08-22-2016, 03:02 AM
Hey Scott,
If you are looking into the aspis, you need to read Stamatopoulou's thesis. I wrote a chapter on the aspis that drew heavily on it. As for a block of wood that would be lathed, the grain on the Bomarzo aspis seems to show that there was some bending (steam?) of the planks before they were assembled and lathed. There are circular parallel grooves on some shields that are hard to explain without a lathe.
The best replica I have personally used was made in a different manner, perhaps seen on I think it was the Basel shield, where fragments of laths can survived. A friend of mine built aspides up from steam-bent laths for an aspis that was not much over 5 kg and strong as hell. It took over 300 kg on its face at a pint that was a 1x2inch steel block (part of a scale I was using to measure othismos forces for hoplites in file). They were composite structures, and much of the strength comes not from the core alone, but from the linen (probably twinned) used to cover the face.
So where are you now?
If you are looking into the aspis, you need to read Stamatopoulou's thesis. I wrote a chapter on the aspis that drew heavily on it. As for a block of wood that would be lathed, the grain on the Bomarzo aspis seems to show that there was some bending (steam?) of the planks before they were assembled and lathed. There are circular parallel grooves on some shields that are hard to explain without a lathe.
The best replica I have personally used was made in a different manner, perhaps seen on I think it was the Basel shield, where fragments of laths can survived. A friend of mine built aspides up from steam-bent laths for an aspis that was not much over 5 kg and strong as hell. It took over 300 kg on its face at a pint that was a 1x2inch steel block (part of a scale I was using to measure othismos forces for hoplites in file). They were composite structures, and much of the strength comes not from the core alone, but from the linen (probably twinned) used to cover the face.
So where are you now?
