11-10-2005, 12:12 PM
Oh, and one more thing: I do wonder about taking the whole 'linen soaked in hide glue' idea literally- that would be REALLY REALLY messy, and not very easy to do given all the difficulties in working with hide glue- consistent, low heat, fast gelling time, etc. My purely practical impression is that it would be linen glued to shield and then brushed with more glue to saturate it.
And the idea of bits of sinew mixed in seems a tad 'iffy' too unless you're really careful to separate all the fibers and cut them to rather small lengths- if you didn't, I'd expect some rather significant clumping and since hide glue dries rock hard, would leave you with a sandpaper finish or worse. It seems more likely to me that short fibers would be maybe sprinkled over a wet or just slightly gelled surface, smoothed out with fingers and another coat painted on after its dry.
I do wonder about the inclusion of sinew at all though- unless it's in a solid mat of fibers several centimeters long, I don't really see what benefit it would be. I've heard the idea that it was a form of ancient 'fiberglass', but then that's what the linen saturated with glue is, yes? And there's still a layer of leather or rawhide on top of that, so would little bits of sinew do much of anything?
What's the evidence for sinew in the glue in which the linen is 'soaked' anyway? For that matter, what's the evidence of parchment rawhide and not leather as the outer face of a scutum?
Matt
And the idea of bits of sinew mixed in seems a tad 'iffy' too unless you're really careful to separate all the fibers and cut them to rather small lengths- if you didn't, I'd expect some rather significant clumping and since hide glue dries rock hard, would leave you with a sandpaper finish or worse. It seems more likely to me that short fibers would be maybe sprinkled over a wet or just slightly gelled surface, smoothed out with fingers and another coat painted on after its dry.
I do wonder about the inclusion of sinew at all though- unless it's in a solid mat of fibers several centimeters long, I don't really see what benefit it would be. I've heard the idea that it was a form of ancient 'fiberglass', but then that's what the linen saturated with glue is, yes? And there's still a layer of leather or rawhide on top of that, so would little bits of sinew do much of anything?
What's the evidence for sinew in the glue in which the linen is 'soaked' anyway? For that matter, what's the evidence of parchment rawhide and not leather as the outer face of a scutum?
Matt
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