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I didn't know I was going to make a new shield either.

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Submitted by Corby on Sun, 07/03/2011 - 11:38am
The Best Shield in the World is, of course, the best shield in the world and I could never hope to improve on its construction. There's a reason they call him Master Reynard. Its size and shape however, has always been a problem. I had Reynard make it much too big.

So, I'm putting together a test shield to work with a new size and shape to see if I like it. Much as I love the super deeply curved shield Justus made for me, I've come to the conclusion that the shape doesn't work for my style of shieldwork.

So there's this, made from marine grade quarter inch ply that was donated by some people at a 4th Sunday 4 or so years ago--people we've never seen again! And hey, the labels of the plywood say it is made in France, so I can even say the materials came from Angevin lands.

I worked out this curve lamination method on the fly and I think it works pretty well. A couple pieces to give it a shape, with a half inch piece of plywood to clamp to. Yeah, I need more clamps.

Sadly I don't think the curve will stay as deep when it comes out of the clamps.

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Corby's picture

The ever growing project

Submitted by Corby on Mon, 07/04/2011 - 12:34pm.

As I've worked on this, a combination of mistakes and "bright" ideas conspired to make this a much more complicated project. I'm laminating a bit of oak to an edge where the plywood didn't overlap, and of course it is right at a major blocking point.

That got me thinking. I have all sorts of thin strips of leftover oak between 1/16" and 1/4" inch thick, all about 1.5" wide. So, along with using it to fill in on the back edge where the ply doesn't reach, I'm also gluing two strips across the face at the top edge.
Even further, I just threw a bunch of the oak strips in the rain barrel to soak. I'm going to try attaching it as an edging!
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Corby's picture

The shape of things

Submitted by Corby on Tue, 07/05/2011 - 11:39am.

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Aside from the cool factor I

Submitted by Justus on Wed, 08/17/2011 - 2:24pm.

Aside from the cool factor I don't think the deep shields work that well. (might be useful in a shield wall)   Lets figure out the optimum curve and I'll make a new press. I think I've found a good balance of strength and weight. Adding two more layers would make them costly but almost bullet proof and still light weight. Once I have the press, it's only a few minutes to stamp out shields.

-Justus

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