[SCA-AE] Shields in the Dominion (was: Changes to armored combat regs)

[RAYMOND LONSDALE]

I haven't been able to play in a long time but here's my two cents:
I started out with a 24" round made from 5/8" marine plywood with 1.25"
wrought iron edging on both sides.  I went to a flat 24" X 30" heater of the
same construction shortly after hooking up with House Elandris.  At some
point most of us switched to curved Steel Heaters of that size made from
something slightly heavier than 16 gauge and weighed about 15 lbs.  We used
these for several years starting about pensic 12.
I went back to plywood for awhile but switched to black barrel plastic with
iron rimming for weight and stiffening when I got really tired of replacing
the plywood shields every few months.  I had one of those really nice curved
1/2" plywood ones once but it didn't even make it through its first tourney.

It's been my feeling over the years that some fighters, looking for an edge,
had gone to equipment which is too light such as shield of plastic or light
plywood without any reinforcing.  After all, we don't have to stop a weapon
with a sharp edge.  And they do move much faster and don't wear you out as
quickly.  

While I'm on a rant, swords have gotten light too.  I've seen many that
didn't conform to the way I was taught to make them.  1 1/4" minimum at its
narrowest (before taping), spirally wrapped with strapping tape and covered
in duct tape.  Sometimes a strip of plastic piping or leather was put along
the edges to increase the life of the weapon.  

The restriction of plastic barrels as a material for esthetic reasons may be
reasonable (I'd always looked at it as a trade off of durability and cost
(we got the barrels for free) vs authenticity but is the real reason weight?
My last plastic one weighed 12lbs with edging.  Without the edging maybe
8lbs.

Raimund of the Strait 



-----Original Message-----
From: sca-aethelmearc-bounces at lists.andrew.cmu.edu
[mailto:sca-aethelmearc-bounces at lists.andrew.cmu.edu] On Behalf Of Iain mac
an Bhaird
Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2007 10:20 PM
To: discussion at aethelmearc.org
Subject: Re: [SCA-AE] Shields in the Dominion (was: Changes to armored
combat regs)


>There's Orlando, though I don't know how active he's been the past couple
of
>years ...  How about John the Pell?

I've been back in the Dominion for over 3 years and I've never seen 
Orlando fight, so I can't answer for him.  Johnny's been using a very 
thick type of plastic, I can't remember the type (perhaps Oliver can 
remember? otherwise I'll ask him this weekend), for as long as I've known
him.

And, no Ang, the drum barrel lid is not in the armour closet anymore 
:).  We do have a heavy steel shield which isn't hung right (is that 
the one you're referring to Oliver?).  I used that before I built my 
own and it was great arm conditioning - it made my plywood Rus shield 
seem light! :)

The only wooden shields I can think of are: Gavin's coffin-lid, but 
he fights more often as a glaive; Stein was working on a center-grip 
round, but I never saw it finished (since he also fights as a 
glaive); Oh, but I think Antonius' sheep-shield might be wood-backed... :)

We've also got one or two people using metal, but the rest are plastic.

-Iain  

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