constructing and mounting a porpax

[Kineas]

Worthwhile to note (worth a laugh, too,) that every technique used on this aspis except the turning of the blank by Dan's dad has been tested on my daughter's Halloween aspis. it's not dished, but it has a porpax and fittings and is covered in layers of linen, 6 layers of gesso, period paints, and some gold leaf:



and:

[Chris B]

Funny, Christian.

I am also finishing a similiar "aspis" for four of my children for Halloween as well. My 10 year old son is painting Athena on his with the Corinthian Helm angled back on the head. I am keeping their shield's simpler though without a covering and straps on the back due to the time crunch of them telling me that they wanted to be hoplites only a couple days ago. I was watching my 10 year old paint his own last night.

"Don't pick your brush up so much."
"Stop going over the line."
"Smoother Strokes."
"Do you want me to fix that line for you?"
"Sorry for bumping the table." "Sucks when someone does that doesn't it?" "Now you undertand why daddy gets upset when YOU do it!"
"I can't watch anymore." "You're giving daddy a head ache and anxiety."
:lol:

[Kineas]

Chris--first, let me say that Dan and Aurora and I found your "Making an Aspis--Ring method" thread inspiring. I'm not sure I'd have anything but some sheet bronze without it!

Bea is quite a good painter, for her age, so I let her paint all the red after I drafted the owl (copied off a vase) and she made very few errors. Like you, I tried to get her to do as much as possible. And I ALSO tried ot get some shop etiquette across (this is why we don't interrupt dad when he's doing detail work! This when we were interrupted while applying gold leaf.)

Anyway, I thought they'd be worth a hoot.

[Kineas]

Here I am using the mostly finished aspis. Still needs a final device (I haven't made the stencil yet) and 10 more coats of rust-red. But after several hours of mock-combat, the surface held up beautifully--I really have to say that the 2 linen layers with lots of glue is probably tougher over time than a layer of bronze--or at least, for a reenactor, the bronze would show a LOT of wear. We found that we smack these things together A LOT in combat.



PS this was our first "event". So much to do--so much kit to make!

[Mythos_Ruler]

Man, I wish I could do stuff like this and make my own panoply. I suck at handiwork like this!

PS: The kid's shield is awesome!

[Chris B]

No problem. I am glad I could finally help someone here. Your daughter is adorable with her shield. I will try to get pics of my kids on Friday at our church activity with them and their four "hoplite" shields. Your aspis is very nice. I like it a lot. Thanks for sharing it.

[Lorica]

Hello, Aurora the surly goldsmith here, I hope you will all forgive me my long absence. In my own defense it's because I'm really busy, not shy. Thank you Giannis (and all of you) for your kind words. Our mini event on Saturday has gotten me all fired up and I am very excited to make as much ancient Greek stuff as possible.
We found that Kineas' clenched porpax held up amazingly well to the rigors of our quite aggressive sparring on Saturday and the Friday before. My temporary porpax which was initially just mounted with a row of brass tacks started to fall apart after a mere half hour of use. So clearly that's no good. I already have a couple of ideas for exciting variations on Kineas original porpax.
My temporary one has a narrow bronze strip over a heavy leather strap, which looks remarkably like some of the images I have seen.
This may just be a coincidence but I am going to try and incorporate that look and the incidental comfort level into the next one.
After completing my porpax we plan to be producing aspides for custom order. I can already see hundreds of potential variation in furniture and trimming. We also have a professional illustrator in our group, who will paint shield blazons.
Anyway that's the first in hopefully numerous posts on my part. Lovely to meet you all. I swear I'm not normally as ill tempered looking as that picture appears.

[Kineas]

Here's the aspis after fifteen coats of iron-oxide red and the flowers in. Next--the raven!

Eventually, when our bronze=working skills are better, we'll all have bronze rims. For now, it'll have to go as it is.



Worth noting that after hours of bashing and hacking, my aspis had two dents, each about 4 cm long and deep enough to show. Neither went through the gesso to the linen, and only one penetrated the red oxide color. Many, many scrapes and abrasions--all of which were fixed in two minutes with a little paint. I received advice from several WMA friends that I wanted two coats of linen under the gesso rather than one,a nd now I see why. That shield face is TOUGH.

I really want to try and put my longche through it. But that experiment will have to wait until it's worn out, or something!

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Hey hey,Aurora is here! Welcome oficially now. I'm looking forward to seeing your porpax. Those thinner porpakes were become exceedingly popular during the fifth and fourth centuries. One could assume they were more comfortable.Is that true? The leather and/or felt liner was attached in an interesting way and was possibly detachable? Is your leather liner detachable?
And...do you find that all-bronze covered aspises is something that can be produced in a logical cost? Of course t depends what each of us considers "logical" but i mean something the average serious re-enactor could hope for...
Kineas,the shield looks good. Some hacks on it might also look nice. They'd make you look tougher :wink:
Khairete
Giannis

EDIT: I forgot the laudes for the porpax,at least the one i've seen.

[Lorica]

Thanks I'm glad I finally showed up. We have found out a whole bunch of things. First the leather lining in Christian's shield is actually directly attached ( it is shaped to the bronze, riveted on and then tacked underneath). We actually did that because we were afraid that the bronze sheet all on its own would not be strong enough at the bend points. The leather is meant to help keep it solid.
Now of course we haven't tried without the leather so we don't know if we are being unnecessarily wary but its not the kind of thing you want to find out after you've finished your shield. I suspect that it would be ok. Maybe its worth trying on mine...
But as a noteworthy point. We didn't make Christians porpax snug enough, and it's very uncomfortable. So we are planning to pad it with some kind of leather or sheepskin.
That will probably be removable. My temporary one which is quite snug and lined with thick leather is extremely comfortable. So my final one will model that.

[Paullus Scipio]

Hi Aurora! ( a very appropriate name for a Goldsmith, by the way :wink: )

A sheepskin liner to the porpax would be entirely appropriate and, IIRC, is historically accurate too....I'm sure I've seen them depicted on pots, but can't think of a specific example at the moment.

The thin porpaxes, of course, make the Aspis unusable without a 'sleeve' liner of some kind and are probably what is meant when Spartan porpaxes are referred to as 'removable' so as to make the shield useless......as you have discovered, if the porpax itself is 'tacked' or otherwise temporarily fastened, then the shield rapidly becomes dysfunctional.

[Kineas]

Here's the Raven in layout.




Here's the Raven with one coat on:



Here's the Raven, complete:

[Kineas]

Here' the finished interior:



and:



and on my shoulder for Halloween...

[Chris B]

Very nice shield. We too, wore our Greek impressions for Halloween and to our Renaissance Festival here in Texas. That is a very nice Aspis and I look forward to seeing more. I am planning on experimenting with a metal outer layer next year so I will be sure to forward on anything learned. Take care.

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Very nice,Kineas! Congratulations on your shield. Very nice pattern and of cource very nice fittings.It's interesting you placed onl four rings.Although this is very accurate,it is indeed unusual from re-enactors. One opinion is to use two separate ropes or even double ropes,for each pair of rings,the upper and lower,and do not attach them to the antilabe.
I also like the black circle on the inside. Although I believe when depicted on vases it indicates bronze re-enforcement,it gives a nice and unique note on yours.
Khaire
Giannis

EDIT: And laudes.