The trials of making of a modern lenticular Viking shield

Returning to rediscover my place in art was a recent process. Retired, and, outside of renovating. I made time to achieve several objectives. Carving, writing, painting, and discovery of ancient shield-making techniques, amongst other art explorations are my goals. 

Having enjoyed the television series Vikings, I decided to research Viking shield making techniques, with the intent of recreating a lenticular Viking shield from scratch. Why a lenticular shield? It seemed to me, were I a Viking, I would like to carry the most effective shield. 

In terms of durability, lenticular shields are less likely to split under assault from a sword, spear or axe because of their construction. It too seemed logical, arrows were less likely to penetrate, but I have yet to put this to the test at an archery session with my grandsons.

The challenge for me was to stick to the most likely hand-making methods Vikings may have applied. As I progressed, it came to me working with wood to produce an object designed to save life and limb was indeed a work of art.

Lenticular blank

My research revealed Vikings primarily used two types of shields, butted flat planks secured by three lengths of timber or iron strips at the rear, and the lenticular, similarly joined. I chose to reproduce the lenticular model as previously stated, and because of its complexity. 

Living in suburbia meant concessions to ancient techniques. First was splitting the planks with a saw. My research failed to produce a technique other than splitting with an axe or some other specialised splitter. The main reason I used a saw was because I do not own the appropriate splitting tools. However, that search goes on.

I commenced by sawing 50mm X 50mm pine planks into 5mm thin strips, slightly over a metre in length. I had due regard to the fact, no domed or hollow Viking shields had been reported on by archeologists.  However, much speculation exists due to archaeological finds. Doming a shield would not have been difficult for the Vikings provided they had time, even in a marching camp.

Vikings may have employed split green timber pressed against a tree trunk or, weighted to a mould. to achieve a doming effect. Without a suitable tree trunk in my garden to experiment on, I constructed a mould for several reasons. I wanted to experiment with doming. 

However, I later discovered a domed shield once covered with fabric for several days would not hold the hollow or domed shape. Unless stressed in some additional way, the thin wood strips returned to their normal, flat shape. On the positive side, this added to stretching the fabric. 

I lay cut lengths on the mould side by side, one atop the other and joined them with wood glue. I then fastened the wet glued planks to the mould with thin nails and clamps, lots of clamps.

Living in suburbia meant a concession to recreating bone or hide glue. That old method was out of the question due to the horrendous stink. I tried making hide glue many years ago. It was a long, smelly process. In addition to holding down raised/warped wood with clamps, I applied heavy weights evenly across the blank. This sat for a week. I checked daily for warping faults.

A week later, I removed the clamps and I cleaned off excess glue residue and sanded it back to a slightly smoother finish. I made a scribe -  a flat length of thin timber two holes at either end, one with a nail, the other, a pencil, centralised to the blank. I scribed and cut a circle 800mm in circumference.  

Cutting with a handsaw, I was left with a blank approximately 10mm thick, weighing around 4 kilo. As you can see above, I knocked off rough surface edges with a rasp and hand plane. I use hand tools as often as possible to understand the difficulties shield-makers faced making such shields.

While research suggested some Viking shields were covered front and rear in leather, I deduced this could not have been so on every shield for the following reasons. Warriors use two shields, one was a backup and a battered one following a skirmish or battle would have been replaced quickly in a marching camp. 

Furthermore, green or treated leather may not have always been available on a raid. A seafaring, adaptable people, I figured cloth such as old sails, linen or cotton would have been substituted.  In addition, a leather-covered shield is reputed to weigh between 7 - 10kg. A big, well-muscled Viking may not have found that an impost in battle. 

An average-sized Viking may have required something less weighty, yet effective at protection. Vikings were many things in my limited view, skimping on self-protection was not an art I figured they practised with any regularity.

I asked my wife up for an old linen tablecloth and soon had the blank prepared to cover front and rear.

Note the image above still retains a slight doming. After slathering in glue, I stretched, trimmed and held the edges down as depicted above. This meant, standing over the shield, smoothing out air bubbles, stretching and re-positioning clamps as drying took place. I allowed two days to dry, performing the same exercise each side of the blank.

