Shield tips?

[Titus Marius Secundus]

Hey Legionaries! and...generals...oh whatever...
Soon, I'll get around to making a shield, though, right now I'm taking details etc. I've been given some help, but I want to make a proper thread on this subject for others to see and be helped with also! I am wondering if there is an easier way to bend a scutum shield than putting it in a wooden frame press, made especially for it :???: I kinda want to make my own, the sword I have, which I have pictures up, I want the shield to match. If you think a curved sided around 50 ad shield will match, great, or a late republican one, though I don't want it to in anyway remind me of the defeat at Cannae lol :roll: AND what ply wood should I use, most accurate, but with a price budget! ? easy and local to get. I know of the normal ply wood, and this eighth inch, but brown ( hardwood?) plywood thin, but very strong and bit expensive ...?

[kranger3]

Well, you have 2 choices: accurate or not accurate. Modern plywood is far from what Romans used for making a shield. But of course, it is cheaper and less labour intensive... but not accurate.

If you look at pictures from this site: http://fabricaromanorum.shawwebspace.ca/.../-_scvtvm/
it will give you an idea about how a mid-1st century Roman shield is made. 3 layers of curved strips of wood glued side by side (one layer horizontally, a second vertically, and the third one horizontally), then covered by linen (or very thin leather/hide), then painted (with milk paint or something similar if you want to get the tint right).

For the shape, a republican one might be old-fashioned by this date, but possibly still in use somewhere. Go with an Augustan one with curved sides, or a rectangular one, both are safe.

[Titus Marius Secundus]

Thank you, this is very helpful, I think I'll do it this way, that shield looks way better than most others I see!!!!!!!! But how did he bend those strips? Looks awfuly hard! I have a heat gun, and a torch, but, uknow....what else? water? and, a what to tie them around to give the shape.

[Crispvs]

If you wanted to make a clipeius type shield (which would be just as 'Roman' as the curved legionary scutum but easier for you to make) I started this thread a couple of years ago and it contains a good deal of helpful advice from various people on doing rawhide shield edging:
http://www.romanarmytalk.com/rat.html?fu...480#260259

If you wanted to do brass shield edging, have a look at Florentius' website:
http://www.florentius.com/scutumedging.htm

As to making a curved scutum, as has already been pointed out, you can make it in either an accurate way or an inaccurate way. The accurate method may prove very tedious for a beginner so I would suggest a method which is far from accurate but which would achieve a good final effect which would look outwardly fairly accurate once the shield had been faced, and which is far easier for a beginner.

This method involves using two sheets of thin plywood (about 3/8 inch ply would be about right) and coating one side of one with contact adhesive. Stick the two together on a flat surface, making sure that contact is achieved across the entire surface and then immediately place the sheets against a suitable former, such as a large tubular rubbish bin or rimless smooth sided fuel drum and tighten the boards against the former with cargo straps and ratchet clamps, tightening the clamps until the board is pulled into a curve which ensures the entire facing surface of the wood lies against the former. Don't worry if you see the edge of one piece of ply start to overlap the edge of the other piece - you can cut it to shape later. Leave it for a couple of days to fully cure. When you relax the straps and remove the shield, the curve will 'relax' slightly but you should still be left with a good curvature which will be permanent.

This is the way we used to make eleventh century style kite shields in the medieval group I used to belong to. We used to use a four foot high tubular plastic rubbish bin which was about eighteen inches across as our shield former and always used at least three straps, with the top and bottom ones being the first to be applied. We used to find that it would take three or four of us to perform the operation - two to hold the board in place and one to two to apply and then tighten the straps. We used to bring each strap to a reasonable tension before applying the next and once all three (or sometimes four) straps were in place and under tension we would then ratchet them up to be as tight as they could possible be got. Even when the straps were being tightened we still needed one to two people to hold the board in place as tightening individual straps could cause the board to move out of position unexpectedly. Keep the shield in a dry place while it is one the former.

Once your shield has been brought into a suitably curved shape, tidy up the edges (which will have been pulled out of alignment with each other) nail re-enforcing strips to the inside. Cut a semicircle out immediately above and below the central horizontal re-enforcing strip for your hand. After this, spread glue across the outer face of the shield (PVA will be fine for this) and lay linen onto this. Smooth the linen down until there are no wrinkles and the entire piece of linen in direct contact with the wood. Cut off any overlap. If you wish you can also do this to the inside of the shield but if so you will have to take account of the re-enforcing strips.

