Dole Day Blues: Viking Shield part 1

Saturday 28 June 2014

Viking Shield part 1

I was up in my loft again and found some more timber that came from a wooden pallet about ten years ago. It is the same wood that I made my blind carving of the old Irish Florin. Here is a photo of the blind carving Old Irish Florin.

So I took the timber down and decided to do another project. About 1998 I had this idea about making a shield out of Irish 1 pennies and I collected a large 5lt tin of them, but never got round to using them yet. Here is a photo of the coins. As you can see, there is almost 20kg of them. I will use them some time, but I don't think I will make them into a shield.

After a lot of thought and loads of research, I decided to use the timber to make a Viking style shield. The wood was all warped and split, but as with the blind carving, I think this will add to the over all look. To a degree I used the blind carving as a template as the shield is almost the same size.

So after I joined the wood together, I made two shield bosses as I wasn't sure which style I wanted. In this photo I show the two shield bosses placed on my blind carving which is on top of the joined wood for the shield. This gave me an idea which boss would suit the project. In case you are not sure, a shield boss is a steel dome that is designed to protect the hand in the handle of the shield.

So I cut the shield to the size I wanted and then started think about the design. I came up with a nice Viking style design, but decided that I would design it as I was making it. I felt that this approach would be more fluid and also how the Vikings would have made it. In fact I didn't even use a ruler or any measurements, but did it all freehand, with a straight edge and string.

So here is the shield, put together with a coat of iron oxide vinegar, that will stain the wood. As you can see, the iron oxide has turned it a nice red hue.