mojo3120

Here's a photoshop template I use for shields. There are two styles in the psd, enable/disable the 2 different folders in the layers window. I print them on an overhead transparency with a laser printer for tracing. Print at 100%, no scaling. shield.psd.zip

I made two shields a few weeks ago. They were my first leather work of any kind as well. First one, I carved, dyed black, painted with acrylic, and topped with 50/50 Resolene/Water. Not sure how well that one's going to hold up. Second one I did like rawhide described. Letters cut from leather & epoxied on, everything else saddle stitched by hand with waxed thread and two needles. Wore this one in a training fire last weekend. It held up pretty well through almost certainly the worst conditions it'll ever see. Got almost everything from Springfield leather. I highly recommend them, they're great. I got 2 lbs tooling leather remnants which came with a bunch of really nice leather, in perfect sizes for things like shields. Hard to beat for $4/lb.

Yea I noticed that too. I wonder if I drew up some alphabets in CAD and took it to a machine shop with a laser if I could get it cut reasonably? Agreed. The small letters are really the only part I haven't figured out (sorry, should have specified that). I really like the look & have never seen it done before. Other shields just use cheap vinyl cut decals there.

Looks like that Tippmann machine is just a couple heavy duty C clamps and a pneumatic air bag. Not sure why they'd go pneumatic over hydraulic for this application, I'm sure there must be some reason. I own a 20 ton hydraulic shop press. With the correct cutting board, sandwiched between 2 large arbor plates, I think it should work just as well. Do you know of a source for dies?

Thanks for the replies. I wonder how much it would cost to have someone laser cut them? Don't really want to spend a fortune. I found some bigger pictures, including one that's unfinished.

I'm trying to figure out how to cut out small letters like the these. I've tried stenciling and cutting out with a sharp scalpel, which came out decent looking, but nowhere near as perfect as these look. Anyone know how this is done?