07-08-2016, 06:04 PM
(07-06-2016, 12:31 PM)Dan Howard Wrote: They were turned on a lathe, reinforced across the grain on the front with thin wooden laths, and reinforced on the back with leather.
(07-08-2016, 10:39 AM)Crispianus Wrote:(07-08-2016, 01:19 AM)rocktupac Wrote: A block of wood (poplar or willow) that was required for a smallish-sized aspis would have been roughly 375-400 pounds.
Your not turning steel blocksmy estimate is 50ibs for a circle of poplar(20% moisture content air dried and 31lbs a cubic foot) 30 inches in diameter and 4 inches thick and a total volume of 1.635 cubic feet, 6 inches would be 75lbs, 8 inches 100lbs...... and thats the high end... the block of wood itself would act as flywheel when turning, so the only thing you'd have to do in keep it turning at a suitable speed, it might be an idea to look up George Lailey a "green wood" turner and his techniques....
Boy was my math wrong!!! My apologies. This is still a large volume of wood and substantial mass.
I still haven't seen any evidence for a shield being turned on a lathe in the ancient world. All evidence points to small and lightweight items. Lathe-turned shields are a theory -- speculative at best and the evidence highly inconclusive.
Scott B.
