The Armour Archive

After fondling one of the original bucklers you can see here;



my colleague, friend and fellow reenactor Vegard made this reconstruction, turning the lot of us green with envy:






I, after recovering, chose to subject him to a long winded stream of verbal abuse - questioning his sexuality, his sanity, what kind of animal jumped his unsuspecting mother and so on - the usual stuff.

The reason behind my righteous rage was of course the realisation that he had raised the bar, and now our bucklers look like shit.

Sigh... the joys of reenactment. I will get back at him soon anyway...

The buckler board is axed from an elm log, and is near an inch thick in the middle, closer to 1 cm at the edges. The whole thing is around 35cms (a foot) in diameter. The fittings are forged, filed and punched.

The originals can only be roughly dated to the 13 - 14 centuries.

Enjoy!

hi!

i have fought agenst kongshirden in Norweg and in Wisby, and the styff you have are graet. but if you keap this upp i while look like a moron if i stand on the same feild as you.

keep it upp

Thanks for sharing, truly excellent work, the wood texture and grain realy compliments the forged hardware.
Absolutly excellent !!!

can you give us dementions? and sorces for more pictures of simalar bucklers?

I really like that, Anders. That is spiffy.

Thanks for the kind words, I will pass it on to the maker.

As to the dimensions, read the first post again, or did I leave something important out?


These bucklers are not published. The reconstructions come from examining internal museum documentation and handling the objects themselves.

Did I mention that I like my work?

Anders

(edited for schpelling)

[This message has been edited by Anders Helseth (edited 01-27-2003).]

Anders what era are these bucklers from? The one you guys made looks amazing!

Flonzy

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Cheap garb is as bad as plastic armor.
http://home.armourarchive.org/members/flonzy

[This message has been edited by flonzy (edited 01-27-2003).]

-So Vegard has made himself a Grimsöy buckler huh!?

-Would you please shoot him! (A really broad type E arrowhead would suit him right, don't you think?) -After doing so you may deliver my sincere congratulations on a performance extra ordinary (jävla bra jobb! - as always).

As Anders stated, Grieg roughly dated those bucklers to the 13th-14th centuries back in 1943.

The one up front is from Åmli in Setesdal and the one in the back is from Grimsöy in Telemark. The two others are unfamiliar to me but Anders will no doubt enlighten us tomorrow .

Cheers

/N B



[This message has been edited by Ny Björn (edited 01-27-2003).]

Unpublished, $*(&^*&(&%)%#@@@ letting folks like these *^)&)+*(&*%^%#&^ handle them as part of their &%$%$@$#@$%%^*(RTRFVIU work?

Rotten &$#%^%&* lucky %@^#$%@#$%^!!!

Must be nice. Got a spare room?

I'm with Alcy. Beautiful originals. Very sweet repro. Wow. I wish I lived in a locality where craft skills were honored and taught openly.

Well, I think you know now how I felt when I first laid eyes upon this abomination of wood and metal....

As to the bucklers not being published , I have to correct myself. Thanks, Ny Björn for reminding me indirectly.

They are indeed published in a book called "Nordisk kultur VII(?) : Vaapen" The chapter in question is "Skjoldene i middelalderen" by Sigurd Grieg. Published in 1943, I only have a poor quality reprint. The photos are especially bad, so there is at least some truth to them being "not published"

As I am 2000kms away from my books, this is purely from memory, I might have some details wrong. And sorry to disappoint you NB, I cannot name them individually without my books. I can with the kettlehats though!

I think everyone here has the right idea. Make sure you thoroughly trounce him for making something so nice. The details are really fantastic. I especially like the way the centr hole is tapered from the back to the boss.

I do believe I am going to have to save both these pictures to make one for myself in the future. Btw is the edging leather?

Tell him great work and then boot him upside the head for me.

Rob

Holy crap on a stick! What era are the originals from? Oh- I see now. Sweet baby Jesus, those are sooo cool!
-Vitus

[This message has been edited by Vitus (edited 01-28-2003).]

sorry about missing the dementions the first time my eyes were caught on the buckler.

That is indeed very nice work. It's good to see people taking authenticity seriously, and with such materfull skill.

I would love to know Anders, how much do they weigh? (I in kg please)

Erik

I say we put him in dark cellar, chained to an anvil and sell his "services" to the highest bidder.

"Bring out the gimp..."

Halvor

[This message has been edited by Halvor (edited 01-29-2003).]

Ok since I make so many shield bosses I've got a question. The pic of the originals the top left buckler. The boss looks like it's got straight up and down sides and then a slight dome to the top. (a cylindrical shape with a flange on the bottom and a bit of a dome at the top.)

