Aluminum thickness for a shield

[William Freskyn Murray]

Evening everyone,

Quick question - looking at making myself a new shield as mine has seen some better days. I have the technology to cut it out myself and a metalsupermarkets location near me, but not sure what thickness to go with.

The sell 6061 TB in 0.08" and 0.125", the difference in cost is about $13 so not going to break the bank if the thicker is better, but according to the estimate it's 3 lbs heavier and I'd prefer not to add the additional weight if not needed.

Thoughts?

thanks in advance
Will

[Baron Alcyoneus]

6061 0.080" (assuming t-6, which is about as good as that alloy gets) is too thin, IMO, for a shield.

[William Freskyn Murray]

That's what I was thinking too.

Windrose lists theirs as .100" T6 6061, couldn't find specs on Ice Falcon's site as to thickness (but I am a little under the weather and not thinking all that clear so it could be in big capital letters somewhere and I'm missing it).

Looking to make two shields - a smaller center grip kite (22 x 32) shield for tourney fighting and a larger (24 x 34 or 36) heater for melee.

Thanks for the input.

any other thoughts?

Will

[Gest]

T6 6061 @0.125" is nigh indestructible. I have a 7075 heater that, if I remember correctly, is 0.90" and it has a slight crease across the top from a heavy blow. It's not too noticeable, and I could take it out with a rawhide hammer if I would ever get the ambition to remove the edging. That said, every time I look at the shield, I notice it

The weight of one's shield is something that is intensely personal. I like between 8-10lbs. My grandpa always told me "Not everyone likes the same thing; if they did they'd all be after grandma!"

-- Gest

[Konstantin the Red]

I have an aluminum heater shield of, I dunno, .100 or .125 inch, 24" wide -- and I figured it for too light even with hose edging and hardware and so faced it with 4-6oz chrometanned leather, pieced together with my sewing machine in my colors and device, glued down and bound in place with the shield edging.

That brought its weight to well comparable with a plywood shield. You want a bit of weight there anyway to resist having it blown out of guard by an enthusiastic opponent with a lot of power.