Roman Shield

This is a roman shield made for a friend with decoration of the boss deviating slightly from historical models. Its intended primarily for display not historical demonstration. Some differences from the usual interpretation are a shallower curve to the shield and use of steel edgeing instead of the more usual brass. That was not a good idea as hot forming the edgeing for the corners was alot of effort. This is a close up of the channels cut for the inlay on the boss. Walls of the channels are slightly undercut to hold the inlay. This is the final result. Copper wire was hammered into the channels and filed and polished smooth. Visible are some spots where thicker wire should have been used to completely fill the channels. This is the back of the shield. The vertical and horizontal reinforcements in steel differ from most reconstruction's but were copied from archeological finds. It has been suggested to me that that the vertical reinforcements with decorative finials were actually used on oval shields and their method of mounting is my own interpretation.

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