I want to spend some time during the holidays making a 1300's style heater shield to go with my Albion Squire. The sources for shield construction I have found though is SCA or LARP ones, and I dont know enough about them to know weather theyre historical or not.

So does any one here have sources about historical shield construction to share? I would really appreciate some input.

Depends on if you are wanting to do wood or metal.

Metal is MUCH easier. Get yourself a sheet of cold-rolled 14-16 gauge, because by the time you are done dishing, it'll have dropped a gauge or two. Measure the distance from the end of your forearm near your elbow crook, to your clutched palm. Take a look at pre-existing shields to see where these straps will go. Then just cut out the "Acorn" shape and lay it in a large tree stump and start smacking it! Heating it is ALWAYS much easier to work with, hence "heater" but uneccisary for this simple of a piece.

Wood is fascinating! Did you know that since Ancient Greek times, wooded shields were made of a strip-by-strip plywood type construction? I would reccomend the same for a wooded heater. >IF< you don't want to glue strips together yourself, then get a piece of board large eough to hold your patern in one cut and thick enough to take the dish shape: because youre going to be sanding out the dish, NOT bending the wood!

Its a pretty easy project, just time-intensive either way. If what Ive said makes little sense (hey, I admit I ramble) e-mail me.

Good luck,

Here's a great thread on just this. They even have pictures!

It's nominally about "Norman" kite shields, to be pedantic, but a heater really only differs from that in its shape and lack of a boss, neither of which actually affect the way you make the shield.

Yes, heater is a modern term. In the medieval period, these are almost always known as escu, escutcheons, or other variants of the Latin scutum in Romance languages, and shields, schilds, etc. in German and English sources. The name heater simply refers to the shape of the flat iron used to press clothes.

Gregory Liebau has a nice tutorial on construction. I thought there was one on this site too, but haven't found it yet. Here's one he had on AA:
http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewto...p;t=167321