Postby Brian Hunt » Fri Oct 14, 2005 6:54 am
Hi Joshua,
why not make your own shield out of plywood. 1/2 inch plywood makes a nice shield. For a center held shield, you can buy a premade shield boss, cut your hole in the center of your shield, attach you shield boss, attach a wooden handle, and vola, you have a shield. If you do a strapped shield, you don't need the shield boss, just some leather straps. One to hold in your hand, and one to go over your forearm by your elbow. You can also cover the front and back of your shield in canvas. A inexpensive form of canvas can be found at most hardware stores in the form of a canvas drop cloth for painting. I also reccomend edging your new shield. A lot of people use hose for this, but that adds a lot of weight. I reccomend getting a large rawhide dog chew toy. Soaking it in water till it becomes plyable, unrolling it and cutting strips long enough to edge your shield with it. It can be held in place with small tack like nails. Wear gloves while handling the rawhide, I met a guy once who had nearly lost a finger from the horrible infection he got while handling rawhide when the raw hide edge cut him.
The advantages of making your own shield are cost, and you can have as many different types as you like. The above directions are for a flat round shield. If you want a curved one, you need to make a form, and wrap two layers of 1/4 inch plywood to the form glued together with good old wood glue. Let this set for 24 hours, then you can take it off the form and cut out your shape from your new curved shield blank.
hope this helps.
Brian Hunt
GFS
