Sparks Workshop

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Tuesday, October 20, 2020

Making a Heater Shield

To begin my shield, I started with an oak board that I cut into slats and laid out so that the grain faced opposite directions.
To get the classic curved shape, I built a steam box to make the pieces pliable.
I had to make a jig and tried to line them up to do as many as I could in one heat.
 
After that I lay all the boards out as they were supposed to be. Historically the boards would have been connected with a kind of glue. However, due to this shield being functional I used epoxy resin and added a layer of fiberglass mesh between the layers. After which I used two sheets of cloth on the face and back.
I cut leather handles and attached then using bolts. The rolled up piece is a strip of rawhide
To attach the rawhide to the shield, I drilled holes all along the edge and sewed it in using artificial sinew.

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