This is a companion article to the shield construction article, it is a progressive article showing how a shield can deteriorate with usage. The construction of the shield being used can be seen here:

Shield Construction

Here is the before shot that has to be included for referance:



The first picture here is after a few training sessions and a couple of demonstration hand axe fights. The most noticable damage here is to the boss, it has a few nice dents in it (from the axes mainly). It can be seen to an extent that the face of the shield has seen some action too, there are a few cuts and dents and some of the paint is looking a bit scuffy in places

At this point the rim was holding up quite well, there were a few scratches and scuffs on the leather basically, it can not really even be seen in the photo.



After some more use including combat display in the 2004 Moomba parade the shield is begining to look more damaged, there is many more dents and scratches on the boss, there are more cuts and nicks on the face of the shield, the rim is also more noticably chopped up.

The Angle of the shot and the lighting is slightly different so the colours look slightly diferent in this shot, but it is the same shield.



And now to take a closer look at some of the damage.

Most noticable in the wide shot was the damage to the metal boss at the shields center, a close up of this can be seen below.



This is a pretty good shot of the shield boss and shows the sort of punishment it has been getting, what I also like about this shot is the way that it shows off the copper rivets, I believe these to be a rather attractive feature of this particular shield.

And then there is this shot that is at a slightly diferent angle, this gives a slightly better idea of the depth of some of the dents as well as showing of a fairly deep cut on the face of the shield next to the boss.



It is not just the boss that takes all the damage though, the face of the shield and the rim recieves its share of hits too. Below are two diferent parts of the the shield with a number of good cuts in them, I assume these these are most likely from thrusts of one sort or another (sword or spear) as most chopping type shots seem to get blocked on the rim or with the boss.



The final set of pictures at this point of time concerns the rim damage, this will probably be the overall determining factor in deciding when to retire the shield, as I am pretty sure that I will eventually either lose a chunk out of the side of the shiled or it will start to split inwards from the edge at some point further down the track.

The first picture shows the general state of the rim, there are patches like this most of the way around. Basically it is a series of light cuts and scuffs, they do not break the whole way through.



However there are a few spots were a series of heavy blows to roughly the same area have broken through the leather rim and the calico, visably having cut into the ply wood beneath



At this point there was still plenty of life left in the shield, the deterioration is of course an ongoing thing with the shield getting a little more damaged with each use, but it is not just combat damage that is an issue.

The following image shows this, whilst not strictly destruction as such there is also the effects that the elements can have to worry about. The boss is steel, it can rust. The rivets are copper, they can get their own oxides building up on the surface and can get a corrosion build up. Putting the shield away after using it in slightly damp conditions caused this particular outbreak and forgetting to make sure it was dry first.



Left long term this could contribute to the shields demise, but generally it just looks bad, as does the dirt that gets on the shield. Fortunately it can all be cleaned, the rivets heads and the boss can be cleaned with a fine emery paper or a green scouring pad (scotch brite or generic equivalent). A quick wipe over with some sort of spray cleaner afterward will clean all the dirt of the shield that has just been added to by sanding the oxides of the metal bits.

I personally like to use the stuff designed for cleaning stainless steel household appliances as not only does it clean, it leaves a protective film that will slow future rusting.






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Article last updated 23/05/2004