As someone who also used a box cutter knife for stuff like carving in the past, please get an actual carving knife. Even when cutting away, you can grivously injure yourself. The blades can suddenly snapp and while using force during carving you can easily slip into the piece stuck in the wood and cut deep and long into your hands and arms.
the blade shouldn't get stuck, that could indeed caus bad injuries. The reason why I don't use my carving knive is caus: I got to sharpen it all the time, the blade's to short and the blade doesnt bend. Caus of that you couldn't do the techniques at 14:25. I know that some dedicated, special knives and planers exist, but they are expensive and rare. For beginners gloves + box cutter knife is realistic.
@@TheShieldery One simple carving knife is absolutely enough. You don´t need all the fancy tools. But I will reiterate, DO NOT USE A BOX CUTTER FOR CARVING. While I respect your work, in this point I am disagreeing completly and calling out dangerous practice. I have had acciedents with that in the past. Work saftey will telly you off for doing it. The blade is not made for carving, and I am lucky to have gotten away with just a nasty flesh wound back then. Depending on the blades, when they break and you slip it can easily aputate a finger, or mess up the tendons all over your hand. Gove or no glove. DOn´t mess around, and get a 20-40 euro carving knive. Saveing that little monery isn´t worth the risk of life long disability. Box cutters are meant to be used at minimal extension, and when used wrong can be hilariously dangerous.
A small tip i learned from a boatbuilder is to use a regular small flat pein for peening rivets. It spreads the material better and gives you less risk of the nail bending and cracking the wood.
Maybe a small tip with the pipe clamps, if you use them above and under the workpiece the forces are more evened out and the warping while glue is less. For a big part like you did in one glue it's up probably still not enough. So you could also try to first glue smaller pieces to bigger ones and then a final glue up.
Oh boy, it's been a while since I saw a video of yours, as a good fellow German I have something to gripe about. Because I wore headphones the Music at about 02:20 blasted my earchannels free. 😅 Todays Video set me back in Time, I used to do Reenacting, we potrait, you guessed it, vikings. Oh and the shields look dope!
Great video, as always. I tried making one of these a few years ago and it warped badly- you've inspired me to try again ;) And a suggestion: for carving things like the handle, a spoke shave is a brilliant tool; far, far easier than a utility knife and I can't recommend it enough.
thanks! I got a spoke shave, but you usually need two hands to holde it and therefor need a propper way to keep the wood in place. In addition it's quite chunky. A boxcutter knive is just much more inconvenient. I got a tiny one hand planer which has a razor blade as planer knife, I'd recommend that :))) .
I think you’re the first person I’ve seen who has an electric planer, drill press, jigsaw and set of gigantic clamps, but doesn’t own a basic pocket knife. Actually I’d recommend getting a drawknife, that would make your life a lot easier.
Wow, impressive work. Can't wait to see your future projects. I don't think I ever saw anyone make a hussar shield. Prussian pavises are also quite rare.
Great results man! Looks great. Also curious if you considered to try making some wicker shields in the future, they are really interesting and might be a cool experience to make them. Love your videos✌️
Easily one of the most heartfelt likes I have given to a video. While I would hate this craftmanship to go to waste, i would love to see one of these shields attacked by Tod Cuttler in one of his videos. I know shields are no match for his arrows and daggers, but it would be interresting to see how much a historical shield will resist before getting split, or punctured.
@@cerocero2817 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VgUDDdQWA4Q.html pls like this answhere in order for me to see that I could comment the link
Great job there! I wonder if the problems you had with the timber splitting were due to it being too dry, and therefore brittle? If you buy sawn timber it’ll usually be kiln dried, which is what you need for construction work but may not be ideal for a project like this. I get the feeling that green boards might be more forgiving, and possibly closer to what the originals would’ve been made from.
