I wanted to post some pictures of recent shield projects that I have been finishing up. The first if a La Tene shield that has been in the works for an insane amount of time. The original shield blade was out of two ply construction that I put together, however after trying to attach rawhide faces it didn't make it. *G* Not only did the rawhide warp it horribly, it broke joints and cracked boards. The second more recent attempt was with a simple plank construction. Once again the rawhide face warped the shield, so it was removed and a leather face and rawhide rim was added. I haven't given up on the rawhide face, although the next time it is going on an early anglo saxon shield where I want it to make it convex. All that is remaining on the la tene is to add a strap boss and handle support which I'll make in the next couple days.

Next is the start of an iberian long shield. This still have a good bit of work remaining, but it is on hold until I figure out how I'm going to do the center grip and boss/umbo. Might add a metal bands on the top and bottom for rims as well. A falcata to go along with this on is most of the way designed and I hope to have it finished sometime before the end of the year. *G*

Then are the targes that my wife and I have been working on the last couple weeks. The small one is a re-vamped on that I did a couple years ago, it recieved a new boss and the brass sheet. My wife did most of the work on the other two, I cut out the board and made the boss and metal fittings. We have been working on these to sell at a local Scottish games coming up in July.

Shane

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The targes

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Nice job Shane . I'm not normally overtly attracted to things Scottish but I especially like the Targe's.

Thanks Allan

I thought that Julie did a pretty nice job on the targes, only wish I would have been able to get something like deer hide or something like that with the fur on to put on the back. Short notice though, and it isn't like we have any place local to get hides. *G*

Shane

Nice looking shields Shane, if you have a hard time finding fur hides check out ebay, pretty good prices most of the time + many choices besides deer....http://search.ebay.com/fur-hide_W0QQsokeywordredirectZ1QQfromZR8

Ben I was just going to suggest that . Shane another good place for hair on hides is any local trapping meets ( kinda like
gun shows for trappers ,guys selling traps, hides ,tanning stuff ect, ) . Harlan use to find hides for ridiculously cheap
at these when he went .

Thanks guys,

I could probably never bring myself to buy hides or leather from ebay, it is just one of those things for me. So far though I have avoided having to buy any leather online or from mail order. A person can easily get spoiled when it isn't a problem finding thing like that locally, that is nine hours away now though. If it hadn't have been a rush on these though it wouldn't have been a problem getting it. Would have liked to have done a spike on one, but that was cut out for time as well.

thanks again
Shane

Nice lookin' targes you got there. I 've beenthinking of making one myself. Tell me....what do you use for the tacks? Are they run-of-the-mill Wal-Mart furniture upholstery tacks or what? MCM

Yep, regular run of the mill furniture tacks. The large shield has plain brass, the small a combination of silver and brass, and the other is "bronze" which has a blued antiqued look. The "bronze" tacks might have been from Lowe's, I know we made trips and wiped both out a few times buying tacks. *G*

Shane

HI Shane,

I like the overall brightness and colour scheme of the La Tene shields....I think they both came out with a bit of an Iberian twist, too *g*

So did you rim the long shield in a wide band of rawhide, am I seeing that right?

I may have missed, but did you go with ply or planks or homemade ply on the targes. Seeing yours and Alex's previously, makes me think I need to make me up a good one sometime soon.

Also folks, this site has been reccommended as a good source for brass tacks, etc. http://www.matoska.com/
the pics here are mylatest that i put finishing touches on...la tene based very closely on the la tene find and an iron age British one.

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I can't believe that I forgot to reply back to this....*sigh*

Thanks Nate, I do love how your horned shield is turning out. Yes that is one wide rawhide rim on the la tene, I haven't made up my mind to do metal bands on the top and bottom as well or not. Heck I just realized that I never took a finished pic with the strap boss....maybe tomorrow.

The small targe is marine grade ply and the other two are birch ply. I did sell the little one at the games today, but the other two hadn't when we left.

Shane

Nate,

I love the white La Tene shield! The boss is well done. Do you have a pic of the reverse side? I would like to see how you did the center grip. :D

Regards,

Rob

Excellent, Nathan! :D

Thanks for the pics. I had a notion to do up my own Celtic shield and was searching for resource material. If you don't mind my asking, where did you get the Gournay II book and is it in French or is it an English translation? Also, what gauge steel was used for the boss on the white La Tene? Again, very nice work! :cool:

Cheers,

Rob

Ok, here is a pic of my shield with the strap boss on. I beat on that boss for atleast three hours trying to get it to fit close and I still never was really happy with it, but it was close enought that I said the heck with it. Part of my problems I think had to do with the shape and thickness of my umbo, if it was thinner and more domed/round it would have been easier. It has problems, but for now it is good enough for me.

I had been considering doing a round umbo boss on the iberian shield, but some new research for me has conviced me no too. Just haven't been able to get far enough in translating to figure out what I'm going to do. Maybe a shorter umbo like Nate's horned shield.

Shane

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