The Armour Archive

Any one here fight with a Norman style kite shield? If so, how do they handle, and how do you have the grip mounted?

------------------
Ich bin der Grund, den Sie furchten das Dunkel

I fight with a center-grip kite. You can really tell it is for use more on horseback than on foot. Pole weapons can knock it around by catching the lower point. The thing I really hate about it is that it is a very period shield but I have to cut the bottom off to use it in many tournements. Very very annoying.

Jurgen

I fight with a kite.

My bigger "war" shield is a kite - it is strapped with leather in a square pattern.


I have a smaller kite-ish type shield that is center grip.


My big shield requires work to use because its leather straps, so it pivots and is not rigid. Once you get the hang of it though its not so bad.

Well, I fought with a war door yesterday, and my opponent hooked it with an axe and pulled it away from my body so he could get me with his short sword. I was pulled off balance but was able to spin around fast enough to keep him from killing me that one second. He killed me imediatly after. So I figure a kite won't be any worse.

I fought with a kite this last year in tournament. It was actually smaller than most other kite shields I've seen. I think mine was about 28" long and 12" wide at the widest point. Still worked pretty well. I hate having to peek around a larger shield because I end up leaving myself very open, so having a smaller shield worked better for me.

A bit smaller thean mine, but it's cool that you guys are using a period style shield and not a war door.

------------------
Soon to be called þorfin

[This message has been edited by David Blackmane (edited 11-19-2001).]

I love fighting with my kite. Its surprising to me how well it works - but then most period things do work better than we expect-- because they HAD too!

I've been working on one for horseback. It hangs from a guige strap from my neck on horseback or ground, there is the "SCA" style grip for the hand on the top right, but the 'X' is used thusly: / and your arm goes down through it to the reins. \ and your arm goes up for the grip.
It is definitely meant for horseback, although it is difficult to ride with. The point wants to poke the horse in the side, and it is hard to use the reins without whacking the horse as well. But it does provide better protection for an unarmoured leg than a round shield.
I've never used one for SCA combat.

------------------
Virtus vincit invidiam
"Virtue overcometh envy"

I fought Drachenwald Crown not too long ago with a kite. I used it because I needed a sheild, and this one was like the twenty-four inch round "pizza" shield I had been practicing with. It was exactly like somebody had stuck a tail on my roundshield from the 'States, so I strapped it accordingly. I used a doorhandle and an old belt, fastening the thing diagonally to my forearm.

I kept my left elbow in next to my torso, holding the weight, and it fought great.

I didn't fight great, but it did.

hope this helps.

I've used kites for years, metal weapons style. They're good except for a couple of things. Unlike a centre-grip round shield, they block your vision when you defend against a head shot. A round shield, you spin the shield and go up AROUND the head to block vertical head shots. And metal weapons take their toll on the top edge, especially.

Mine's strapped with a square of enarmes - the Bayeux Tapestry shows square, cross and a single horizontal enarme at the top as options - plus a guige, though I find it's only useful for an infantryman for slinging the thing over your back - either to walk long distances or to use a two-handed weapon. I put my arm through the left-hand vertical strap and grab the right-hand one. To keep it from being too easy to flick the bottom end away, I hook my thumb aroud the top horizontal enarme. Seems to work well.

Egfroth

Oh, and another thing. To use one of these things from horseback, the Bayeux Tapestry (tho' few other contemporary sources) show the shield held, not vertically, but angled across the body, leaving the legs exposed but protecting the body.

Egfroth

if your left arm is in the shield, and you touch your right shoulder with the basket, your left arm should form a "v" across your torso, with your elbow over your solar plexus.

I have used an "aggressive strapping method"
as it was called, where the arm went down, but this is useful only if you have *really strong shoulder muscles, are fighting in a boffer game, and are a great white in a saltwater pond, as they say. If you try it in the SCA, I hope you like dented helms

------------------
-Let cry the skies to cleanse my soul, let weep the heavens to make me whole.