Childhood friends who build catapults and trebuchets visit East Idaho

POCATELLO — A group of friends who person been building weapons of warfare from a bygone era since their childhoods visited East Idaho recently.

Titan Forged Siegeworks, a institution that makes medieval siege artillery including catapults and trebuchets showed disconnected immoderate of their instrumentality connected Friday, Saturday and Sunday astatine nan Mystic Realms Fantasy Fair astatine nan Bannock County Fairgrounds. The group, primitively from Ogden, Utah, person taken their siege weapons to renaissance fairs, schools, museums, libraries, religion events, a day and moreover TV commercials. They’ve besides utilized them to thatch some history and physics.

“To nan extracurricular observer, we’re nan guys pinch nan large catapults. We past return those machines (and) we typically usage them arsenic a school tool,” said Tyler Brown.

Brown is nan proprietor of Titan Forged Siegeworks, but he said that it’s weird to telephone him that, saying, “I conscionable was nan 1 who benignant of was elected to capable retired nan paperwork.”

“We are technically a business. We are a business that is not designed to really make money aliases make a living,” Brown said.

A catapult from Titan Forged Siegeworks. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com

Despite being touring siegework builders, nan group members activity time jobs successful a assortment of professions. Brown portion owns and manages a crippled shop and is going backmost to schoolhouse to get a grade successful paleontology, hoping to yet participate nan section successful a subject connection capacity.

Titan Forged Siegeworks’ origins tin beryllium traced backmost to 1998, erstwhile nan group members were astir 10-years-old and hanging retired astatine Brown’s house.

“We saw a catapult connected a crippled aliases a movie aliases something,” Brown said. “We decided, hey, we want to build that. That looks fun. Let’s make it.”

The kids went to Brown’s mom and dada pinch their idea.

“Well, let’s thatch you really to usage nan saw safely,” Brown recalled.

Once they vanished their first catapult, it was astir six feet gangly and made retired of spare two-by-four wood. The contraption’s axel, which retracts nan throwing arm, was made from a scooter. It had nan expertise to chuck a play shot astir 2 100 feet pinch 30 pounds of counterweight.

It took nan kids immoderate believe to fig retired really to “dial nan things in” to power nan region and deed targets. Thanks to being careful, nan group managed to ne'er break a window.

They kept building catapults and yet trebuchets passim their childhood, into early adulthood. Eventually, astatine 25, Brown sewage a telephone from a man asking astir their catapults.

A trebuchet from Titan Forged Siegeworks. | Logan Ramsey, EastIdahoNews.com

“Are you a cop?” Brown asked.

“No, no,” nan man told Brown. “I’m conscionable wondering what it would return to get you guys to do a show astatine our Ren Fair… I’m reasoning we should we should effort and do a competition.”

This excited nan friends, and they built a caller machine, this 1 being 25 feet pinch nan expertise to propulsion bowling balls. Brown said that they won nan title by a “solid margin” but afterwards, they noticed thing frightening. They had cracked nan throwing limb connected nan catapult.

“We were, like, 3 throws distant from obliterating an limb successful beforehand of a 1000 people,” Brown said.

This would’ve sent chunks of wood hurling 20 feet, and while they had everyone extracurricular of that range, it was still dangerous. The incident taught them nan quality betwixt nan smaller catapults they had been building, and machines that had nan capacity to do harm to someone’s home.

This was nan infinitesimal erstwhile they said, “Okay guys, we’ve sewage to make judge that we up our game. Everything has to beryllium over-engineered to nan constituent of absolute safety.”

Now, nan friends run arsenic a institution that travels to events and educates connected nan history of nan weapons they build and nan physics down really they function. When they spell to a schoolhouse event, they bring smaller catapults past they do to a renaissance fair.

This twelvemonth was nan 2nd clip they came to Pocatello, some times for nan Mystic Realms Fantasy Fair. They scheme to support attending that arena and dream to be much fairs astir Idaho successful general.

For anyone who wants to book them for an event, nan group tin beryllium contacted astatine titanforgedsiegeworks@gmail.com.

Many original group members of Titan Forged Siegeworks person moved to different parts of nan country, and they tin only travel to an arena if their schedule allows. The friends activity successful a assortment of fields, specified arsenic metallic working, existent property and nan military.

“As clip moved on, we deliberately did things to make judge that we stayed friends,” Brown said.

If 1 of nan friends comes backmost into town, opportunity for Christmas, they’ll propulsion a statement to get everyone who tin travel together again. The friends who moved retired of Utah will travel backmost and be a adjacent erstwhile they’re capable to.

When nan friends get their families together, they’ll person moments erstwhile they bespeak connected really overmuch has changed, arsenic good arsenic really small has changed successful nan 2 and a half decades since their first catapult. They’ll watch their kids tally around, and retrieve erstwhile they were nan kids moving around.

“It’s a unsocial experience… to beryllium capable to spell done each of life’s changes pinch a group of group that if you cognize thing bad happens, they’ve sewage your back,” Brown said.