Thanks! I bought the timber from a privat person two towns away that air dryed them outside for 5 years. Or at least that's what he said. It should be correct I think; they felt appropriate. Greenboards usually deform quite a lot while drying. but with radial split planks it might work. If you let them dry for a couple of weeks after glueing them together bevore attatching the grip and the rawhide, of course. Deffinitly worth a try. Unfortunatly I wouldn't know how to get them though XD
@@TheShieldery yeah, you’d definitely need to pay more attention to the grain of the timber if you used it green. Radially split boards would have the grain at closer to 90° to the face of the board, similar to what’s known as quarter sawn in milled timber, which is considered the most stable. Face sawn boards, with the grain more parallel to the face, will move a lot more when drying.
I'm surprised you didn't anneal that brass with a torch beforehand. would make the metal a lot easier to work and I'd be surprised if the originals weren't worked annealed
Nice looking shield, would be better if you used the tools that were available at that time. If cracking was a problem for them they could face the back with rawhide too. Good post, thanks 👍
Thanks! I want to sell the shields and crafting them with authentic tools would double the price and not change the final result. that's why it wouldn't make sense :( . If I hit 600€/month on Patreon, I would do it though XD.
@@thepagan5432 Your welcome; thank's for the honest comment! :) I am allready shooting my next video in which I at least show, how it could have been done with the authentic tools; I will show one shot in which I use the electric planer and then another one with the normal wood planer and so on :)
I built a shield out of thin oak boards and glued them together. The back remained visible. I glued rawhide to the front with bone glue. After 2 years, however, the shield began to bulge forwards because the rawhide contracts over time. Even the crossbar on the back couldn't prevent this.
uf, that sounds disappointing. Bone glue is quite bad and not authentic though. Mayby that draged the moisture out of the rawhide over time? In addition: how where the boards cut? Where they core planks?
Making it with split out planks would be a lot of work. But you could make it stronger/lighter. I don't know if it's historically accurate but I usually cut the fabric or rawhide (triangles or star if you like) and fold it through the center hole and glue it into place there. The last thing I usually attach is the boss. If you have conical drills, that is used for wood dowels, you can use them for forged nails too.
it's a matter of taste, really. I got that kind of drill and yes, it would have been an idea. But the nails where only very little conical at the end, so it wouldn't have made much of a difference ;) .
i would love to make shields like these. and i enjoyed watching this video. i wonder if it is going to be difficult getting most of these materials here in Canada. I know ash wood is easy to get from lumber stores, but not all can be easy
You could also try to use sprouce or pine wood for the shield, especially if it's your first try. Otherwise maybe take a look at ebay. Private individuals often sell less conmen kinds of wood in small quantities. Otherwise you could also ask your next joiner or carpenter. They usually know whom to call ;). For the rawhide, try Leather manufacturers, mayby they can give you an untanned hide. There are also tutorials on youtube on how to produce it by yourself from a fresh animals skin, but that's a hole different topic...... Maybe also ask some local huntsmen, caus some of them further process the fur by themself. In any case, Good luck and have fun crafting!
Thanks! Regarding authentic ones, I'd say viking shields are not that difficult to make, IF you don't get into trouble with low quality wood or rawhide. Approx 20-30 houres per piece, in approx 3 weeks. Yes, I would. If I sell those two and get orders for more, for sure :)
A fantastic build, and a fun video. One thing I would request, is to add the track titles of the music you use in your videos. They are quite relaxing, and would be nice to listen to
Thanks! I pay 120€ per year to soundstrip in order to not have to do that XD. Except the final tune everything is from Cody Martin. Last one is "Vikings" from Adam Saban. To be honest I don't know wether they are available to public.
I'd go with medium old ones. Usually 5 to 8 boards got used on 70-90 cm broad shields, that makes an average 10-18 cm broad plank. Caus they where radial split the whole tree needs to be 26 - 42 cm in diameter (caus you got to remove the center). You can guess yourself how old a fir tree needs to be in skandinavia do get that thick; I'd say 30-50 years :)
Is there any reason for putting flesh side of the rawhide on wood and the hair side outside? I mean, my experience is that generally with leather the nice smooth hair side is actually much less resistant than the flesh side... So is it how we think it was done? Or is it because of better of better adhesion of the flesh side (which I only suspect given the rougher texture)? Or is it just aesthetics?
