The Armour Archive

Whats a better way of attaching a metal shield boos to a wooden shield, other than screws and bolts? I'm just looking for a better, more presentable way for a center grip.
Thanks!!!

Historically they were generally nailed with clench nails. Some Roman finds show that they were attached with split pins for easy removal.

bigjon wrote:Whats a better way of attaching a metal shield boos to a wooden shield, other than screws and bolts? I'm just looking for a better, more presentable way for a center grip.
Thanks!!!

Try iron rivets with fender washers backing up the wood on the back side. Should work great.
Theo

...or you can put the broad rivet head on the board side of the shield and neatly rivet the end down on the flange of the boss. I've done it both ways.

This method assumes you are using six rivets.

Take six really big nails. I have a bag of them that were salvaged from an army dumpster. At six inches long, the army calls them a "spike", but it's just a really big nail.

Take 12 cents in pennies (the old ones). Mash them flat on an anvil until they are no longer easily recognizable as pennies. The get hot, and the edges get a little sharp. Grip them tightly with a vicegrip (NOT your fingers) and center punch them and drill a hole as close to exactly the same size as your nail shank as possible.

Drill two holes through your boss and shield blank. I like to pick top and bottom, as attaching my handles is a little more involved than just attaching the boss. Fasten the boss down temporarily with a pair of bolts.

Then drill the holes around the boss. Put a penny washer on a nail, this is your outside washer. Insert the nail in a hole. Put another penny washer on your nail, this is your outside washer. Cut the nail off at just above the inside washer, and peen the shank over (just like any other rivet). Repeat until all the other boss holes are done.

Remove the two temporary bolts, then attach your handle.

There is a slightly different method in Stacey Elliot's "How to build a round sheild that really lasts" essay in the essay section of the archive.

And please give my best to the folks in SGB.

freiman

I have a large center grip Roman oval war shield. I attached the boss with 1/4" bolts. But to change their look, I welded a threaded shank of a large round headed rivit (maybe a 9/16" sized head). I also filed a pattern of notches in the nuts so they look less like perfect little hexegons.

Good luck