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Following on from my earlier thread I made another blank, this time using two sheets of 4mm plywood. I rounded the corners, applied the bracing, and added a handle, only this time I off-set the handle to give nice clearance to the back of the hand.
The blank:
Detail of the handle which is fixed to the scutum via two wooden glued pegs that pass right through the whole construction to the outer face of the scutum:
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Detail showing the clearance at the back of the hand - nice and comfy:
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Now the challenging part - covering with linen. I started with the easier outside face of the scutum, using generous applications of PVA glue, and a variety of clips to hold the edges in place.
Here is the detail of how I dealt with the cut out:
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Reverse side:
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And now the hard side. I did this in two halves and again used clips, particularly on the bracing to try to get the linen to hold in place correctly whilst the glue dried.
Here I tackle the second half:
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Here it is almost finished:
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And here is a detail showing how the linen neatly covers the plywood and is trimmed around the handle:
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its looking good realy godd
D D
Anton O\'\'N eil
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Thanks Anton,
It is mainly down to all the excellent tips and advice from fellow RAT members.
Hard bit next - rawhide edging
hock:
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How successfully did the linen form to the corners of the bracing...it's here that I generally see areas where the cloth doesn't really match the angles of the wood.
I've not done rawhide edging, but I have done leather several times. I've found for me that the easy way is to use a scrap board on the inside of the shield, held or clamped in place (held on the curves, clamped on the straight runs) and drilled through with an electric drill, then sewn in a long "saddle stitch", for which I've successfully used about a 3/4" (2cm) spacing, more or less. I tie the knots on the back, so the front looks nice and neat.
Using leather, I first cut the strips, wet them and bend them to shape, then apply them to the shield, clamp them and let them dry in place. They tend to hold on that way, rather than constantly trying to escape. I suspect a similar tactic would overcome the rawhide. If you stretch and sew rawhide, with much stretch, the shrinking as it dries might do something bad to your stitching. Experiment on a couple of scrap wood pieces, and see how is best. If you can get a hide, you'll be able to choose the width of your strips better.
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I'd like to know how well it's balancing thus far. With the offset handle and being very centered, I'd imagine it would try to tilt forward quite a bit. Or is the curve compensating for that?
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Quote:How successfully did the linen form to the corners of the bracing...it's here that I generally see areas where the cloth doesn't really match the angles of the wood.
The large stationery clips I used were perfect for the job because they have a long flat edge. I used plenty of glue, and especially soaked the linen cloth in the corners of the bracing, and then applied these clips. Apart from one or two areas of very slight "bubbling" around the bracing it worked very well (and much better than I had anticipated).
And thanks for the tips regarding rawhide Demetrius. I was worried about streching the rawhide, then applying it with stitching, only for the rawhide to shrink and snap the thread. I am planning on strecthing and clipping in place, and the allowing to dry before stitching. I will let you know how it goes.
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Quote:I'd like to know how well it's balancing thus far. With the offset handle and being very centered, I'd imagine it would try to tilt forward quite a bit. Or is the curve compensating for that?
Felix, it is actually tilting back towards me very slightly because I placed the handle off centre (vertically) by about 1/4 of an inch. I also made the handle rectangular instead of rounded so that I could control the shield a little better.
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Excellent wood working! Are you going to cover the face with rawhide?
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Thanks John,
Rawhide - right now I have rawhide strips and a complete deer rawhide on the way to me. What I wanted to do was try rawhide edging on this scutum and full rawhide covering on another scutum that I want to construct using 3 layers of thin strip timber instead of plywood. I am having difficulty getting the thin strips out here though without spending vast amounts of money (huge wastage on sawing 2-3mm thick strips from larger lumber, even with a bandsaw). My own hunch is that the Romans are likely to have used green timber (unseasoned) because it is easier to split laths, and bend to shape.
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