The Building of My First Viking Shield

I began with a question: could I build a viking shield using nothing but materials I have at my house?  What began as a question endured as a quest to test how far I was willing to go for my passion for vikings.  A good starting place was my woodpile out back.  There I found leftover planks from the building of the back porch, all still in relatively good condition.  Using a sharpie and some measuring tape, I outlined the round shield from seven planks.  I measured the radius at 16 inches, so three inches longer than my forearm.  Then came the sawing.  How hard in sawing in a curve?  Let’s just say it’s not as fun as one might think.  Once the pieces were cut, I assembled them in order and formed the shield.  I used advice from a few aficionado sites to make the strongest design and hammered everything into place.  And voila!

Next came the hard part: the shield boss.  Where would I find an iron boss to fit a Viking shield in a small rancher town in Oregon?  Well, it turns out ranching supply stores have everything you can think of, including a cast iron range top cover that looked, felt, and acted like a real shield boss.  I used a jigsaw to cut my hole in the center of the shield, and bolted the boss on without difficulty.  Finally, I fashioned a piece of wood into a handle with a file and hammered everything together to great my first functional viking shield:  

 

We bashed it with axes, shot it with arrows, and it is still in great shape.  Next I will paint the shield and trim it with rawhide, but more or less this adventure is complete.  I feel accomplished.  Using the shield has also taught me a great deal about the feeling of wearing a shield, and has informed my writing tremendously.  What will my shield and I do next?  We shall see!