If you would like to make these and don't have lvl21 Smithing I made mine with 68Woodworking and 12Smithing. I syn'd about 10 or so before I maxed and I have one extra, no breaks. I don't know how to go about requesting that they update the recipe but if you do then let them know.
One thing though, I didn't HQ, so maybe you have to be 21Smithing to get a decent HQ rate.
At anyrate, with alittle gil to spend this is a nice one to get Guild points with.
Yeah.. this is a crap recipe. I could get about 3k guild points from turning in 8 of these, but that would require 16 pieces of lumber and 8 iron sheets. As much as it pains me to do so, and as badly as I want to go ahead and get my apron, I'm going to have to pass on this item for guild points. Just not worth it for the material costs.. If I could get 10k points for the same number of shields, I'd think about it.