I have seen a few messages in this forum talking about the construction of a heater shield. Most of these are talking about how one would build one of oneself. What I am looking for specifically is how heaters were edged historically... I've seen references to nails, glue and even lacing...

If this has previously been discussed then please forgive me and point me in the right direction...

If not - I'd be interested in finding out if any or all of these were used and if lacing - how was it done?

Thanks in advance!

;)

I'd be interested also. I'm about to start on a shield project. :D ...........McM

This book is very good at answering any questions you may have. It does help if you read German.

https://www.amazon.de/mittelalterliche-Reiterschild-Historische-Entwicklung-kampftauglichen/dp/3935616104

The price alone is worth the photos of the extant shields. It is a valuable resource even if you cannot read the German text.

With regards to functionality of the shield I don't see much of a difference between lacing and tacking/nailing. Lacing, however, would likely have been a more economical method. Nails were a far more valuable commodity in an age where they had to be individually handcrafted, hence other fixings were more often used. As another example, medieval furniture is typically held together with wooden pins. Not sure if you have a specific period in mind so I'm speaking in very broad terms.

Hope you'll share some pics of your shield project! There's a nice straight grained willow tree in my horse paddock I've been eying up to make some split planks for a shield.

ed.

Def get that book if you are working on shields, its brilliant.

Dear Mr. Kasparek,

On Thursday 12 January 2017, you wrote:

. . . Rohlederstreifen = leather strips?

"Rohleder" means "rawhide" in German (literally "roh" = "raw" + "leder" = "leather"), so these are rawhide strips.

I hope this proves helpful.

Best,

Mark Millman

The two 14th century Swedish Kristdala shields are described here, with a more recent conservation report referred in this forum. Here the edging seem to be the same as front and back, several layers of tabby vowen hemp glued down with layers of a glue and plaster mix built up on top.

Maybe we should let Jan Kohlmorgen himself, and not some shady guy in eastern Europe, decide whether to give copies of his very useful book away for free, eh? Its still in print and very cheap for its contents, and nobody gets paid for publishing research like that.

I'm looking for information on the materials used to face shields in the 12th, 13th century. Or more specifically actual references to, or evidence of material other then leather being used to face shields in this period. If anyone can supply this information it would be greatly appreciated.