Were the rawhide edges of shields painted in the past? I do some viking reenactments and I've always seen shields with the bare rawhide on top of the paintjob. I am sure you are correct in it though :)
we don't have enough sources for a clear answere. But caus every other shield in history had a painted edge, the viking shields most likely also where painted. It could be though that the rim was decorated with a different pattern.
Yes, I do. You can find my contact information on my website which is linked in the videos description. Are you european (I'm german)? If your from Amerika, the shipping coul get veeeery expensive :(.
I made some simple Viking shields, for my nephews about a decade ago. I don’t remember coming across the copper/brass ring along the boss, during my research. Is there a site that you can direct me to, for further information?
"Ideal" depends on the circumstances. The measurements from this video are the ideal ones I could make out of the material I had which also where historically accurate. For more informations about the variation of the archaeological pieces, take a look at the links to the sources in the videos description :)
möglich schon, aber dann hast halt nen fetten überlapp drin. Wenn ich viel Zeit und Mühe in ein großes projekt stecke und dann an den Materialen spaare, bereue ich das meist. Ka was du genau planst aber das würde ich mal im Hinterkopf behalten :)
@@TheShieldery danke für die schnelle Antwort. Ich hab die Möglichkeit an rohhaut aus Reh heran zu kommen, aber die ist halt nicht so groß und hat gerne mal ein Loch drin.
@@hendrikrotzheim479 ich würde provellus empfehlen, wenn du die nach nem stück fragst für vikingerschild mit durchmesser XY haben die vermutlich was ;)
here's the source: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gnLv-L5cdqY.html no idea wether i can link another video in the comments. pls like/answhere for me to know wether you recieved it :)
@@TheShieldery ahh yes, the link worked, sorry for the confusion, I meant where did you buy it? I’ve hard a hard time finding a place to buy it for my own shields.
@@southpawskutatoi Aaaah; ok. (In germany) I buy them either from "Provellus or, caus I got to craft higher quantities, from "Lederfabrik renz". You get half a cow of rawhide for 200 € and that's enough for 3-4 viking shields. In generall ebay or "kleinanzeigen" might be worth a try. :)
are you sure it was fir wood? firs don't grow naturally in any nordic country. could of course be imported, but i feel like spruce would be quite similar. in swedish, presumably from old norse, fur means pine. going back far enough in time the root word seems to have meant oak. not to say you didn't make a great looking shield here.
A mixture of terpentine, linseedoil varnish and 1 or two other things. It's completl water resistant. You can look it up on kremer pigemnte, link in description :)
When splitting a log? Yes, then wood knots are a problem, caus it interrupts the growing direction and therefore the splitting. But as you probably noticed, parts of the log tend to split of directly before the knot, caus the connection between the knot itself and the wood that has grown around it is quite weak. When you only take a small intersection of the log, called a plank, this weakness persists. But the advantage that it interrupts the wooden growth doesn't come to play any more, caus it always points basically in the same direction as the possible splitting.
@@TheShieldery A bevel down normal chisel can take that cut. I think the box knife can break suddenly when bending is the worry and fly ino you somewhere. But what I reacted to most myself was the electric planer, those are very dangerous used wrong and they should be used carefully. I nowdays dont use them anymore a small handplane is great for that kind of work.
yes. they where very good woodworkers. There is a reason why their boats and churches are so famous :))))))) . They wheren't used on shields though, as you can see in the sources.
Thanks for the offer, but I allready got one and don't use it allready. You can join me on patreon though; new camera will be 640€; any help is appreciated....
