How Do You Make A Wooden Shield?
This is for those who like to make their own weaponry. A shield is one of the most important things when building your own armour. Wooden shields are easy to make, durable and you can design them yourself. • Develop a design. Just grab a piece of paper, take a construction pencil and start drawing. The base of a shield is often a circle or an ellipse, but with your skill level you can expand your design to more complex patterns. So, if you aren’t very handy with saws, hammers and nails, just start with a simple round shape. When drawing, make a front view, side view and a bottom view; this will be useful when building your shield. Also draw a logo for the shield. You can just paint the entire shield blue or any other color-but with a nice pattern on it- it looks cooler. And remember measure twice cut once. • Start selecting your material. First, you need wood. Most modern shields are made from compressed wood, like plywood. Why plywood? Simple: plywood is light and strong. Also pick a
• Develop a design. Just grab a piece of paper, take a construction pencil and start drawing. The base of a shield is often a circle or an ellipse, but with your skill level you can expand your design to more complex patterns. So, if you aren’t very handy with saws, hammers and nails, just start with a simple round shape. When drawing, make a front view, side view and a bottom view; this will be useful when building your shield. Also draw a logo for the shield. You can just paint the entire shield blue or any other color-but with a nice pattern on it- it looks cooler. And remember measure twice cut once. • Start selecting your material. • For the beginner a light weight wood will suffice like MDF, or fine particle board. However, if you are going to be using the shield for re-enactment, you will need a more solid piece of wood, such as oak. Medieval shields were made from about five layers. The core being oak, this was then soaked in water for 24 hours, then bent to shape, and braced,
