Adventures in Shield-Making - Part 2

Lovely weather

This session was about cutting the shields out and fixing the handles & bosses to them. This is done with solid rivets, not bolts - we eschew such modern short-cuts and I think authenticity officers might raise an eyebrow.

I first cut the shields out from the sheet using a jig-saw. I broke one blade doing this, but I have plenty to spare. I used a small-toothed blade, because I didn't want the wood to splinter too much. Then I more carefully cut out the central holes. It's probably only by the direct intervention of Hephaestus that Helen's tables don't have holes in them too.

With that done, let's look at the boss options we have:

The one on the right looks 'nicer' but may cramp your big giant strangler's hands

The ones I bought at TORM look nice, but I think they are a bit on the small side. I remember when we had Tyrslith shields that having your hand resting on the boss would give you 'rubber knuckle' from all the impacts, and I decided to avoid that. So I went with the bigger bosses.

NB: Mick has actually asked for the third shield, and he'd like it to have one of the smaller bosses for his little pixie hands.

To fix the boss and handle to each shield, I drilled the wood through the existing holes in the bosses. These bosses have six holes around the circumference and some have four. I don't think it makes much difference.

Lining the boss up over the hole proved to be quite challening for someone of my intellectual gifts. The eventual method involved taping it to the shield temporarily after lining it up from the other side. It had mixed success.

Then I put a couple of rivets through each shield & boss as below. Note the cupped depression at the end of the rivet - this helps the metal spread out uniformly when you hit it, and is a genius idea. There's also a washer for the rivet to spread over, which makes it all stronger.

The rivets the bosses came with - note the 'cupped' depression at the end, and the washer

The Anvil of Destiny

Whacking the rivets with the rounded end of various hammers was a lot of fun. However, my aging hammer collection didn't take too kindly to it, and a couple of them are quite wobbly now. So I asked Helen to look up local Steam Fairs so I can go and mingle with all thoses sad blokes hanging around the rusty old tool stalls - I am becoming one of them.

Half-done - needs more violence

The rusty old rivets I have from years ago don't have the cup-depression at the end, but I was so impressed by it I added my own with a bit of careful drilling:

Good rivet, bad rivet, improved rivet

After the bosses were fixed on with a couple of rivets, I applied myself to fixing on the handles. To do this, the rivet has to go through the boss, shield, handle, and a washer. The rivets supplied with the bosses were too short for this, so I used my longer old rivets.

The handles were cut from a single strip of oak I bought in B & Q - I roughly shaped them with a rasp to make them nicer in the hand.

When finished, the bosses and handles are rock-solid on the shields, and they feel good. I'm quite proud, even though the shield rims are wonky and the handles/bosses aren't centred very well. It doesn't bother me though - these are Artisanal shields.

NB: I had been thinking of putting another couple of rivets through the handles, but it's all feels so strong I didn't bother.

Two shields ready for rims and paint

Next time: tidying up the holes and rims with a rasp attachment for my drill, raw-hide for rims, and green paint for a background. Then they're about ready.