Things You'll Need:
- 2 sheets 5.2 mm plywood
- Wood glue
- 15" by 15" piece of thin sheet metal for boss (optional)
- string
- Jigsaw
- Pencil
- Ruler
- strips of raw hide (rawhide dog toys)
- bolts and nuts
- small nails or staple gun
- Hammer
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Step 1
Roman Soldiers and almost everyone in the Roman army carried a Scutum.When going into battle they were equip with a Sword,shield,body army and Helmet. A Roman legion was almost unstoppable.Learn to make the Roman Scutum!
The first step in building your roman scutum aka Roman shield is getting all of your supplies. you can buy many of the required items at lowes or home depot. You can get rawhide by buying raw hide dog bones and soaking them in water until soft and then cutting the raw hide into 1" strips that are as long as possible.The end product is a authentic looking Roman scutum or roman shield. -
Step 2
Measure out rectangles that are 42" long and 32" wide on the two boards of 5 mm plywood.Cut out both rectangles. Sand the edges until reasonably smooth but it doesn't have to be perfect.The second cut will be a circle in the middle of the sheets by finding the middle length wide and then width wise.cut a circle in both sheets that you can comfortably fit your hand through. Sand the edges of the holes. The hole in the shield or scutum is where your handle will be.
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Step 3
The next step will be bending both pieces of plywood so they will have the proper concave shape. You can do this a number of ways such as making a shield press http://www.larp.com/legioxx/scupress.html or a simple method would be place two equally thick rocks or pieces of lumber 30 inches a part on opposite sides of the shield(length wise). weight the middle down the entire piece of wood and leave it for 2 days and it will retain its shape.The concave shape of your Roman scutum aka shield is key to the use of the shield.The shield is meant to surround your body and protect you..but if its to much work then you can skip this step (it will no longer look authentic)
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Step 4
A metal boss made using the described methodThe next step is to make the Boss. A boss can be made by taking the sheet metal and finding the center. Draw a 4-6" circle and place the sheet metal on the ground where there is soft soil. By slowly hammering in a circular motion you will expand the metal into a bowl shape. After hammering into bowl shape you can alternately go between hammering both sides to prevent the bending of the metal around the forming bowl shape.If cracks begin to form then stop hammering that area because it has been expanded to its limit but the cracks wont harm the look of the boss.
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Step 5
A handleThe handle can be made taking a piece of lumber that is 1" by 2" and aprroximately long enough to reach at least three to four inches past the edges of the hand hole (vertically or horizontally). Attach the handle using bolts and then fashion the handle by sanding the edges into a grip you can hold comfortably in your hand and you can also wrap it with cloth or leather.
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Step 6
The edging can be made by using rawhide taken from raw hide dog toys that are softened by soaking in water and then unwrapped. When unwrapped it forms sheets of rawhide that can be cut into strips that are 1" wide and as long as possible. Glue or nail the raw hide along the edges of the shield. and let it dry. It forms a barrier to prevent the splitting of the shield when hit with a bladed weapon.
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Step 7
my shield decorationPainting and designs can be made by using any suitable wood paint. I opted to decorate mine using a tanned coyote face I bought because it is somewhat similar to a wolf which is popular in roman culture. I also painted the shield a traditional red color wood paint.
