Another Dahl

[Robert]

Wonderful shield James and thank you for sharing it with us. Could you possibly post a photo showing the entire piece?

Best,
Robert

[JamesKelly]

Thanks for the reminder, Robert. Here are front and back, along with a detail not in my first post.

[Iain]

A beautiful piece of work. Thanks for sharing. The amount of time this must have taken the artisan...

How heavy is it? I assume these were essentially parade pieces?

[Ibrahiim al Balooshi]

Originally Posted by Iain

A beautiful piece of work. Thanks for sharing. The amount of time this must have taken the artisan...

How heavy is it? I assume these were essentially parade pieces?

Salaams Iain, The work is done remarkably fast. It employs a technique called spinning which is an old style of lathe application... where a die is rammed into a fast spinning object usually a plate or shield shape... and a cyclic pattern is imprinted on the revolving surface with some weight behind the spinning imprint... using a rudimentary lathe... Spinning. It goes back a long way... 11 th C but also commonly seen in the 19th and 20th. The give away sign is a dot in the centre of the work. The entire pattern can be inscribed or occasionally added decoration can be made by mallet and chisel after the main pattern is rammed home.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

[Iain]

Interesting Ibrahiim, thanks for the description. Would be interesting to see a video of the process.

[Tim Simmons]

Every time one is fired somebody makes lots of money.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hy6tUYSrYZE

[JamesKelly]

Ibrahiim -Yes, that tell-tale dot is right in the centre of a flower amidst the four bosses. Probably spun over a hard wood dome shape. The figures appear to have been engraved, that is, cut with a small chisel. Either pushed by hand or with a small graver's hammer.

Ian - this shield weighs 3 pounds 4-1/2 ounces (1488 grams to you). My tulwar, posted Oct 1, weighs 2 pounds 3 ounces (992 gram). I have no knowledge of what constitutes an acceptable shield weight for combat.

Tim - Thanks for the video. In my employed days I saw a lot of half-doughnut shapes, about 610 mm OD, 3mm wall spun from nickel heat resistant alloys. They were for gas fired heat treat furnaces, an environment which tends to make Hastelloy X disappear. The aerospace guys have used X since the 1950's.

[ALEX]

Originally Posted by Ibrahiim al Balooshi

Salaams Iain, The work is done remarkably fast. It employs a technique called spinning which is an old style of lathe application... where a die is rammed into a fast spinning object usually a plate or shield shape... and a cyclic pattern is imprinted on the revolving surface with some weight behind the spinning imprint... using a rudimentary lathe... Spinning. It goes back a long way... 11 th C but also commonly seen in the 19th and 20th. The give away sign is a dot in the centre of the work. The entire pattern can be inscribed or occasionally added decoration can be made by mallet and chisel after the main pattern is rammed home.
Regards,
Ibrahiim al Balooshi.

To demonstrate Ibrahiim's comment, here's Seljuk bronze plate, presumably around 12th C. Notice the center dot indicating the referenced spinning. The item shows some genuine age based on patina. The quality of chiseling is quite crude due to the inferior production method.