Thanks for betraying the title in the first few seconds, instead of leaving it until later in the video. Sawn planks are not the same material as split planks. In detail, all of the work needs to be done with the same kind of hand tools in order to get the same mechanical properties, because it changes the qualities of the surface and also the compression or "work hardening" applied to the boards. It is simply not possible to make a viking shield with a box-cutter knife; you need a slöjd knife for that. =p Something else to keep in mind is that not all fir is the same. Early medieval craftsmen had access to a wide range of naturally grown trees, allowing them to get exactly the characteristics that they wanted, while modern mass-harvested timber is intended to have uniform characteristics, giving a lower selection. This is quite important in relation to viking age conifers, as it was often the densest specimens that they chose for building materials (which are not readily available today and had drastically different characteristics), but idk if they had the same idea when it came to shields, or selected for different qualities. The boss and nails should be made of bloomery steel, which you don't mention and the copper alloy that you chose is not an original material. So, the title is missing a "maybe some of", since the rawhide is accurate and possibly also some of the paint and glue, but nothing else, it seems. Other than the title though, a cracking good video.
Thanks for your honest feedback :)))) ! I didn't betray the title, I explained reasonable why it wouldn't match the videos main theme ;) . In addition I never claimed to make it ONLY with the authentic materials. The original materials are "only" the vast majority I used though. The material is the same, only the processing differs and with core planks it doesn't make much of a difference. I'd give it a solide 90% the same (caus core plank). About the paragraph starting with: "In detail, ..." nope; if the result is the same the process doesn't matter. In the end I want to sell those shields. The ones from the video are at 450€. If I'd make one with authentic tools we are at 750€ minimum and they'd look the same. Would you honestly pay that? I also never claimed to use authentic tools. About the paragraph starting with: "Something else to keep in mind is that not all fir is ..." I also got to disagree with that, they also had to work with what they had and a broad range of wood qualities was given: Bad wood => fire wood / coals; medium wood => .... ; excellent wood => .... ; Especially in Skandinavia the forrests in the viking age where not particularly larger or smaller then today, more naturaly yes, but all in all not better or worse wood quality wise. In this videos Case I didn't use mass-harvested stuff. I bought the wood from a private person 70 km away from my place. The fir planks are quite uneven with differing growth length periods and ... organic... knot holes. They also where naturaly dried. Making bloomery steel would be an entire different video and just would be to much for the viking shield theme, as well as producing the correct copper alloy (which I considered in therms of casting a metal handle terminal [like the one from Sandby on Ödland] which you can see in the sources). Again thanks for your honest oppinion. Those assumptions give me interesting feedback as video producer :)))) .
@@TheShieldery No problem. Frankly, I think you're wrong on all points. As I explained clearly (I thought) I don't have a problem with your process at all, just the misleading title. The product is somewhere between a true replica and a plywood shield and that's fine. If that's a market that exists, it's great that you're providing for it. Regarding the authenticity of the materials though: The difference between medieval Scandinavian timber finds and extant timber stands has been studied at length in Norway. The quality of pine used for viking ships and stave churches (they call it "hard pine" but it's not its own species, just desirable specimens of the most common pine) is practically extinct. There is a huge difference between the forests of then and now. They very effectively selectively removed what they considered the best bits, so just the dregs remain. Can you make a good banana milkshake with a rotten banana? Probably not, so if you use timber that a viking craftsman would have discarded, it's not going to be representative. Of course, this isn't a problem that you can easily fix, but that doesn't affect whether or not the material you're using is an original material, just whether it's feasible for you to use original materials. As for sawing vs splitting and to a lesser extent, using power tools, this does change the materials that you're using: Clay is a building material. Bricks are also a building material. Bricks are made of clay, but they are not clay. Likewise, a plank is not a tree. If you're using the wrong type of plank, it's not the same building material, even if they came from the same tree. There's an old saying "A man must make his own arrows". With this in mind, I wouldn't pay 4€ for a shield! I appreciate you sharing tips though. If I were ever to make one or more "viking shields", I expect I'd make some of the same compromises, since I too am averse to lead poisoning and don't feel like selectively breeding a hundreds of years old tree for the purpose. ;)
