The Armour Archive

I want to make a round shield and I'm not sure what thickness of wood to use?

For SCA or LH use?

Sorry....SCA.

1/2" is pretty standard.

Uric

Cool. That was what I was thinking. Thank you for comfirming my hunch.

If your trying for a dished look use several layers and press/laminate them together with a good wood glue.

I used 2 layers 1/4 inch glued together then wrapped in canvas for mine. Its handled some pretty good abuse in its testing phase. Also managed without the hideous garden hose.

I'll throw in an add on question here. What is a good SCA tourney style size for a round? I made a round 36" using Gokstad burial shield dimensions. It's huge and a bit unwieldy. Looks cool and I'll use it for war, but just too big. I know there aren't many guys fighting (I don't see many in my area anyway.)with viking rounds in tourneys.

I made mine about 32 because it felt comfy for me. I figure your shield should be of a size that you can handle comfortably

Measure the distance between your elbows with your fists pressed together in front of you.

I will second elbow to elbow with fists touching.

Elbow to elbow or smaller.

So just about shoulder width huh? Never considered that trick. Mines a bit wider but I'm comfortable with it.

More like a little shy of twice shoulder width, Snae.

What would you recommend for edging?

My round shield is made of 1/2" birch plywood. it started out at about 36", then cut it down to about 32".

I edged it with aluminum U channel and covered that up with thin leather. It has lasted quite a while.

Couple of years ago, I had a thread here documenting me making a viking round shield for SCA combat.

Here's the thread:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=79785

Photos and everything.

Thanks folks, I was thinking shoulder width (point to point). I'll do elbow to elbow and see how that feels.

I sanded the edge of my shiedl so it started to be round wood then wrapped/glued rope along the edge and covered it with canvas. There is no visible evidence that my shield has a padded edge but it is. I made sure it cleared with my local marshalls before trying it out though. They weren't sure at first but once they checked it out it passed easily.

Snaebjorn wrote:So just about shoulder width huh? Never considered that trick. Mines a bit wider but I'm comfortable with it.

No, not shoulder width unless you have some extraordinarily wide shoulders and/or short forearms.

My shield is bigger then shoulder width for mebut yeah. Grasped the concept of inmer elbow to inner elbow is cutting the shield smaller then shoulder width.

The fists touch at the knuckles, not at the crease of the elbow, Snae...

Yeah. Thats kinda obvious. The measurements are from the crease of the elbow. I don't know why you'd think I meant to touch fist to elbow. At that size it'd be a buckler.

Edited to add: I see the reason. I kept saying it'd be smaller then shoulder width when it would be bigger. I was getting the size backwards again.

You did have me scratching my balding pate at that, wondering how you'd gotten there. But it's got sorted.

There are days I seriously wonder if I don't have mild dyslexia. I seem to be regularly getting things backwards more and more lately. Either that or I've allowed my mind to wander so far that it's no longer allowing me to access my full capacity!