Am I seeing this right? If so I have an idea on how I can make em. Yay new style of boss to add. If not then it does give me an idea on how to make the ones with the groove around the bottom of the dished area. Was planning on making those ones eventually this just gives me a niftier idea on how to do it.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Matt: Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. Another thing to not is that these bosses are quite shallow. Sufficient space for the fingers require quite some thickness to the middle of the buckler as well.

Erik: I will try to get the weight of the reconstruction by tomorrow, all I can say now is that it is lighter than you think, the iron fittings are pretty thin. I do not think the originals have been weighrd, but I will check.

As to the edging that is an iron strip hammered into a U-shape.

wanted to compliment the maker on the great work earlier and just not had a chance. Great to see things being done accurate!

So roughly how deep are the bosses? I imagine they're smaller then the ones I make.

About 5" across the dished area? Mine are 6" and a little better then 2" deep.

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The budding mid 14th century German Transitional guy.
Mad Matt's Armory

Thank you all for the complements about my buckler. The more threats of mutilation and degradation the more you warm my heart
This is my first posting on the AA, though I have been lurcking here from time to time.

It took me almost 70 hours to make the Gimsøybuckler, including experimenting and making of the special forging tools needed to shape the iron fittings and rivets. It's almost totally handmade, and included forging 32 rivets with rounded heads, and 10 smaller ones for holding the edge band. Have any of you made your own rivets from ironrods? I tell you it is a bitch if you want the heads large enough (I look with horror on the moment when I have to start making the truly largeheaded rivets for my coat of plates...).

It seemed like some of you wanted more details on weight and dimensions of the buckler, so here are some:
- My reconstruction weighs 2,1 kg. I have not weighed the original yet, but it is probably a bit lighter. The plate fittings on the edge and on the back of the buckler is originally less than a millimetre thick, actually more like 0.75 mm. I did not dare to make the edge thinner than 1 mm because we fight with metal weapons and I feared they would chew up the edge too quickly. Thin spring steel would probably be best, even though that is too early to be historically correct (14th century).
- The total diameter is a little more than Anders mentioned - about 40 cm on my reconstruction, 39,3 - 40 cm on the original.
- All the seemingly round iron fittings on the front are actually forged down to a half circular cross-section, so they are less than half as thick as they are wide, about 8 mm x 3 mm.
- The metal boss is 2,5 cm deep, and the dishing area is about 11 cm wide (10,5 cm on the original). Including the wood it is about 4,5 cm deep, or slightly more. On the inside the hole in the wooden shield plate is 12,5 cm wide. My metal boss is made from 1,5 mm iron plate, the original from 1mm.
...I guess that's enough with the measurements.

About the shape of the boss, it is a plain, slightly flattened hemisphere without any fancy angles. What you see on the picture of the original is a thin band of some silver or tin like metal put on the boss as a decorative circle, or for some other yet unknown reason. I have seen traces of this on some of the other bucklers as well but have not had the opportunity to check it out more properly. I omitted the silver/tin detail on my copy.

Well that should answer most of the questions.
Good day to you all

Vegard

You made your rivits !! fantastic, thanks for sharing the additional info

What a piece of garbage! That abbomination should not be seen in public. Send it to me and I'll um... make sure it's um.... disposed of properly... yes... disposed of.


On a serious note, that is a very fine example of beautiful craftmanship and attention to detail. My hat goes off to you Sir for your amazing achievement.

Thanks for the information Vegard. It's a beautiful piece of craftmanship.

I also make my own rivets, but the heads are quite flat, not so tall and rounded like yours.
I make them from 3.2mm tie(soft) steel wire and hammer pein the first head with the cut wire in a jig.

Erik

Mad Matt wrote:Ok since I make so many shield bosses I've got a question. The pic of the originals the top left buckler. The boss looks like it's got straight up and down sides and then a slight dome to the top. (a cylindrical shape with a flange on the bottom and a bit of a dome at the top.)

Am I seeing this right? If so I have an idea on how I can make em. Yay new style of boss to add. If not then it does give me an idea on how to make the ones with the groove around the bottom of the dished area. Was planning on making those ones eventually this just gives me a niftier idea on how to do it.

I suppose you seen this? - http://members.ozemail.com.au/~chrisand ... .html#Boss

It took me almost 70 hours to make the Gimsøybuckler, including experimenting and making of the special forging tools needed to shape the iron fittings and rivets.

MAN are you gonna be annoyed when some berserkr splits it with a single blow during a holmgangr.


gorgeous work! the bar has been raised again!

superb repro!

Where's my drooling icon?

Just beautiful....

Christopher

This should hold much of the drool: