Home




Making a Planked Viking Shield

After having made a few shields suitable for re-enactment combat, I, and a few others had decided to make new shields: Ones a little closer to being historically accurate. As I have found no hard evidence for a lenticular Viking shield, I have made this shield flat.

 Thus here is a record of my latest paltry efforts as I bumble along in the re-enactment world.

Materials:

 Lime wood (linden) planks of thickness 9mm. Widths 167mm and 229 mm.
Lime wood handle
Bronze termini from Birka Traders
Bronze buckle from Birka Traders
Eyelets
Guige strap of leather 26mm wide and 3mm thick.
Hand made nails
One boss, 281 mm wide, 2mm thick with an approx 40mm high dome.
Rawhide strips
Two skins of goat leather, approx 1 mm thick. Glue
Tacks, blued  

Mass of components

  • Lime planks (4)          1950g

  • Boss                            940g

  • Eyelets (2)                     20g

  • Buckle                           25g

  • Handle termini (2)          25g

  • Guige strap                  110g

  • Leather facings (2)     1200g

  • Nails (6)                        40g

  • Handle                         75g

  • Total Mass (est)        4385g

  • Mass (Actual)              (to be measured)

 

Method:

1 Put your rawhide in water to soak.
2 Plane the wood to the required thickness (9mm here) and the edges for a smooth fit.  
3 Trace out a circle for body of the shield and the hole for your hand. In this case diameters of 800mm and 120mm respectively.  
4 Cut out the same.  
5 Apply glue to the edges and let set.  
6 Glue one hide onto the back of the shield and cut so that the edges are covered by leather but does not go over the face. Don’t forget to cut out the hole for your hand.  
7 Shape the handle to your preferred shape making sure that the section that lies against the back is flat. I have used a drawknife, but planing works just as well.  
8 Affix the handle to the back of the shield. 
9 Securing the handle to the leather using glue, tacks and the eyelets for the guige strap.
10 Mark and drill the holes for the boss.  
11 Glue and tack the front leather face ensuring that the leather goes over the edge and has enough room to be tacked on the back. Do not put too many tacks into the leather, as we will be adding more in a little while.  
12 Pour boiling water on the leather. This will tighten and harden the leather as it dries.  
13 Paint the shield face after it dries. I have chosen a simple but common design.
14 Remove the soggy rawhide from the water and cut into strips for the edges. Tack down these strips.
15 Put strips of metal or rawhide over the gaps in the leather.  
16 Attach the boss by driving nails through the face of the shield and the handle and bending the point of the nail over (clenching). The same for the holes in your boss that are not on the handle.
17 Affix the termini to either end of the handle with glue and small nails.
18 Attach the guige strap to the eyelets and the buckle to the strap.
19 The finished shield

Results: There you have it: A planked Viking shield.

This one was used in some of the combats at NEMAS's Easter Gathering at Armidale in 2006.