The Armour Archive

Yes, another of my famous tutorials! Since I don't make shields for people anymore (all standing orders are finished and awaiting detail work and packing) I figured I would just tell everyone how I do it after MANY, MANY years of messing with it.

There are essentially three ways to do it. The first doesn't involve any of the steps below, because the best way to do it is to not coat the shield yourself, but to take your shield blank to a company that offers spray-on bedliner for trucks. I used LINE-X for some of mine and if they put at least two layers of LINE-X on the edges of the shield it will be very, very tough.

http://www.linex.com/

DO NOT try any of the paint-it-on-yourself bedliner products because they suck balls. One local guy had a pro-sprayed LINE-X shield that he used every week for three years before it finally started to split. Above all, START WITH THE BEST QUALITY WOODEN SHIELD BLANK YOU CAN POSSIBLY GET. make sure that the shield blank is very dry before you take it in. Also, do not forget to round of the edges of your wooden blank with a file before you have it sprayed.

When you take your prepared wooden shield blank to the bedliner company, tell them you want the smoothest finish possible. The further they hold the sprayer away from the shield the more bumpy the finish will be. When you get the shield back you may have to do some sanding on the front surface to get it smooth before you coat it with BONDING PRIMER, but can be done.

Make sure you wear breathing apparatus of some type when sanding the LINE-X.

This is the easiest way of making a edgeless shield.

Now onto the other ways.

Get the best quality wooden shield blank that you can aquire. Order it as a rectangular scutum so you will have more options about shapes. The one pictured here is a 22x34 blank.

It MUST be 1/2" thick at least. These edgeless shields are not for the weak-armed or people who want a shield that weighs the same as a aluminum pie pan. There are tactical advantages of using a heavier shield, and if you want to know what they are I will tell you.

I don't like a deep curve.

This one is made from two layers of birch.

Now get out your heavy canvas drop cloth.

Get out your bucket of Elmer's Glue-All. Make sure that you pour about 1/4" of water on top of the glue every now and then to keep it from drying out.

The first few shields I made were created from very bad shield blanks that I made myself from pine, and I tried to coat them with fiberglass resin. They were not strong enough.

Now, get out your box of 1 1/2" chip brushes.

Trace the shape of the shield onto your wooden blank.

Cover your shield with canvas, using the first coat of glue on the face of your shield. The piece of canvas should be the same general shape as the shield itself. Avoid getting glue on the edge of your shield. After sitting the canvas gingerly on the glue-coated face of the shield, take your brush and rub glue onto the dry top of the canvas, being very careful to not get any glue on the excess canvas that will be folded over the edges.

Let it dry.

After this coat of glue dries flip the shield over. Now, start slopping glue onto the back of the excess canvas and onto the edge of the shield.

Using your fingers, get the canvas to lay as flat as possible. THE FOLLOWING DETAIL IS IMPORTANT.

You will NOT be able to get all the canvas excess to lay flat on the back of the shield. Using your fingers, pinch sections together that rise as folds so that the areas between these folds lay totally flat against the back of the shield.

Let the back dry.

This is an oval shield showing the canvas covering on the top.

Using a sharp, thin-bladed, springy knife cut away the raised sections of the canvas that you could not get to lay flat.

Another view of the back.

Thank you! This should be "stickied" for perpetuity.

Now get out the SLOW CURE epoxy of your choice. While this isn't the type I regularly use, it works fine.

I usually use SYSTEM THREE spoxy.

Fast cure epoxy will NOT WORK. It will not cure hard enough for you to sand.

Go get some ridged plastic drinking cups used at parties and such. You want the ridged ones because it's easier to match levels when you are mixing epoxy. Mark the ridge you want to use with a pen.

I changed my mind and decided to use less for this working session.

Oh, I forgot.

YOU MUST WEAR A BREATHING MASK THAT IS DESIGNED TO FILTER OUT HARMFUL FUMES.

I need a new one.

DO NOT breathe the fumes from any epoxy...ever. It will give you brain damage.

Pour the appropriate amount of each goo into an aluminum baking pan. Some are 1 to 1 ratio and some are 2 to 1.

ATTENTION-
One type of goo will ALWAYS be stickier than the other, and it's usually the hardener. If one cup empties a slight amount more than the other, pour the difference from the bottle to make sure you have enough. Not enough hardener and you are BONED.

Get a stick to stir it.

Stir it some more. Get as much of both goo in one half of the pan as you can by raising one side while you stir.

Keep stirring. Get out your chip brush

The first coat of epoxy will always soak into the canvas itself.

Now, if I intend to sew a leather edge on a shield, I don't cover it with canvas at all, but simply let the first coat of epoxy soak into the wood itself!!

It will be a few days until I can go on with this.

Basically, after 72 hours you can coat the shield again, pushing the epoxy a bit towards the edge so it will coat the edge and pool on the back side- creating drip bumps. Use small bits of wood to raise one side of the shield if you need to move the whole coat of epoxy.

Coat the shield three or four times.

That's all for now.

Vitus von Atzinger wrote:This one is made from two layers of birch.

Not to pick nits, but that particular blank is made from 2 layers of 1/4" birch and 1 layer of 1/8" birch for a total thickness of 5/8". It's beefy, and tough as hell.
The oval is 1/2", though.

Thanks for this tutorial, Vitus.

Hello

Yes please some one turn this into a sticky. Thanks for the information on making shields. I do have one question for you though.
the cost wise for the material and labor what do you have in it? I am looking for more like how many hours per shield and your material cost.



Thanks Lanars

I currently make my blanks from 2 layers of 1/4" birch, glued with Titebond III and curved in a press. Is there a better way to glue the sheets together and prevent voids?

Do you round the edges of the shield at all, or leave them square?

I round the edges of the shield before I cover it with canvas.

As to how much the process costs- if I knew I would never have started making them.

How does this kind of edgeless shield hold up when used by someone that has an edge blocking style?

Maelgwyn wrote:I currently make my blanks from 2 layers of 1/4" birch, glued with Titebond III and curved in a press. Is there a better way to glue the sheets together and prevent voids?

I've been making the blanks for Vitus, so I'll answer this one as best I can.
I use Gorilla Glue instead of titebond. I understand that some people here on the archive dislike it and have had poor experiences with it, but my experiences with it have been good. In the past I've found that the layers of plywood will delaminate internally just as much as they will at the glue joints. One thing I should point out, though - I've made shields out of Home Depot / Lowes 'birch' plywood for a long time, and for the most part that plywood is crap. It's usually either a thin veneer of birch over MDF, or it's a ply of birch over plys of some soft filler wood. I switched to 100% baltic birch wood earlier this year when I started making blanks on a regular basis for Vitus, but I haven't had enough turnover in shields yet to say whether this wood delaminates as easily as the crap plywood I was using before.
When I press the wood, I include an unglued layer of 1/4" plywood under the shield and a layer over the shield, and press it all together. My reasoning is that this provides additional pressure against the shield wood, making for a more even clamping. I also make sure to clamp the center at each end of the press first, before I clamp the sides at all.
I would also say that the more solid area that your press has underneath the shield, the less voids you'll get.
Hope this helps.
-Marcello

I vote for sticky too.

Thanks for sharing, Vitus and Marcello.

Thanks!
Christopher

- quick question for Vitus or Marcello: It's mentioned that these are heavier than the average SCA shield. What kind of weight range do they have in general?

That depends on how much epoxy you lay on them.

Just looking for generalities. About 10 lbs? 15? 30?