Avete!<br>
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As Mummius says, it could be your armor that's causing the problem rather than the shield. If your whole arm seems to be going numb, that's a good indicator. But the problem with the lorica might not be that it's too high, but that it's too wide. If the girdle plates don't fit closely to the sides of your chest at the top, they may be pressing outwards against the inside of your arm. So it might feel perfectly comfortable when you put it on and move around, but standing at rest with the arm pulled down straight subtly presses the arm into the armor. Cutting down the top edge of the upper girdle plate probably won't help, in this case.<br>
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If you're really lucky, simply tying the girdle sections together more tightly will cure the problem. You might even overlap the loops at the back and tie them that way. Or bend the loops a little to move them back from the ends of the metal to gain a little more space. Actually removing all the loops on one or both sides, back and/or front, and remounting them farther back is a bit more drastic, but should help a lot.<br>
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Squashing or re-shaping the girdle section is a another solution, and not difficult. Optimally, the plan or ouline of the girdle section, when viewed from above, matches the horizontal cross-section of your chest, without much space between the two. The problem arises when there is space at the sides. So if you squash and re-bend the girdle sections (on the floor, over the edge of your workbench or a handy log or protected couch arm, etc.) you can eliminate that space. Obviously that means there will probably be more of a gap somewhere else, but if it's at front and back that's a lot less of a problem.<br>
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It sounds like your shield construction is pretty good overall, so I doubt that the weight alone is the problem. The thickness of the leather may be adding unnecessary weight if it's over 2-ounce or so. (And from what I've heard, the Dura Europas scutum did have linen over leather on the front, but that's from Connolly and not the actual site report.) Your handle is actually set much farther back than the originals, since those were actually made as part of the shield board. Instead of a single circular hole, they cut 2 half-circles (or a half-circle and a trapezoid) about an inch apart, and that strip between the holes was the grip. It can be thickened with another strip of wood or metal (the central horizontal back brace) or wrapped with leather, but it isn't set out from the back face of the shield at all.<br>
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The taller Dura Europas scutum was 41" tall, and it's the biggest one that we have evidence for (for the Imperial rectangular shape, that is). The smaller one was only 37" tall, so those figures make good parameters. 42" seems to be very popular, but no idea why! I make most of ours about 38-1/2" tall, which is the height I worked out for getting the most out of a 4'x8' sheet of plywood. I use a width of about 28", for the same reason. So that would trim a little off the weight as opposed to yours.<br>
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You can get split oak strips from basket-making supply companies, but I've never tried making a shield from them. Much depends on the thickness of the wood, the type of wood, and whether the board is thicker at the middle than at the edges (which can be done partly by using the thicker strips in the middle on each layer). On average, I wouldn't guess that the original shield boards were significantly lighter than one made with 2 layers of 1/8" birch plywood.<br>
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Anyway, most of that is moot if it's the armor that's causing the numbness rather than the shield. As a stop-gap measure, you might use your shield's carrying strap (over left shoulder or right) to take some of the weight while doing long marches, to give you a chance to flex and move your arm regularly.<br>
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Good luck, and keep us posted! Vale,<br>
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Matthew/Quintus <p></p><i></i>
