Twinhawk Hand Made Carved Hardwood Round Shield with Double Headed Eagle | 24 Inch Diameter | Blackened Steel Rim and Knotwork Band | Heraldry Display Gift | RK-1986

This is a twenty four inch round shield with a carved hardwood face, a six spoke frame worked in relief across the boards, and a double headed eagle set at the centre in pale carved timber against a deep red brown ground. The eagle carries a small shield on its own chest, the device a herald calls an escutcheon, and that single detail is what tells you the design is quoting imperial heraldry rather than drawing a generic bird. The rim is blackened steel, rolled over the edge of the boards and cut with a running knotwork band that closes on itself the whole way round.

The double headed eagle is one of the oldest pieces of heraldry still in daily use, and it did not begin as decoration. It began as an argument about who was in charge. A single eagle was the standard of Rome. When the empire split and Constantinople carried on calling itself the Roman state, a second head appeared, one facing east and one facing west, and the claim being made was that one authority still held both halves. The device travelled out of Byzantium into the Holy Roman Empire, into Serbia and Albania, and into Russia, where Ivan the Third took it up after marrying into the last Byzantine imperial house. Every one of those courts was making the same point with the same bird.

Made and finished in Memphis, Tennessee. It arrives with the steel rim fitted, the face stained and sealed, and every line of the carving cleaned out by hand before it is packed.

Specifications

How to read a double headed eagle

The first is the number of heads. Two heads, looking outward in opposite directions, is the mark of a claim over two realms held under one crown. It is not a mutant bird and it is not symmetry for its own sake. Byzantium used it for the eastern and western halves of the Roman world. Later courts used it for the same reason in their own terms, which is why you find it on Austrian, Serbian and Russian arms that otherwise have nothing to do with each other.

The second is the posture. The wings on this carving are spread wide and raised, which heralds call displayed. A displayed eagle is a bird of authority at rest rather than a bird hunting. Lower the wings, turn the head, close the talons and you change the reading entirely.

The third is the small shield on the chest. That is an escutcheon of pretence, and in real heraldry it holds the personal or dynastic arms of whoever is making the claim, sitting on top of the larger imperial device. It is the part that says this is not the empire in the abstract, it is a particular house speaking for it. On this carving it is left as a clean blank field, which is deliberate. It is the natural place to put a name, a date or a monogram if you want the shield to belong to somebody.

The timber, the frame and the blackened rim

The face is built up from hardwood boards rather than cut from a single slab, which is how shields have always been made and is not a shortcut. A wide single piece of timber will cup and split as it moves with the seasons. Several narrower boards laid up together move against each other instead of all pulling the same way, and the frame worked across them holds the whole face flat.

That six spoke frame is the structural part of the design as well as the decorative part. It sits proud of the field, running from the centre out to the rim in six arms, and it stiffens the face across every direction a round shield wants to flex. The relief carving on it is cut after the boards are laid up, so the pattern runs continuously across the joints rather than stopping at them.

The rim is steel, blackened rather than painted, and it is formed over the edge of the boards to protect the end grain, which is the part of any wooden shield most likely to take a knock. The knotwork band cut into it runs unbroken around the full circumference. Knotwork with no beginning and no end is an old idea and a deliberate one, and it is the reason the band is worth looking at closely rather than reading as a texture.

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, the leather or the wood. 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 shield the two natural places are the blank escutcheon on the eagle’s chest and the field between two of the spokes. Tell us which you want and we will lay it out before we cut. There is more detail on the engraving page.

Mounting and display

A round shield hangs best from two points rather than one. A single hook in the centre lets the shield rotate every time the wall is knocked or a door slams, and you will spend the rest of your life straightening it. Two fixings set level with each other, roughly a third of the diameter apart, hold the shield square permanently.

This one is built and sold as a display and wall piece. If you want a shield you carry on the arm, look at our strapped round shields instead.

Care

Keep it dry and keep it out of direct sun. Timber and stain both react to ultraviolet, and a shield hung in a south facing window will lift in colour over a few years while the shaded parts stay where they started.

Dust it with a dry soft cloth, working along the grain and into the carving with a soft brush rather than a cloth corner. Once or twice a year give the face a thin coat of a good furniture wax, applied sparingly and buffed off. Wax feeds the seal and keeps the low shine even.

The blackened steel rim needs a wipe with a lightly oiled rag now and then, particularly if you live somewhere humid. Blackening is a controlled surface oxide, not a plating, so it holds off rust well but is not immune to it. A trace of oil on a cloth once a season is all it asks. There is more on looking after finished steel on our steel care page.

Made in the Czech Republic

This piece is made by hand in the Czech Republic, in a workshop that still works the old way. The steel is forged, ground, heat treated and finished by smiths who learned the trade from the people before them, and the wood, horn and leather are cut and fitted by hand rather than pressed out on a line. That is also why no two pieces come out exactly the same.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We import these pieces ourselves, check every one when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done here in the United States after the piece arrives, so your runes or your own design go on before it leaves for you.

A note on handmade variation

This shield is hand made rather than machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. Timber is a natural material and no two boards take a stain the same way. The figure in the grain, the exact warmth of the red brown, the depth of shadow in each carved cut and the pattern of the hammer work on the rim will all differ a little from the shield you are looking at on screen.

The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not, and it is not meant to be.

Frequently asked questions

Is this shield strong enough for reenactment or sparring?

No. It is a display and wall piece and we do not sell it as protective or combat equipment. It is not built or tested for contact of any kind, and it should not be taken to a reenactment line or used in sparring. Photography, costume and wall display are what it is for.

Does the shield have arm straps on the back?

It is supplied as a wall and display shield, so the back is set up for hanging rather than for carrying on the arm. If you specifically want a round shield with a forged grip bar and leather forearm straps, our strapped round shields are the ones to look at.

What is the difference between this and a Roman eagle shield?

The number of heads, and about a thousand years. A single eagle facing one way is the Roman aquila, the legionary standard. Two heads facing outward is the later Byzantine and imperial device, and it carries a specific claim about ruling east and west together. They look related because one grew out of the other.

Can I have a name or a date carved into it?

Yes. The blank escutcheon on the eagle’s chest is the obvious place and it is sized for a monogram, a short date or a few runes. A longer phrase sits better in the field between two of the spokes. Use the rune converter on this page or send us your own layout.

Will mine look exactly like the photograph?

Close, but not identical. The size, the design and the build are fixed. Grain, stain depth and the exact tone of the blackening vary because each shield is worked by hand from natural boards. Read the photograph as an accurate picture of the model rather than of the individual shield you will receive.

How long does it take to arrive?

Processing is one to two weeks in the workshop, and a little longer if you have ordered engraving. Shipping within the United States is free. You will get tracking as soon as the shield is packed.

What is in the box

• One twenty four inch carved hardwood round shield with a double headed eagle centre
• Blackened steel rim, fitted and finished
• Elder Futhark rune engraving or your own design where ordered
• Care card for the timber finish and the blackened steel
• Made and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

See the rest of the round shields, the Roman and Greek shields and everything we cut to order in engraved and personalized. There is more background in the guides.