Pathmark Hand Forged Steel Shield Boss with Vegvisir Engraved Dome & Eight Hole Rivet Flange | Shield Building Gift | RK-1441

Pathmark is a hand forged shield boss in polished steel, a deep round dome on a wide flat flange, drilled at eight even points for rivets and engraved across the crown with a Vegvisir set inside a ring of knotwork. It is the steel cap that goes over the hand hole at the centre of a round shield, and it is supplied on its own with a set of dome head rivets so you can fit it to a shield you are building or replace one that has been dented past saving.

The word Vegvisir is Icelandic and it means, plainly, way finder. It comes from the Huld manuscript, a compilation of Icelandic magical staves written out by Geir Vigfusson in 1860, where the note beside the drawing says that a man who carries this sign will not lose his way in storms or bad weather even on roads he does not know. It is nineteenth century Icelandic folk magic rather than a Viking age symbol, which is a thing worth saying out loud on a page selling one. It is still a superb piece of radial design and it sits on a domed boss better than almost anything else does. Ours is raised, polished, engraved and drilled in our Memphis, Tennessee workshop.

Specifications

How a dome is raised out of a flat disc

A shield boss starts as a flat circle of sheet steel. There is no mould and no press involved in making one by hand. Getting from a flat disc to a deep dome with a flat flange around it is a sequence of hammer work that has not changed in any meaningful way in fifteen hundred years.

The first stage is sinking. The disc is laid over a hollowed block or a sandbag and struck from above in a spiral from the centre outward, which stretches the middle of the sheet downward into a shallow bowl. That thins the metal, which is why sinking alone cannot make a deep boss. The second stage is raising. The bowl is held at an angle over a rounded stake and struck near the outside, driving the metal from the rim inward and upward. Raising compresses rather than stretches, so the walls thicken as the dome grows taller, and it is how you get depth without ending up with tinfoil at the crown.

Between passes the steel has to be annealed. Every hammer blow moves the grain structure and the metal work hardens as you go, getting stiffer and more brittle until it will crack if you keep hitting it. Heating it to a dull red and letting it cool resets that. A deep boss might be annealed four or five times before it is finished. Only then is the flange flattened true, the crown planished smooth with a light hammer against a polished stake, and the surface taken up through progressively finer abrasives to the polish you see here.

The steel, the polish and the depth of the dome

This is 16 gauge mild steel, around 1.6 mm, which is heavier than the sheet used for helmet panels. A boss needs it, because it takes more direct hits than any other part of a shield and because a raised dome still thins slightly at the crown however carefully it is worked. Mild steel is deliberately soft, low in carbon and impossible to harden by heat treatment, which is what you want. It deforms under a heavy blow rather than cracking, and a dented boss can be worked back out where a cracked one cannot.

The dome depth is the specification people forget to check when they buy a boss. It has to clear a closed fist wrapped around a grip bar, with room to spare, or your knuckles hit steel every time the shield is struck. This one is raised deep for that reason rather than for looks. The finish is a bright hand polish, not a plated or coated surface, so it will need looking after but it can also be brought back to new with abrasive and time, which a plated boss never can.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel or the leather. If you would rather have a Viking pattern than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. On this boss the dome is the engraving field, so a rune ring, a valknut, a triskele or your own device takes the place of the Vegvisir rather than joining it. More on the engraving page.

Mounting and display

If you are fitting it to a shield, do it after the face is painted and the rim is bound so you are not riveting through wet paint or into a rim still under tension. Cut the hand hole slightly smaller than the inside of the dome skirt so the flange lands entirely on solid wood, mark through the drilled holes with a bradawl, then drill and rivet with a washer under each burred tail on the inside of the board.

On its own it is a genuinely good display object. Standing on its flange on a shelf it reads as sculpture, and two countersunk screws through opposite rivet holes will mount it flat to a wall. Light it from one side rather than from directly above. A polished dome under flat overhead light goes to a featureless blank, while raking light picks up the planishing texture and throws the engraved stave into relief.

Care

Bright polished mild steel is the most demanding finish we make and it needs a little attention. Fingerprints are mildly acidic and will etch themselves into a polished surface within days in a humid room. Wipe it down with a clean dry cloth every time you handle it and keep a coat of hard paste wax on it, which protects better than oil on a display piece and does not attract dust.

Light rust spots lift with a fine abrasive worked with oil, then re polish and re wax. Do not use a coarse abrasive or a power wheel near the engraved stave, because the cut lines are shallow and an aggressive wheel will round their edges and blur the design. Fuller guidance is on the steel care page.

Forged in Memphis

The disc is cut, sunk, raised, annealed, planished, flattened, drilled, polished and engraved in our Memphis, Tennessee workshop. Nothing about it arrived here in a carton from an importer with somebody else name on the outside. That is why our lifetime warranty against defects in the raising, the drilling and the finish carries no end date and does not require a receipt.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand made rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Planishing marks under the polish, the exact profile of the dome, the way the light falls across the crown and the depth of the engraved stave all vary because each boss is raised and finished by hand. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Will this fit a shield I already have

In almost all cases yes, provided your hand hole is smaller than the inside diameter of the dome skirt so the flange sits on solid wood all the way round. Mark your circle from the boss itself rather than trusting a measurement from elsewhere.

How deep is the dome and does it clear my fist

It is raised deep specifically to clear a closed fist wrapped around a grip bar with room to spare. A shallow boss is the most common fault in cheap shield fittings and it means your knuckles take every hit that lands on the dome.

Is the Vegvisir a real Viking symbol

No, and we would rather say so. It first appears in the Huld manuscript of 1860, an Icelandic collection of magical staves, where it is described as keeping a traveller from losing the way in bad weather. It is genuine Icelandic folk tradition, just not Viking age.

Are the rivets included

Yes, a set of eight dome head shield rivets comes with the boss, one for each drilled hole. Burr the tails over washers on the inside of the board rather than directly onto the wood so they cannot pull through under load.

Can I use it on a shield for full contact fighting

We would not recommend it. It is 16 gauge mild steel made for display, shield building and light reenactment. Full contact groups set their own boss requirements and inspect against them, and this is not built to those standards.

How long does it take to make

Processing is one to two weeks because each boss is raised, polished and engraved to order, then shipping is free within the United States. Returns are accepted within seven days. Custom engraving adds a few days.

What is in the box

• One hand raised polished steel shield boss with engraved Vegvisir dome
• Eight dome head shield rivets
• Fitting notes for cutting the hand hole and setting the rivets
• Care card with waxing and polishing notes
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

See more in shield bosses, viking shields and engraved and personalized, or read the guides.