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Phil Berghan-Whyman
Location: Wellington
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 Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2008 10:06 pm Making a Pavise |
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I had been thinking it would be cool to make a pavise to go with my crossbowman kit, and then this discussion starts on the Dawn Reivers page all about pavises.
http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=2711&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
I figured one could be made from three sections of ply / | \
The middle section would be shaped to form a U and the two outer sections would have just a slight bend in them. Some nice shaping at the top, a handle, and a paint job and it would be done.
What do people think?
_________________
Phil Berghan-Whyman
"Hand me the sword and ask me the question again"
http://www.handypaladin.co.nz |
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NigelT
Site Admin
Location: Wellington
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| Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:53 am |
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I would be great if it were as easy as that.
OK, we're basically making a shield which is designed to either be stuck into the ground in front of an archer and stand by itself or be held by a crouching pavise bearer to protect the archer.
OK, to get the shape, we will have to use plywood, but it's not going to be a straight forward job of bending it and gluing it. The curve that runs down the middle is very tight and not going to be easy to (a) bend without breaking the wood even with streaming or soaking and (b) physically require a significant amount of force or weight to hold the curve, such as the weight of a car for example.
I don't think it's practical to try bending a single thick piece of ply, I think you're going to have to laminate multiple layers of the thinnest ply you can get (4mm) together, bending each one individually. I would do the whole shield as one section, not try and glue a centre section to the sides, you'll never get the joint strong enough.
So, to do this I think you're going to have to make a former - something the shape you want and it's opposite so that we can soak sheets of 4mm ply for a week and then sandwhich and clamp them into the former and let them dry. Once we have three pieces formed, we can glue them and reclamp them into the former until they're ready for final shaping, sanding, painting, etc.
Not an easy job, but if you really want one I could give you a hand to do it.
I can't think how else you would do this short of hewing it straight from a tree.
Nigel |
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Phil Berghan-Whyman
Location: Wellington
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| Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 2:09 pm |
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Out of interest, how would they have done it in the day, given that they didn't have sheets of ply?
_________________
Phil Berghan-Whyman
"Hand me the sword and ask me the question again"
http://www.handypaladin.co.nz |
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NigelT
Site Admin
Location: Wellington
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| Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 11:38 am |
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| Phil Berghan-Whyman wrote: | | Out of interest, how would they have done it in the day, given that they didn't have sheets of ply? |
I don't know. I would guess that they probably used vertical planks and attached them to horizontal backing planks with a frame supporting the central ridge. Just a guess. The central ridge supports could have been made from branches specially grown with the desired shape or selected from twisted trees with the right limb shape.
I was think about this the other day. If you really didn't care about what materials were used, you could build a modern replica using a heavy grade PVC sheet, or cutting up a couple of those large plastic drums that get used for chemicals. If you take the grill plates off your gas BBQ and lay a couple of pieces of metal, fibre-cement board (or something heat proof) over the top exposing a 6-inch wide strip, you could soften the plastic in a strip and then drape it over an appropriate former to cool. Then you could laminate a few sheets together for the right thickness and strength. Once you completely covered it with canvas and painted it you would never know it was made of plastic.
I can't think of a simple way to do it with ply-wood because of the corners involved. It would be possible (if you didn't mind some extreme corners) to screw five pieces together and put framing behind it to support the shape, but it wouldn't be easy to make it look good without a lot of work.
The plastic option might be a good starter option and I'm pretty sure you can find those large plastic drums about the place for free if you hit the right recycling websites.
Nigel |
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quentin
Location: Wellington
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| Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 10:10 am pavise |
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there is a shield in the Tower of London collection which is round, heavily dished and 3 ply planking. Its a very early gun/shield so about mid 1500's ?
the planks are (from memory) about 4 mm thick hardwood.
the process is quite obvious as the planks are seperating.
to get such a sharp bend must take best grade split timbers & lots of work.
it was similar to this one but I can't find a good usefull web picture-more search required.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/res_cons/conservation/journal/number_39/gunshield/ |
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