The Armour Archive

Xtracted wrote:
It seems like a number of these shields have survived. Someone should hold the answer to how they are constructed..

From Facebook post wrote:Hello ! I have finally finished writing a documentation of reconstructing a couple of crossbowmen´s pavises in authentic materials. Here is a a somewhat confused photostream
https://www.flickr.com/photos/23237388@N06/…
And the text :
Most paveses were constructed of ash, linden or poplar in a size around 60 cm wide and 130 cm tall. There were also smaller paveses for carrying on the back while turning and loading your crossbow and handheld smaller ones and even smaller ones attached to a mounted men at arms´ armour. Their origin seems to be from Slavic types. This reconstruction tries to be one for a central European crossbowman meant to be carried on his back. I certainly do not claim to have made a perfect reconstruction. I have used only authentic materials though.
The shield consists of three planks reinforced with dowels and glued with casein glue, the only known waterproof medieval glue. In the 12th century it was even called “shield glue”. Pavese carriers were paid the double of the crossbowmen, it was apparantly a very dangerous work to run forward in front of the line of soldiers and erect a protecting shieldwall. The pavisemakers themselves were quite well paid. The finishing of the pavises was made by another guild of craftsmen. The painters in Prague complained that the pavisemakers tried to paint the motifs themselves. One thing is important to stress. A shield must not be thought of as a wooden object covered with cloth or leather but instead a sandwich construction where the different materials support each other for strength and resilience. Naked wood will split without a tough skin. Shields like these were never clad in metal and had no metal rim. Coarse fabric, presumably hemp, is glued with hide glue on both front and back. Sometimes thin rawhide is used on the back for a more durable surface where the surface rubs against the wearers armour. There were no fixed method sometimes the paveses had two layers of fabric on the front or a layer of thin rawhide aswell then covered with fabric. On the front several layers (4-6 depending on the thickness ) were brushed on and sanded/scraped down to get an even surface. When even, this surface was painted in tempera colour (egg yolk, linseed oil ,water, pigment ). Sometimes this paint, which is very durable in itself, was protected with a layer of resin varnish made of damar. The back was very often painted dark brown with a black border. Riveted on the back there was a handle in a T-shape made from a strong sinew. As I could not get hold on one I had to resort to rawhide. There is no evidence of rope being used. There are also cramps for the carrying leatherstraps with their points bent down on the front and then covered with gesso.
In my reconstruction I used 1 part hide glue to 10 parts water heated to 50 degrees in a 500 ml pot swimming in a water bath in a separate cooking pot . Chalk was sifted into the smaller pot until the water did not soak up more chalk ( c:a 750 grams ) .Carefully stirred to avoid bubbles getting trapped. The gesso then has the consistency of cream and was to paint the 90 cm tall pavise on the back and front. As the gesso adds quite a lot of weight I would recommend a thickness of the wood not more than 12-14 mm. According to an Islandic manuscript about wooden sculptures the dry surface was then scraped with a tool to get rid of unevenness. Then it was sanded with sharkskin and sanding grass ( a grass with a lot of silica in )Then the parts that were supposed to be gilt or silvergilt were prepared with eggwhite. The silver could be brushed with virgin tar ( the first tar appearing from the production..thin and ambercolored ) to look like gold. Then those parts supposed to be painted would first get a layer of eggwhite then a layer of leadwhite pigment in linseedoil.
I have seen quite a few reconstructions of paveses on forums the last ten years. Even though some have good shapes most lack the medieval look in the decoration. I cannot stress this too much...the originals were painted by painters…not the pavise makers themselves ! Buy the service of someone with that skill like you would do with a sword or a helmet. Someone able to capture the medieval “hand”. Above all…study originals and copy the style of them. When doing the woodwork, try also to copy the subtle shapes and curvatures of the originals. Again, study the originals !
The beak of the tall ones,
the slightly thinned edges,
the convex curves in the top and sides and bottom,
the angle and curvature of the the central wooden panel,
the shape of the back of the central panel with the removed material,
the preserved handles.
Remember, the originals were made according to the demanding quality of Guilds and not by the local carpenter down the road.
Last but not least. Scale! Make pavese reconstructions 10-15 cm taller than the originals as normal people today are 10-15 cm taller. My guess is that the eagle beak was meant to rest the crossbow tiller on, therefore the height of the pavese must correspond with that of the shooter. In the future I hope to build also a couple of that kind of pavese. The system of how the straps for carrying were constructed is also something that must be reconstructed. Stefan Hansson 2015

tiredWeasel wrote: Looks like a 4-board construction.

Xtracted wrote:That first picture is pretty interesting. Are they ramming the gate? Looks like the fellow in pink is helping with a ram. The guy in red is just holding att small pavise, no weapon. I assume he is protecting the fellow in pink. My favourite is the man in blue shooting with an invisible bow..or just showing off his bicep..

Or someone left him hanging for a fist bump before the battle..

It is nice to see that the crossbowman in blue brought his personal coach with him to the battle, giving him comfort and support while shooting..

[Edit] Holy crap, I just noticed that the defenders have a rock hurling armoured giant!

Xtracted wrote: It is nice to see that the crossbowman in blue brought his personal coach with him to the battle, giving him comfort and support while shooting..

Xtracted wrote:It is peculiar how they painted crossbows isn't it.

tiredWeasel wrote:What about this one?



Found it via Larsdatters page (the link was defunct, I just searched the page I was directed to...).
Looks like a 4-board construction.

Mac wrote: It's pretty clear that the central channel is glued to the curved side pieces, but at this resolution we can't tell much more.

The line in the middle of the channel is suspiciously well centered and deliberate looking. It might be a seam that's letting go, or it might be a superficial mark that indicated the center line. Without a denser image, we can't really draw more conclusions.

If we had an image that showed the wood grain, we would know a lot more. I tried to find a bigger image, but had no success.

Mac

Mac wrote: If we had an image that showed the wood grain, we would know a lot more. I tried to find a bigger image, but had no success.

Mac

Jeff J wrote:

Mac wrote: It's pretty clear that the central channel is glued to the curved side pieces, but at this resolution we can't tell much more.

The line in the middle of the channel is suspiciously well centered and deliberate looking. It might be a seam that's letting go, or it might be a superficial mark that indicated the center line. Without a denser image, we can't really draw more conclusions.

If we had an image that showed the wood grain, we would know a lot more. I tried to find a bigger image, but had no success.

Mac

It may be glued, or nailed at an angle, or both - hard to tell.

I THINK I see grain in the upper left of the left channel board, and it seems to be too small of an arc to be part of a tree that a single board that width came from.

Also, the flat board on the right COULD be more than one board, with a good join that isn't showing a joint. Again - higher rez imaged required to be certain.

Mac wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2016 10:35 am Using raw hide or parchment gives the other sort of trouble. As the hide dries, it shrinks. If the glue has not achieved a suitable level of adhesion at that time, the hide will pull away from the concavities.

Mac wrote: ↑Wed Jan 06, 2016 10:35 am As far as construction is concerned..... I have seen a couple of examples of modern guys building up the shape of the pavise in layers. With good joinery, this should be pretty strong. My suspicion is that our ancestors would have just cut it out of one piece of wood, but I really don't know.