Hi all,
Could anyone share any light on construction techniques of the complex shaped encranche/jousting shields of the 15th/16th century? For example:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/23353

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/22876

I have heard it said that they took really thick lumber and then used an adze to carve the curves into them, but that seems like both a time intensive method that wastes a lot of lumber. I’m also aware of curving thin glued slats (i.e. the equivalent of plywood), but my brain can’t comprehend how to do that with multiple planes of curves.

I’d love to try to construct one (with period methods if possible), but I can’t find much information, and even trying to look closely at period originals is difficult, since the wood itself is generally covered in linen, gesso and paint.

There are a few new publications on 15th/16th century shields including breiding-medieval-shields-in-philadelphia (open-access PDF of Breiding) - faltermeier-meyer-restoration-behaim-shields and beuing-augustyn-eds-schilde At least some of the complex-shaped jousting targets seem to have been carved from a single piece of wood as far as the owners can tell.

In terms of carving time, remember that shield boards are generally light and easy to carve woods like willow, poplar, or linden, and that they started with felled trees (not kiln-dried dimensional lumber) and could work the wood green.

This Armour Archive thread might be helpful

I agree with Sean,

They are relatively small and of course the timber was cheap and compared to the guys who ended up owning them, the carvers would be paid next to nothing, so it would definitely be easier than laying up complex curves.

I did some work on these with Toby Capwell a few years ago and the one I made for him was faced with elm for ash end grain blocks to help catch the lance tip and stop it skidding off which would add to the danger and I have certainly seen them faced with horn blocks too.

Regards

Tod

Good point Tod. The late Will McLean had a few notes on targes faced with horn on his site https://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com/2010/02/15th-century-jousting-targes-faced-with.html The Seneschal of Hainault forbade the use of steel-covered shields for a deed of arms in 1403.

If you dig into the articles by curators, you can find shields with all kinds of additives between the wood and the leather / linen, such as sinew or ground glass, but its probably a good idea to begin with just the basic materials.

Edit: URL in first link gets broken because it contains the word s-h-i-e-l-d so I moved to a more specific link, see the tags to find more posts like it

The consensus seems to be that they were made of multiple planks glued together.

That enables to give more complex concave/convex shapes that then can be carved up and enhanced by covering them with gesso and parchment/rawhide.

For example this shield I've made was built using 5 cm thick planks, glued at an angle and then carved to the desired final shape and thickness.

[ Linked Image ]
[ Linked Image ]
[ Linked Image ]
[ Linked Image ]
[ Linked Image ]
[ Linked Image ]
[ Linked Image ]

Thanks, guys, this is very useful!

Leo Todeschini wrote:

I did some work on these with Toby Capwell a few years ago and the one I made for him was faced with elm for ash end grain blocks to help catch the lance tip and stop it skidding off which would add to the danger and I have certainly seen them faced with horn blocks too.

This is really interesting. Are the blocks held on with glue? Is this assembled similarly to a modern kitchen cutting board?