Hi everyone,

A few pictures of my latest shield project below. A small, slightly curved heater shield in late 13th to late 14th century style. The vertical 'fist to point' orientation of the enarmes is partly speculative, but based on some iconography and the rather small dimensions of the shield (60cm long x 45cm wide x 14mm thick) which preclude some of the stapping arrangements on larger heaters. Does allow one a nasty shield punch with the bottom edge. This one took me a while actually, as I experimented with placing edging underneath the canvas covering, which was a bit fussier than I thought, but turned out quite nicely. Oh, and its still a bit too clean looking at the moment, have to get it a bit dirty and worn in! ;)

I don't think it will take long for a myArmoury forumite to identify the heraldy, right? ;)

Cheers,

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First, a glamour shot...

Front and rear of the shield, including enarmes and guige.

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Very nice! Plank or ply construction?

Thanks! This one is ply, I'm not quite ready to try the fully curved shield with planks. ;)

Cheers,

Very nice work..
Did you paint or dye the front?

I love it. Is the front covered with Canvas? What method did you use to apply the canvas? Just the nails, or a thin coat of glue?

What sort of metal bits did you use to attach the straps? They look good and flat on both sides without being sharp.

the only thing I would do to it is to dye the arm straps the same color as the shoulder strap. Right now they are screaming vegetable tanned, and once they match the shoulder strap, you'll have it perfect.

Thanks for the feeback everyone.

To answer a few Qs:

The shield is covered with calico which was both glued on and held in place with tacks around the edges. I wanted the edges to be durable, so there is edging made from some hose tacked around the edge, underneath the calico - I could have used rawhide or leather, but this was really a shield for training, so I couldn't justify the extra expense since it would be covered with canvas anyway. The shield was finished by painting. The enarmes are held on with that most horrendous modern anachronism, the nut and bolt, but I'm thinking of using some peened rivets in their place. Also, I may look to colour coordinating the straps with the guige (the guige on it at the moment is just a loaner strap!) as yes, that would finish it off nicely.

And finally, the blazon is the simple medieval form for the Teutonic Knights (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic_knights).

Cheers,

Looks nice.

A couple of tips; when you get the final guiges in place, you'd want some kind of adjustment possibility; a buckle, or perhaps even better, a bifurcated strap and holes, as seen on sword belts of the era.
This will alow you to adjust the guige for active use, hanging on the shoulder, or transport. Buckles are easier to adjust while worn, knots easier to open in a hurry.

A shield this small might hang on the shoulder while you are using a two handed weapon, and provide additional protection to the side of the body, especially the spear side armpit.
It also means that you can use the shield with just one of the enarmes, which explains some of the wierd enarme arrangements on some shields.
You might want to add another enarme for horisontal movement; the easiest way to do this is simply adding a stap between the top right and bottom right bolts.
A roll of cord and some experimentation is the best way to find what fits you best; the sheer diversity of historical enarme/guige arrangements point to a large degree of "personal taste" beeing applied.

William,

Very nice. Although it's due to a particular bias of mine, I really like the fact that you went with a simpler and earlier heraldic style, rather than a later, more complex form.

that would be the Hospitallers, from the third crusade.

oops...teutonics....black on white, not white on black... but then again, with religious fanatics, isn't everything usually black and white?

Well, argent a cross sable is also the arms of Cologne--though I'm not sure whether it's of the city, the domain (duchy?), or the bishopric.

Well, the white on red of the hospitalers is also the same as the Danish flag. Simple designs are sure to have duplicates. Especially if they have symbol value.