By this time you will be ready to apply paint, edging and shield boss. Thus you will have a scutum which looks accurate enough but you will have saved yourself the trouble of making and laying scores of thin wooden laths and making a proper shield press.

Of course, if you were to make a clipeius, much of this effort would be unnecessary.


Crispvs

[Titus Marius Secundus]

Alrighty Crispvs. Thanks so much for your help so far :grin: I will chose the easy way, as I don't really want to make the proper press, and with the easy one, you still get a good, solid, still visibly accurate finish! I mean, both ways are a form of plywood, and I'm sure I have found a hardwood plywood. It looks darker, and it's a third thinner than the building type. It sounds very solid when you bang it with ur fist. Like you'd expect from a hard wood. Plus, I can't remember how much it was, but around 8 times yhe price, or more! Those links have proved good. I like the one about the edging, as I'll be using linen most likely.
Sam :mrgreen:

[Gaius Longius]

Hi Crispus,

I'm hopeing you had a typo with the 3/8" ply wood either that or a very strong left arm.lol

Regards,

Gary.

[Crispvs]

Hello Gary,

Yes you are right. That should have been 3/16" ply. Thanks for pointing that out.

Crispvs

[Titus Marius Secundus]

Any thicker I would say no, but 6-8ths " total isn't horrible. I would go for half an inch, but realistically, if an authentic Roman scutum was made of 3 layers or wooden strips thick, and there's a limit to how thin the strips would be, 6-8ths " doesn't sound bad, just right maybe. NO THICKER. Must remember, their shields had to stop swords and arrows... I don't think under half an inch would do ANYTHING!


Sam

[Titus Marius Secundus]

are...are, um, we sure about this? :-o

[Crispvs]

A half inch thick shield would be extremely heavy to carry. Any type of armour (and here this includes shields) must always be a compromise between what offers the best protection and what can be carried or worn for a sustained period of time.

Don't worry about the shield only being about 3/8 inch thick. It is amazing the difference gluing a fabric facing to a shield will make, especially if it is painted. Having been a combat re-enactor in my 20s I found that even a fairly thin shield faced with a single layer of linen was able to take punishment which would ruin a thicker shield without a fabric facing. Also, the edge of the shield tends to sustain more blows in combat than the face of the shield. Therefore the shield edging is also very important to the strength of the shield, as it prevents blows from damaging the edge and possibly splitting the shield. I always found that rawhide was excellent as an edging and would resist many blows heavy enough to split an unreinforced edge. Brass also works well, and the Romans are known to have used both.

Crispvs

[Titus Marius Secundus]

Crispvs! Once again, you have restored confidence! I have to make a bed frame for my...yes..my bed..and at the same time while working with ply wood, I'll make most of the shield..hopefully...or one or the other. So it's 2 layers of 3/16" ply, I'll look into the types of ply when I get there and make another thread on the topic. Thanks so much! Pretty sure I fancy the curved scutum too much to change, hehe... :lol: :oops: :roll: :mrgreen:

[Herbanus]

What a beautifull shield Quintus! I'm dissapointed that i didn't do this. I used multiplex because i didn't know where to get ready made 2mm thick birch or oak! Shame!

[jvrjenivs]

I used multiplex because i didn't know where to get ready made 2mm thick birch or oak! Shame!

Try the Arnhemse Fijnhouthandel next time (And there should be ohter sources in the country as well)

[kranger3]

What a beautifull shield Quintus! I'm dissapointed that i didn't do this. I used multiplex because i didn't know where to get ready made 2mm thick birch or oak! Shame!

Yes it is! I've ordered one of these for my kit, I know that my skills with wood cannot reproduce such quality. mile:

[Herbanus]

I used multiplex because i didn't know where to get ready made 2mm thick birch or oak! Shame!

Try the Arnhemse Fijnhouthandel next time (And there should be ohter sources in the country as well)

Thanks Jurjen! I'll do that. I'm planning on making another shield some time so i'll keep that in mind!