text: If facing in fabric are used you can laminate it to the boards to increase the durability of a shield several times over. Glue lamination also helps making a nice canvasy surface for heraldic painting. Looking at 13th to 15th centuy pavise shilelds I've studied tears in the layers in you can see it's wood, covered with one or more layers of leather, then on top of that linen, all laminated together, then painted. This might have been used for earlier shield too, in full or in part.