Welcome! ...being newish myself...
> i thought they would rather be round, cause if you want a shield
that
> doesn't split after the first spear hit, use a horizontal trunk cut
> (am I clear?) so the wood is more "compact" (sorry for the
> approximative english terms, if not clear, i will try to explain),
no?
That's not a really good way to do it. The strength of wood is the fibre bonds. If you cut it like that there's not a lot of bond resisting any one blow.
They were made round so they didn't have corners to have a weapon catch on. It also meant that you didn't have to have the shield a particular way up to get the best protection - tailed or long shields change protection based on angle.
A round shield made of planks, either two or more layers bolted, glued or nailed together or one layer with a couple of other planks bolted on across the grain to hold them together (depending on the location/culture of the maker), is pretty strong.
But you can either add a metal edge to stop blades getting stuck, leave it as is, or use soft wood for the shield and *plan* on getting blades stuck - so you can hit him while stuck or disarm him. Again, depending on location & culture...
> but very interesting dicscussion, i hope you people understood me.
You are quite clear. ;)
Now, a metal-faced shield is at least 2 layers of wood, either bolted or glued together, with a layer of metal bolted on top.
The metal wasn't glued on, as the tiny gap between metal and wood often added to the protective value - it allowed the metal to spring a little.
This also helped with rebuiding the shield after a battle - shields generally last only one battle. Take the metal off and bolt it on a new shield, often with the same bolts. The fact that the metal had a few rents and dents in it were easy to fix...
A good example of laminated shields, by the way, are SCA shields. 1" of marine plywood is *very* tough, for a wooden shield, and they also have protected edges.
Roman shields (particularly the late ones) were laminated wood with leather facing so edges wouldn't catch.
Paul
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