06-22-2009, 07:31 PM
An resilliant wood like an alder will turn a blade just as well as an oak. But the lighter wooden shield is far more easy to yield. If a wood bends easily, it will disperce the energy of a hit, lessening penetration. So for the same result, a heavy type of wood is not always the best and being able to bring up a shield quickly has a lot of advantages over hefting a massive slab of wood in prolonged battle. There a lot of misconceptions about material used by the ancients, heavy plank shields being one of them. This is why good archeology is so importent, backed up by field trials of replica's. The WHY of some choices our ancestors made really stands out in a prolonged trial. Good data, guys!
