Making a Viking Plank Shield

After having made several viking style shields with plywood, I decided I would try making one out of planks.  This is more authentic, I understand, but I am still cheating by using some old pine boards that were once part of a set of shelves I no longer use.  I figured the lumber was essentially free and I still have lots of glue, nails, paint, fabric, etc. from making the plywood shields, so why not?

My online reading has led me to conclude that the planks in actual viking shields were simply butted together and glued.  The linen fabric and rawhide edging were very important in keeping the planks together.

Day 1

I had two shelf planks that were very precisely milled, so I didn't have to do any work except cut them into appropriate lengths.  The boards are 9 1/4" wide and 3/4" thick.  I figured if I butted three together I would have 27 3/4", which is close enough to 28" as to not matter much.  I cut three 28"+ sections just to be on the safe side.  3/4" is a bit thicker than most viking shields, but not by too much.  This shield will be substantially heavier and sturdier than the 3/8" plywood ones.

Cut boards

I glued the joints with wood glue and then butted them together.  The milling guaranteed they fit very well.  I don't have clamps long enough to clamp them together crosswise, so I clamped both ends of the joints with spring clamps and set them on some lumber blocks to dry.

Rather than cut the circle out when the whole thing is held together with glue only, I opted to cover the backside with fabric first and attach the handle and some reenforcing slats.  So the next step was to glue the fabric in place.

I used my huge jug of wood glue and just poured it directly onto the boards and then spread it evenly with an old paintbrush.

I had a little over two yards of fabric left over, so I cut one 28" wide piece and laid it a smoothly as possible on the glue.

After an hour or so when the glue was starting to harden, I sketched out the circumference of the shield and the center hole for the shield boss with my makeshift compasses.

I marked the first with a black sharpie pen, but the holes in my smaller compass were too small, so I had to use a pencil for the 5" circle.  I also drew in horizontal and vertical center lines to help in placing the handle and reenforcing slats.

Then I measured out an marked the locations for these and marked spot to drill nail holes when the whole thing is fully dried.

The handle is a 24" length of a pine furring strip that cost a dollar for 8'.  The reenforcing slats are 1/4" thick 18" long pieces ripped from a pine 2x4 that I had sitting in the lumber pile in the garage.  I glued and tacked the slats with some 1/2" carpet tacks.

Day 2

After this set overnight I noticed that the planks warped significantly, due to the moisture in the glue I assume.  There is not much I can do about it.  My shield will be slightly concave when viewed from the front, but perhaps when I cut out the circle it won't look so pronounced.

The first thing I did was sand down the seams between the board.  The surfaces were not exactly flush, but they weren't so far off as to require planing.  If I was being more authentic, I would've planed down the whole front after cutting out the round, so that it was only about 1/2" thick at the edges and still 3/4" thick in the center.  Unfortunately, I do not own a plane and I am lazy, so sanding will have to do.

Next, I carefully cut out the 5" center hole and then drilled through the handle from the back side at the nail holes spots I had marked and flipped the shield over. I pounded some 2 1/2" roofing nails through from the front side and then flipped the shield back over.  The nails stuck through the handle,  but only by a little bit.  So, rather than clench them over, as I did on the earlier plywood shields, I made some crude washers from a sheet steel with my metal snips and a punch and then pounded the cut ends flat over this for crude rivets.  Apparently this was the way at least some viking shields were made.

The warping made it necessary to add an additional rivet on the left side to pull the handle close enough to the shield to set the last rivet.  Even then, I had to use a longer nail and cut it off.

My crude rivets

With this done, the whole assembly felt much sturdier.  I then applied a coat of glue and some fabric to the front side and let this dry overnight.

Day 3

After another day to allow the glue to fully harden, I found the warping was greatly reduced due to gluing fabric to the front as well as the back.

The first task was to finally cut out the circle with my jig saw.  Somehow I got a small cut in my left hand (wood sliver?) and didn't notice it until after I'd bled a little on the back of the shield.  I chose to take this as a good omen.  The shield has been hallowed with blood, even before its first use.

I sketched a preliminary plan for painting Odin's ravens, Huginn and Muninn.  I liked the sketches but decided that the artwork wasn't very authentic for the time period.

 

I decided on a red background with the design for the ravens shown below.

From here on out everything follows almost exactly how I did my plywood shields.

First coat 

Second coat

Once the base coat was dry I sketched two ravens on the shield with a Sharpie marker.

I experimented with various ways of painting the ravens on.  First I tried black acrylic craft paint, which gave a nice dark matte color, but I am too clumsy with a brush to get the fine lines I wanted.  I tried a permanent marker to smooth out the edges, but the black ink didn't match the black paint well.  It was lighter and more reflective.  I bought a "paint pen", but it was the same kind of permanent ink, I think.  In the end I went over all the painted bits with ink so that the colors were consistent.

Painting finished and dried
The Norse runes are H for Hugin and M for Munin, which translate to "thought" and "mind".

Day 4

I painted the back of the shield white, because it was looking pretty ugly with all the lines and mismatched color of the wood, fabric and glue.  The original intent was to edge this shield with rawhide.  But rawhide is white and that didn't match the color scheme, so I edged it with false leather vinyl.  I also painted over the front with acrylic varnish.  I glued a strap of suede around the handle and fixed it with carpet tacks.  Then I riveted on the boss with 1 1/2" rivets that I cut to 1 1/4".

Update 10/16/2020:

Archeological evidence on how Viking shields were made