My Scutum Press and Scutum Blank Construction

[Aurelianus]

I would not cover the scutum with rawhide!!!! That’s very delicate!!!!!! If you are not familiar with its processing your scutum will get suddenly a very little radius :lol:

Vegetabil tanned leather which is whetted can get painted very good as well!!!!!!

[caiusbeerquitius]

Archaeological evidence rather hints to rawhide, though. Do you know of any leather-covered shields one could reconstruct? I don´t.
But anyway, meanwhile I´d rather use gesso anyway. cheap, and as stable as rawhide, and more easily repaired.

[Crispvs]

Actually, I have worked with rawhid in the past and I am well aware of the way it shrinks as it dries. However, I would dispute any assertion that rawhide is delicate. Quite the opposite is true: it is very tough, which is why they make dog chews from it.

Crispvs

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Perhaps Lucius is refering to the task of applying it to a curved scutum, if it needs careful consideration of shrinkage?

[Aurelianus]

Actually, I have worked with rawhid in the past and I am well aware of the way it shrinks as it dries. However, I would dispute any assertion that rawhide is delicate. Quite the opposite is true: it is very tough, which is why they make dog chews from it.

Please teach me to cover a scutum with rawhid! Thank you!!!!!

Quite the opposite is true: it is very tough, which is why they make dog chews from it.

I never have doubt that rawhid is tougher than leather!

.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

What!! hock: hock: Even Old Boot Leather? :lol: :lol: :lol:

[sulla felix]

Finding decent strips that thin is hard NOT in the desert, too. I'm seriously considering getting some white oak boards and having them planed down to around 1/8" thick. White oak is good for bending. That's the stuff they use for those slat baskets, etc. As a last chance, I'm going to check into using basket slat material. I'll let all know if it is findable in a width substantial enough for use.

David,

I am considering getting a local joinery shop here to rough saw me some oak and beech strips, or laths as I call them (both available here for a reasonable price). I would be interested to see how you get on with white oak or the basket slat matterial. I am thinking here that the slats need to be maximum 3mm thick, probably less. This takes some quite accurate setting up of a bench rip saw, and the joinery shop here has suggested that cutting strips that thin will be better with a bandsaw. I'll let you know how I get on.

Not sure if oak and beech are accurate, but that is what I will have to go with.

[sulla felix]

If you can get it in large enough pieces, rawhide would almost certainly be better than leather, both for 'toughness' and being painted on.

Crispus,

Can you provide any details of rawhide suppliers? Even if I go with linen on the main body of the shield, I would like to try rawhide edging. Matt's idea with unravelling dog chews was ingenious, but as he says longer lengths would be preferable.

[sulla felix]

Fix first at all the gain-strips!!!! One of them in the middle of the scutum (fit it that it has the right form of the handle – what is quite wasteful - or disconnect it by the circle.

Here you can see how it could look like (sorry I have no pictures of my Scuta at the moment).

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o127 ... tum228.jpg


Glue on the handle first before you are covering the scutum. Now cover the scutum first with linen an after that with leather. Now you should rivet the buckle and the handle very good together (so you must never fear to "lose your control" on your scutum if a adorable Teuton would kiss your scutum with his axe)!!!!!.

Thanks Patrik,

I may be a little confused here but have you covered your scutum with linen and leather, or do you mean linen inside face, and leather outside face?

I see what you mean about rivetting the handle on throught the whole of the construction - I am not planning on any Teutones getting too near my scutum with an axe. They would have received a short sharp thrust with my gladius long before that!!!!! :lol:

[Aurelianus]

Hi Sulla

First I have covered the whole sutum (front- and back side) with linen. Then I have covered just the front side with leather again. Every lay I have put over the borders. Together with the the metal fittings - which I prefere because of its appearance - you get very strong borders (in case you are not fast enough with your Gladius :lol: )

[Marcus Mummius]

I think I remember Tarbicus here on RAT having found a source for rawhide in the UK. You could ask him. We buy ours in a leathershop here in Belgium. It isn't very cheap though. About 75euro for a cowhide.

Vale,

[Robert Vermaat]

About 75euro for a cowhide.

Dimensions?

[M. Demetrius]

IN the US, try Tandy Leather Company or The Leather Factory stores. They sell cow rawhide in whole skins of varying sizes, and in strips about 2" (50mm) wide. The latter should work fine for shield edging, and you don't have to worry about the dog chews (some of them are partly cooked, and not really rawhide, and they don't work very well.). The strips are flat, and easy to soak and stretch.

[Robert Vermaat]

IN the US, try Tandy Leather Company or The Leather Factory stores. They sell cow rawhide in whole skins of varying sizes, and in strips about 2" (50mm) wide. The latter should work fine for shield edging, and you don't have to worry about the dog chews (some of them are partly cooked, and not really rawhide, and they don't work very well.). The strips are flat, and easy to soak and stretch.

50 mm is way to small for me, I used 3-4 cm. Dog chews may not be neat at times, but the one they sell locally here look fine on a shield.

[M. Demetrius]

50 mm is way to small for me, I used 3-4 cm.

3cm=30mm; 4cm=40mm, so how is 50mm too small? Oh, well. one of the mysteries of life, I guess.