Reproducing a decent Boss too was out of the question. While I watched numerous videos on how to make one by hammering, heating and beating. I figured, no way were my neighbours going to suffer my hammering metal on a metal anvil for an hour or more without complaining. I chose to purchase a 12mm Boss manufactured in Brisbane by a company specialising in supplying Larpers and reenactors.

Using the centralised nail mark, I cut a hole for the Boss but quickly realised that the brass studs were way under length. I subsequently, purchased 6mm coach head bolts, rounded off the heads and split the thread with a hacksaw. I positioned each into the appropriate hole and, using a steel wedge, flattened the split ends snuggly to the blank. I then painted the blank yellow as a base coat.

I fixed the central hand piece top to bottom and proceeded to learn how to edge the shield. I used rawhide obtained in the form of chewable bones from my local pet food supplier. I did later purchase a strip of leather for a plywood shield, but found this to be unrealistic in cost and for practical purposes.

Working with raw hide meant soaking the material in water overnight, and next day, laying out and cutting into equally wide lengths. The disadvantage here is that I had to use several pieces joined by smaller lengths. The advantage compared to a strip of leather, is that wet raw hide moulds itself to the shield rim and hardens into a tough exterior. Whereas, processed leather is supple and easily cut. 

I experimented holding the raw hide to the rim with tacks, upholstery nails and stitching. All worked well. I now understand how much maintenance must have gone into a shield after a battle. Stitching after punching holes in the rim with an awl, nail or like device was tedious. I am not convinced this method was the best because, a sharp object such as an axe or sword would soon have the thread in tatters. Tacks or small iron nails would serve better.

I painted the shield (as above) and bound the hand grip with twine. Later, I used leather for the grip, but settled on twine because it soaked up perspiration and was less slippery.

I subsequently repeated the process, stitching the raw hide and painting a new Viking symbol to the shield. 

 

It was now time to experiment with plywood. Note the processed leather tacked and glued to the rim.

While plywood was easy to work with, it is flimsy compared to a lenticular construction. Having regard to a comparison between the two types of shield, I estimated a plywood construction was only good for mock combat scenarios because, it would be chopped to bits by a real Viking axe fairly rapidly. Thereby exposing the user to danger of an axe strike.

Next, I took a hard look at Roman shields and noted the clipeus was a close companion to the Viking style. I used the Bull and Olive Leaf pattern combined because both were common symbols employed by the Romans. The Boss is slightly different shaped but, effectively the same thing.

This search eventually led me to smaller but equally sturdy Roman cavalry shields. 

 

Smaller and lighter at around 600mm, I painted the rim and Boss in the colours of  The Pannoniciani seniors - See - Late Roman Shield Patterns and the Notiotia Dignitatum - http://lukeuedasarson.com/NotitiaPatterns.html.

Creating each shield meant producing a slightly imperfect object in terms of dimension, circumference and paint type. Reproducing ancient paints was too out of the question for me due to the production technique. Using modern paints allowed me move forward. Drawing and painting the patterns you see above was both a pleasure and a challenge. The users of these objects must have spent much time getting the images right, and maintaining the shield. For instance, keeping the Boss free of rust. I'm guessing paint would assist this process. 

Furthermore, even after many hours of resting, slight bubbles appeared in both the shield cover and rim. In the case of the cover, splitting, patching, re-gluing and painting corrected that. Whereas, the rim was a rigid cover and a slight bubble appeared not be an impediment to self-protection.

Next time, I will soak the cut pine strips in water for several weeks to reproduce a 'green timber' effect. Furthermore, I will let the strips lay on the mould for a month to understand the doming effect, and I have obtain thin leather squares to apply to the front and rear of each shield. I chose very thin leather to keep the weight down but to hold to an authentic look.

I have no idea when I will be able to get back at this enjoyable task but, I hope it will be soon. My focus this time will be on planked shields to understand how they were joined and held together for something as stressful as a battle.

Shields to go Etsy when I get around to it.