Now that my wife and I have moved into a larger apartment (with a garage I can turn into a workshop!), I took the opportunity to get to work on some of the projects I've wanted to do for a while now. This is the first project of mine, a "heater" shield.

Its made of birch plywood 1/2" thick with a slight curve applied (I was shooting for more curvature, but hey), backed with wool felt and faced with 6-7 oz leather. The arm pad is seuede with cotton batting underneath (I was hoping for wool, but cotton is cheap). Final dimensions are approximately 20.5 x 29.5 inches.
As you can see, I did make some modern allowances, such as the use of modern upholstery tacks to help attach the leather to the back (I originally had fewer, strategically placed tacks, my wife "filled it in" because she thought it looked nicer that way).
The face was designed by me and painted by my wife.

Still some adjstments to be made. The main enarm needs to be trimmed shorter, and I need to add the guige (the attaching points are on there, as you can see). Other than that, I'm pretty happy with it.

My next project is to make a kite shield :)

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face of the shield

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back of the shield

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just for scale

Very nice first project! Is this for use in some kind of re-enactment activity or a "just becuase I want it" kind of thing?

Partly "just because I want it," partially for lugging around ren-faires.
Mostly so I have something of proper size an weight for when I get around to flourishing and working at the pell when I get the inkeling to take a break from longsword to do sword-and-shield.

Nice work!

Out of curiosity did you base the lace-on attachments for the straps on a particular historical example? I ask because one of these is fairly high on my project list and I don't know a great deal about the details of the strapping.

Thanks for sharing.

Nice job. Looks great. That birch isn't the easiest to bend is it, eh? Adjustments, never ending aren't they.......

Hi!

The shield looks great! How did you curve your wood? In my shield I had a small press that I used (but plywood bends easier) and I used 2 pieces of plywood instead of a single piece. Love to hear the mechanics of the construction!

Ken

I've used carriage bolts in the past. I did like the fact that if you don't peen them, the enarms are removable/replacable (I used this feature when the cheap cruddy straps on of the padded sparring shields I made a couple yars ago broke. Simply uncrewed the nuts and replaced the strap). They don't really have that "look" I'm going for, though. I keep them in mind as a sort of "if all else fails" contingency.

Hmm, I'll have to check out one of the local farm supply stores for rivets. I'm in the middle of Corn Country, there's plenty of them around here. Thanks for the tip, Ken. If I can find good ones, I may use rivets for the upcoming kite shield. Leather stores like Tandy Leather also sell rivets and tools to set them.

Oh, and here's a general tip: if using nails to secure the straps, make sure the nails are of a relatively soft metal. I tried roofing nails at one point. Yeah, that was a mild disaster.

good job

Isn't there a thread around here somewhere in which Chuck mentioned a source for clinch nails for making shields?