starting a new shield

[garrelt]

The book by Johan Nicolay about Armed Batavians encouraged me to make a shield bassed on the finds described in his book.
I'm the last one to say that this is going to be the one and only correct Batavian shield.
Merely another model to choose from.

Messuaring the shield rim pictured on page 325, i conclude that shield could measure 32x65(or 70)x0.6cm in total.
Thinking at first: this is small.
But looking at some parts of Trajans Colum , as an example the Dacian part, i saw more small shields depicted.

The flat-round shields that i use are sized from a diameter of 30cm to 100cm.
The flat-oval shields that i use are 122x60cm.

I'm going to make 2 versions of this shield, one is going to have a board thickness of 4mm and the other one is going to be 9mm thick.
Both being 32cm wide and 70 cm long.
The 9mm thick shield is going to be used for showfight (gladiator and battles).
This also to gain practical use in the handling of this model shield.

The 4mm thick shield is going to be display only, this is to be finised when all the other parts as umbo and grip are ready.
Painting , when it is clear wich motif could be linked to Batavians as goinig on in an other thread.
This will also have the complete board (front and back) covered with Parchment (vellum).
This idea i picket up from the lecture by Holger Ratsdorf about New thoughts for reconstructing of Roman shields (Neue gedanken zur Rekunstruktion romischer Schilde) during last years Romec in Xanten.

Looking forward to your reactions

[garrelt]

The picture is from:

Osprey Military Men-At-Arms Series 129
Rome's Enemies 1 Germanics and Dacians
Peter Wilcox, G.A. Embleton 1982

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

There's thos seax type blades again....... :roll:

[jvrjenivs]

Garrelt, are you also going to do a linen cover on the 'decorative' shield first, before you cover it with Parchment?

[garrelt]

no.
I think i do the painting first so it can shine trough the Parchement.
This is procedure is already being discussed here on RAT.

Sorry about the saxes but they keep turning up in these Northern parts.
Not directly here in Gallia Belgica but north of the limes more often.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

:lol:

[jvrjenivs]

no.
I think i do the painting first so it can shine trough the Parchement.
This is procedure is already being discussed here on RAT.

Sounds good. I'd love to see the result. (But I'm sure I'll see it at one of the many events we would see each other this year.)

[garrelt]

The showfight shield will be the first, is also the simplest.
This has to be ready for the roman festival in Archeon in August.
The display depends on the blacksmith, who is going to make the umbo and shieldgrip .
This could be me, somebody else in our group or an external blacksmith.

[Folkert van Wijk]

The display depends on the blacksmith, who is going to make the umbo and shieldgrip .
This could be me, somebody else in our group or an external blacksmith.

But the shield on the pics you posted don't have iron umbo's right?
So is it going ten be a mix?
What pattern umbo will you be using then??

[garrelt]

The picture is posted as an example of known shields with a small size.
The umbo and shieldgrip will be made after an example from Oss-Ussen, De tempel van Empel (both in the book mentioned on page 322-324), or an other one from our region.

[Robert Vermaat]

here in Gallia Belgica

By that I hope you mean 'here in Germania Secunda"?

[garrelt]

Isn't that a bit later.
I suffer a little bit from MPS (Multi Period Syndrome), this comes with the job.

Part 1 picking up the plan to make the shield (done)
Part 2 sawing the basic board to start with (done)

Next step
Drawing all the necesary circles with al large compas on teh board and cutting them out.
In the showfight shield this can also be done because i have an extra umbo.

[garrelt]

This is going to become a How To in shield making.
With the focus on flat shields.
But most of the steps taken here will also apply to curved/convex shields.

For those who can read dutch i have on our homepage a link called tips&info were you can also find this procedure.
Translating this to english will take some time because the event season is starting again comming weekend.

[garrelt]

Circles drawn.The brass strip whith holes is what i use for a compas.
Every circle is a different diameter for a round shield.

As you can see the smallest circle is for your hand.
The grip is already drawn, and the outer edge for the umbo is marked

next step cutting out the circles.

Al these steps are for making a basic showfight (combat ready 9mm thick plywood) shield.

[garrelt]

The shield taking shape.

The next step is to glue the linen cloth on the board.
For this i use pre dyed black linen.
Why black: all our training/showfight shields are black.
Why pre dyed: saves time on painting and also saves the extra weight of the paint.
And a nice painting will be destroyed fast by active use of th shield.