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I have been tring to find woodworkers who can think of a way to create the thin wood strips one needs for a scutum, without resorting to a saw that would destroy half the wood. It always seems to me something like a cheese slicer, or a particular type of plane or drawknife. The latter seems easier to construct but harder to control. The woodworkers pooh pooh the wood plane idea.
The Vindolanda tablets, one of the new fellows in the RECRUIT section mentioned, occurs to me were possibly the same construction, but rejects from the shield manufacturing (strip splits, or other mistake). That might explain why they happened to have so many of them.
Richard Campbell
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answer from Randi Rickert: possibly a "riving froe" or such
https://www.lehmans.com/p-686-lehmans-ow...x?show=all
But has anything like it been found?
Richard Campbell
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I saw this video a while ago. Since the planks only need to be about 1/8" thick, its reasonable that this technique would also work to make strips for shield. I'm guessing it would also work on a birch tree too, as ash is a hardwood.
Black Ash Baskets
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I would never have figured that technique out. And splitting along the growth rings. Not sure what hitting the log with that hammer did: loosen the rings? And I was not sure if the log was new or seasoned. But the inside being 'shiny' would mean an easier writing surface.
Richard Campbell
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I can't remember where I found it, it might even have been this forum. But when the video it was one of those smack your forehead moments. Such simplicity, I was amazed. After felling the appropriate tree, an ax and knife is all that is needed to make the planks. Then stack and glue them together in a press, cover them with material, form and nail the bronze rims, nail on wooden back bracers, then nail the umbo/spina, paint it, and shield is done. Most expensive parts can be recycled from older damaged shields.
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I have been saying this on RAT for some time now that the veneers to create a scutum would have been taken from a log of a tree where the wood had been soaked for some time to loosen the rings then a long blade would strip each ring from the log, then the crossing of the veneers would as the shield is built give the strength needed.
Brian Stobbs
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Soak a seasoned tree trunk? Hm. Did you see in the Youtube the fellow hammering the length of the trunk? Loosening the rings?
Richard Campbell
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To soak them, would that mean floating the cut logs in a lake or river?
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They could have just been put into a tank of sorts for we are thinking of a log that might have been just 1 meter long.
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Is it possible that the necessary timber was worked whilst green and allowed to season after? Easier to work? Coopers can make buckets like this. Shape approximately when green, season in the correct stack to prevent warping and then shape finally when seasoned. Just a thought...
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There is no need to follow the rings of the tree and fold them out to make good strips. Accualy, using a froe to split off thin boards at right angle to the growth rings and using these to form a ply work very well. This is so for a wood like ash, with long, straight grain. A good log of ash 20 centimeters diameter and a meter long will yield strips 10 centimeters wide and 100 centimeters long. These are slighty triangular in shape because of how the log splits using the froe, but a plane takes care of that, resulting in a strip of uniform thickness. Green wood works well when splitting. Best also glue it together when green, as the bonded ply will prevent significant warping. Also, the working at right angles to the rings prevents warping to begin with.
But that video on black ash baskets is really great! I love the craftsmanship and the pure simplicity of how these strips are created. Poplar should also work well, I suppose. This would also yield great strips for making a ply shield with minimal effort.
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You may find this useful "Manufacture of Tablets and General Conclusions" here:
http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/tablets/TVI-1-4.shtml
Ivor
"And the four bare walls stand on the seashore. a wreck a skeleton a monument of that instability and vicissitude to which all things human are subject. Not a dwelling within sight, and the farm labourer, and curious traveller, are the only persons that ever visit the scene where once so many thousands were congregated." T.Lewin 1867
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I think What you might be looking for can be described as a Shingle knife.... much sharper then a Froe, It seems to be basically a V section knife blade with the tang set at 90° to the blade (edge down tang up) a long wooden handle is fitted to the tang probably with a collar...
See: Abb. 4 Zwei Schindelmesser aus Chur-Welschdörfli.
in:
Zum Handwerk der Vici in der Nord- und Ostschweiz ein vorläufiger Überblick 1993
http://retro.seals.ch/digbib/view;jsessi...1993:-::15
See also 15890 fig273 bottom left here:
Though in this case a socket rather then tang http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k64...f279.image
Ivor
"And the four bare walls stand on the seashore. a wreck a skeleton a monument of that instability and vicissitude to which all things human are subject. Not a dwelling within sight, and the farm labourer, and curious traveller, are the only persons that ever visit the scene where once so many thousands were congregated." T.Lewin 1867
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Fantastic, thanks for this thread.
Ben Kane, bestselling author of the Eagles of Rome, Spartacus and Hannibal novels.
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Richard Campbell
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