How to hold the scutum?

[Vitapondera]

Well I thought there might be some cool technique but it looks like this is a common problem. Padding it is!

[M. Demetrius]

I guess I forgot to present my theory that if people today are larger their hands are larger, so the bosses made for smaller hands don't work for us.

So here goes:

We have one local Roman who stands about 5'1", and the scutum made with the 5" boss hole fits his hand just fine. But the rest of us have to either 1) put pads on the shield or hand (something I think the clever Romans would have noticed as a disadvantage and needless process: make it the right size and you don't have the problem) or 2) have crippled left hands (nope, the Romans wouldn't have stood for that) or 3) make the bosses proportionately larger, which we do. The bosses I make are based on a 6" hole. There isn't the problem of hitting the back of the hand on that rim, but it's probably not a bad idea to tack some leather over the top edge anyhow.

Just an observation, not a commandment.

[Tarbicus]

David, all of the measurements of Roman male skeletons I've seen point to the average height being 5'7". That's still a 5% difference which has an effect on everything we use, and I thoroughly agree about upscaling for modern men and women. Helmets are my biggest bugbear, and the Windisch helm is a pretty big one that had heaps of padding and an arming cap to make it fit.

[Robert]

Wouldn't moving the grip away from the umbo by adding thickness to the "outside" of the shield and reducing it on the umbo side solve the problem? I have made a clipeus with a 5 " deepeeka boss using the brace slat which runs across the hole (which is even less then 5 " about 4 3/4", 12 centimeters for the metrics) as a handle and this doesn't seem to cause my hand to dig into the rim at all. And I don't have small hands, either. Perhaps I have to try lugging it around for two hours, but I have carried it a full hour without any harmfull effects. Is the Deepeeka reconstruction of the handle/reinforcement accurate, liked based on the Dura shields? One would think the Romans would not have chosen a construction making additional gear such as mits a must. Moving the handle away from the shield a bit would seem to make sense.

[M. Demetrius]

So your clipeus has a vertical grip? Turn it 90 degrees and carry it for a while. Most scuta grips are horizontal. That changes the way it hits your hand. I guess there's other solutions, too. But the shield has to remain as balanced as possible, so a scutum grip can't be moved too far toward the body, or the shield becomes "front heavy".

Already tried that. Much of a bummer.

[Robert]

Salve! No, my clipeus has the normal horizontal grip and is carried like a suitcase with an overhand grip. I know the balance of moving the grip towards the body, but in this case, it's more a question of an inch or less more towards to body to save the biting of the edge into the hand.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I am 5'7" and have small hands, and my scutum handle is not part of the scutum body, but arches in towards me, but even so, I think some type of padding is required. The balance of my scutum seems to be about perfect as well!