Help Jasper equip Batavians

[jvrjenivs]

@Robert: If you could supply me with the full scale print and one or 2 unpainted shieldblanks. I will paint them (and mine). Send me an email when you've some time for forging or to discuss this or start working.

[Robert]

Salve Jurjen! Just ordered 70 kilo's of smithing coal. :lol: I'll pick those up in the coming week, so we could go forging some time after that. Mind you, never made spearheads before, so I want to practice first and may have to make a spike to hammer the flanges over first.
I will cover the blanks in linen first, need to make one more for the four I pledged. And I have to make you a utillity knife to trade for the boss as well! Want an Iron age one with a metal curved handle??
I want to try a linen/gesso covering on one or two at least, will need to hunt around for gesso, though. I have already had some paint mixed to the colour specifications of Peroni, so I will do some of the painting here. I have the RAL colour codes, though, they are different here from the ones in England.

[jvrjenivs]

@Robert: If you think it's more fun to work together (and have more hands for the covering etc). I would like to do something together. Either my or your place would be okay by me.

Could you post the RAL codes online here? So others could also use them, if they need them. So we have most information here in this topic.

[Robert]

Yep, will do!
Blast, just dashed to the garage, but the colour codes aren't RAL For the green I got S 5040-G20Y brocolli (by Histor) and for the yellow E8.77.67 (by Flexa). I got them mixed at the Praxis (sorry to all those outside of the Netherlands!)

[maarten]

Robert,

Could you send me the pattern too, so we can get started at making some shields. Exept for the pattern of the motives, does Nijmegen want all the shieldmeasurements to be the same of may they vary?

Thanks in advance

Maarten

[jvrjenivs]

Shieldmeasurements may vary. We like to show the public that the army wasn't uniformaly armed. So that's no problem at all.

[Robert]

Salve Maarten!

Glad you will contribute as well. I based the shields on the measurements of the Valkenburg shieldcovers, so these are authentic for aux shields. The shields are 117 centimeters high, 60 wide at handle, handlehole is 12 centimeters with a 2 cm grip left in the middle, one wooden brace across the handle to thicken it and provide strenght. I use poplar three ply, this correspondes to the 6mm thickness of Valkenburg rims . I did the rim in rawhide (BIG dogchews, these will cover the rim in two go's, overlapping a bit at top and bottom) and covered the shield in linen, but will also try some in gesso. Paintsceme by Peroni.

[jvrjenivs]

My oval shield is 121 x 60 cm and my kessel (straight-dided) is 120 x 55 cm. Both are 7 mm thick.

[Robert]

Good measurements! Should work out just fine. There could be some shrinkage in the Valkenburg rimfinds, so I am sure a 1 mm difference is well within specs of 6 or 7 mm. The 121 by 60 sounds great, only a slight difference and when you tack on the rim this will visiualy diminish.
By the way, I use copper tacks for the first fixture of the rawhide rim, I tried iron carpet tacks before, but that leaves rustmarks on the wet rawhide. You remove the tacks after the stitching with waxed linen goes in. Place tacks in path of stitching and any holes become invisible. For the joins, I left a few iron tacks in top and bottom, that looks very acceptable with the stiching.
Maarten, send me a PM with a mailadress to transfer the file of the template. You do need a plotter to make a full size print. If you lack plotting capacity, send me an postal adress and i will have some printed to send through regular mail.

[Marcus Mummius]

We always just use a few nails to keep the rawhide in place while stitching. But I guess when using staples you can do it on your own more easily. Holding the schieldboard, the hammer and the rawhide is a bit tricky sometimes

Vale,

[Robert]

Ah, sorry there, tacks are small, conical (squared) very sharp nails with large heads for easy removal. The larger ones are used to nail carpets to wooden floorboards. They are mainly used for fixing fabric, the copper ones I use are for stretching painting canvas on a frame.
Staples should work well, though! And they are very easy to put in and leave small holes when taken out. A sharp screwdriver of destapler works wonders. I do use staples when doing leatherwork, it allows me to fix the two pieces before i start to punch the holes to run the needle through.

[Robert]

Question on spearheads!! I have found a LOT of different measurements. Unfortunately, Curles' book on the Newstead finds does not have a scale on the plates the book shows. Fectio shows one at 23 centimeters long. What could be a good dimension for a hasta blade and should we have some Batavians with two more slender throwing spears each (spearhead about 19 cm including flange, diameter of shaft approx 20 mm) or is that outside the period?

[jvrjenivs]

Can't we use local foundings as guide? We could always ask Harry van Enckevoort and Museum het Valkhof for more information.

[Robert]

Ones I saw in depot of Museum KAM are also about 23 centimeters, rather simply made. They also have a wide range of sizes in the museum collection. Question is also whether or not the auxiliary carried two throwing spears, no buttspikes, smaller shaftdiameter .