ANST - Shield Edging

[Gunnora Hallakarva]

I have a couple of suggestions for shield edging.

First, Sir Richard ap Morgan uses rawhide to cover the ugly mundane hose edging on his shields.  It looks period, and once you've varnished rawhide it is almost indestructible. I'd suggest that other types of leather could be used instead of rawhide (which can be quite expensive) to similar effect to cover the shield edging.

Also, Sir Burke suggested a really good idea for aluminum shields to help keep the edges from cutting through the padding so fast.  Take tubing (electrical conduit, copper tubing, etc.) and split it, then apply the tubing over the edges, wedging the shield rim into the split.  Solder or TIG weld the seam on the tubing, and it will never come loose.  Now you have a round edge rather than a square, possibly jagged edge.

I am presently working on a center grip round.  I have successfully applied small bore copper tubing around the center hole (the hole that allows the handgrip behind the center shield boss) and it does prevent the edge from munching up my wrist or gauntlet.  I didn't have time to get the outer edge rimmed before Lyonnesse, but that's the next step.  I'm planning on covering that with high-pressure hose, then rawhide laced on with rawhide strips, and I may set grommets through the lacing holes to
help lengthen the life of the lacing material.

Like Sir Lyonel, I have faced my aluminum street-sign shield with cloth -- you can't get the applied reflective material off a street sign without sandblasting, and the stuff won't take paint worth a darn!  I used a long-set 2-part epoxy (takes 30 minutes to set up) so I'd have time to work, then I applied a very thin layer using a trowel over the entire face of the shield.  My cloth went down over the epoxy, and I smoothed it carefully by hand to work out as many of the air bubbles as possible.  I
have been told that you have to use a natural muslin or other natural cloth, as chemical interactions between poly-blend cloths and the glue can cause the fabric to deteriorate quickly.  Lyonel's correct in stating that the cloth takes paint beautifully.

::GUNNORA::

P.S. I have a question -- My hand is pretty far into the boss on my center-grip -- do I have to wear a full gauntlet, a half-gantlet, or can I get away with wearing a simple leather glove when using the center grip?

::G::



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