SCUTUM, building and testing, some thoughts

[Magnus]

The disposable scutum is a good way of looking at it...especially during war time. I'd be a lot easier to throw an extra layer of rawhide or leather on the facing, or beef up the edging to increase the strength of the shield, rather than having to wait for special wood to be grown to make the best, top quality strips for the lamination. Doesn't make a lot of sense.

Also, I'd like to know just how much more effective using this top quality wood would make the shield, vs regular wood. How much of the shield % is top quality vs regular anyway? Do we know? If it's made with multiple grades of wood, what does that indicate, perhaps nothing. The only way to prove this is by making many, many types of scuta and testing them vs all types of weapon damage using a very controlled environment and measures. I don't think this has been done yet.

But, I'm willing to bet that the difference between the woods is minimal, at least to the point where scutum production wouldn't be halted because the prime materials couldn't be had. And, if that is the case in antiquity (that they used what they had at the time), then it's pretty safe to see that anything went, based on availability.