projectile has passed through. Brilliant device and excellent craftsmanship!

Try walking a mile and then try running a mile. You'd get more tired of running, and I suspect that something similar is happening here. Joe is shooting faster and thus getting tired faster.

“It would never been able to be made in the medieval time period “ Medieval proof of concept is more advanced then original design

Brilliant!

Love the archery.

I remember that goofy, 4 way crossbow, that they use briefly in a scene in Gladiator, was something a prop master built quickly just because it looked intimidating. I’ve always wondered what interesting experimental weapons were made and lost to time.

I've been so happy to see you testing this. Thanks for the great content!

So much passion!

Amazing craft!

Amazing, I think Joe is a master, but I think it was an error to get rid of the front grip. Maybe it needs a redesign, but that front grip was there to take the strain away from keeping the bow at full draw, It never looks like Joe uses it like that. He pulls it back and never grips it. That would add strain. 6:13 is a perfect example, he is shaking keeping it at full draw, but if he just gripped that front plate, all the strain would be removed. Edit: I believe to grip it would be hard, and I believe he felt like he did not want to hold it, he wanted to shoot fast and use his normal draw style. I just wish they would go more in-depth with how hard it is to grip, can you keep it at full draw just holding it by the grip? Does this take any strain off? Is it just not worth it to have a grip like that on a 120 pound bow because you want speed not accuracy on long shots? You could use the grip at full-draw to sit there without strain while lining up a shot. Is it just not worth it because you need the full grip on the bow just to draw it back? Is releasing your fingers for even that last moment just too difficult? Is the grip super hard to hold at full draw? Whatever the result I cant wait to see more videos.

Love every second of this. An idea: how much is the additional weight influencing? Especially for the right arm/hand, which isn't used to move that much mass in that speed. Inertia could play a role in this without being necessarily noticable right away.

Now that’s amazing!

So so so great~! It is the best of best what i saw the video