[John Waller]

Karsten,
That is very nice work and exactly what I aspire to make (or buy) this year. I look forward to seeing your web page about the construction.

Regards

John Waller

[Karsten Rohweder]

Dear all,

in case you are curious - we have set up a web page detailing the construction of our pavise. You can view it here.

I still haven't got around to do the canvas covering - but I did buy gesso. We're going to use modern, acrylic gesso and colors, because we don't want to worry about the waterproof-ness of the historic materials... nor about the lead-based whitening agent (and other toxic stuff) of the old painting paraphenalia.

[Craig Porter]

From the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Tapestry, 1475

[Craig Porter]

[Craig Porter]

Ta da!
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Hcguytv0RVU/S3sG28r31vI...Pavise.jpg

[Chad Arnow]

Here are three hand pavises from the Met, one of which I posted a different pic of above.

[Pavel Macku]

Hello everybody.
Here are two pavises from Museum Lauriacum, Enns, Austria ( http://www.museum-lauriacum.at/ ). Unfortunately without accompanying informations (only dated about 1450):

http://img5.rajce.idnes.cz/d0505/2/2719/27193...9_394_.JPG

http://img5.rajce.idnes.cz/d0505/2/2719/27193...9_396_.JPG

http://img5.rajce.idnes.cz/d0505/2/2719/27193...9_397_.JPG

[Arek Przybylok]

I have a problem with grip in pavises. What leather was he made of? I heard about bull's penis ( ), but I need the confirmation.

[Arwid Jonsson]

Have Lurked here for a while, but now i decided to post some.

I'm currently building a pavise, but have run into a problem. What to paint it with:

A: Egg tempera. Classic and works well on gesso but from what i understand waterproof so it would probably fall of if i carry the pavise around in wet weather.

B: Oil paints, Also works well on gesso but i don't know how historical accurate it is.

So should i go for A, and try to find some kind of period early 15th century varnish? Or B?

[Arwid Jonsson]

After some thinking i have decided to go for Oil and then cover it with wax to make it the shield more water proof.

[János Sibinger]

Greetings, gentlemen!
As I heard, egg tempera is quite water resist (it will not be pleased, if you soak it into water, but a few drops of rain won't harm it). The main disadvantage of it, that you need a couple of layers of it, if you don't want it to be transparent.
About bull penises...
I don't think so that bull penis was used as the grip of the pavaises, because this... err material was mouch less common than the normal leather. Otherwise the penises of the dried bull penis was used in a different way: as a weapon. This was the "ancestor" of billy clubs. They are incredibly flexible, but they are capable of braking bones, and even killing someone if hit on a crucial area. They are quite common on fleemarkets in the eastern parts of Austria. in hungarian, this weapon is being called the "bikacsök"

[Mike G]

Hello, I build a lot of pavaises for our reenactment company last year. A Friend of mine and I did a lot of research and analyze a lot original pavaises . I think the comon handle is made of rope wich is sewn in rawhide. We did use egg tempera and gesso for the painting. Then we put some linseed oil on it. And it is quite waterproof. I made some guard duty with my pavaise in the rain, and it works very well. I think the water will damage the shild if you spend a couple of days in the rain, but for a few hours it should be ok.

Here are some pics from our work.

[Mike G]

[Sam Gordon Campbell]

Hi Mike G., and welcome!
I must say, those are some of the best reproductions I've seen of a pavise.
Would it be at all possible for a walkthrough on how you went about the process of making them?
Oh, awesome pictures also, mre people should post like that!

[Mike G]

Thanks a lot !
I think i will explain how we build them next week. Because I need some detail pictures for that. I think it is a little bit tricky to build pavaises. The first ones we made were...realy...ugly ;-) We made about 20 pavaises, and with every new one , we get new knowlege about the craftsmanship. A good result depends on the right kind of wood, the linnen, the gesso , paint, bone glue, ect. Then you need a lot of know how and knowledge about the original ones. But It make´s a lot of fun :-))

[Paul Hansen]

Nice work Mike!

My own pavise is still in progress, but it's a bit similar to yours. I did take some more inauthentic shortcuts though.

I'm interested to hear how you built the round centre.

[Mike G]

Hello,
Here is my last paint job on one of my pavaises. The Pavise is like a south german original one. I painted a st. katharina on the shield. And put some dekorations with gold in die edges. The owner is a guy who makes chainmail shirts. So he would liketo have a chainmail ring in every corner. ;- )

[Henrik Zoltan Toth]

Extremly schöne Arbeit!

[Mike G]

Thank you !
I like to paint pavaises But I hate the " buckle " in the middle. It is horrible to paint on a half round surface

We are build a new serie of 5 pavaises at the moment. I will take some pictures from the working. I will cover one shild with pig skin because I seen a original one like this. A lot of the simple pavaises in south germany are only covered with linen.like the ones we build last time

[Bartek Strojek]

I believe no one posted link to this site yet?

http://dregowia.blogspot.com/2010/08/pawez-pr...proba.html

Unfortunately, it seems it's only in polish, but it's about reconstruction of early 13th century Prussian tribes pavise, with some nice pictures.