Round Shields

Why the round shield kept coming back

The round shield is the oldest and most stubborn shape in armour. It appears in the Aegean, across northern Europe, in the steppe and along the Mediterranean, and it survives centuries after other forms have come and gone. That is not tradition. It is geometry. A circle gives you the largest covered area for the least material and the least weight, and because it is symmetrical it does not care which way you turn it.

The Viking board is the plainest version. Planks of light timber glued edge to edge into a flat disc, a hole cut in the centre, a bar across the hole for your fist, and an iron dome riveted over the top to keep your hand from being broken. Around 12 mm of wood, which sounds thin until you understand that a shield is meant to fail. A board that splits and traps a blade has done its job. A board that stops everything without moving is heavy enough to be useless after a minute of holding it up.

The Greek hoplon works from the opposite direction. It is a dished bowl of laminated hardwood, faced in bronze or steel, with a rolled and riveted rim, and it is carried on the forearm through a band at the centre and a grip at the rim. That arrangement lets a man rest the upper edge on his shoulder and hold the thing up for hours, which is what a phalanx requires. It is also why a hoplon covers half your neighbour and only half of you.

The rim is the part people forget. A wooden board without an edge binding splits from the outside in the first time it takes a serious hit. Rawhide shrinks as it dries, so a wet strip stitched or nailed around the circumference pulls the planks together and stays tight. Bronze or steel rolled over the edge does the same job on the dished shields, at a cost in weight.

The shields in this collection

Thirteen pieces, and they are not variations on one thing. They come from three separate traditions plus a group built purely for display.

Planked Viking boards

Five shields, three at 24 inches and two at 30, all built the same way. Timber planks glued edge to edge into a flat disc around 12 mm thick, a hand hole cut at the centre with a grip bar across it, a domed boss of mild steel or brass riveted through with six rivets, and a rawhide edge binding nailed or riveted around the full circumference. Weights run about 7 to 12 pounds. Faces are hand painted or carved: twin ravens in black on a red field with a white cross band, a raven device on natural timber with a knotwork roundel engraved at the centre, a navy and off white pinwheel with an Elder Futhark rune ring around the boss, and one quartered in oxide red and charcoal black with a carved interlaced knotwork ring cut around the boss.

Greek hoplons

Three shields, 30 to 32 inches across and the heaviest things on this page at 12 to 16 pounds. All three are laminated hardwood dished to a shallow bowl with a metal facing spun over the front and a rolled rim riveted through the body. Two are bronze toned, one bright steel with a bronze finished flange engraved with a meander border. Devices are a running boar in oxide red, a black lambda with an engraved meander, and a crimson lambda for Lakedaimon. One carries a hand painted Gorgoneion on the inside face and a leather shoulder pad at the upper rim, which is the detail that tells you someone was paying attention.

Steel and carved display shields

Four pieces made to be looked at. A 20 inch steel disc, dished from a single sheet in 16 gauge with a rolled edge, etched with an interlaced knotwork band ending in beast head terminals, with a raised dome on a flanged base plate riveted through the face. A 24 inch formed steel shield with a shallow convex dome, hand painted in concentric red and white bands with a white five pointed star on a blue centre disc, sealed and lightly worn back. And two carved hardwood shields at 24 inches, both stained deep red brown with a six spoke frame worked in relief, one carrying a double headed eagle with an escutcheon on the chest under a blackened steel rim, the other a single eagle with wings displayed under a bronze toned rim cut with a chevron band.

The boss and fitting kit

One item here is not a shield. It is everything except the board: a hand raised mild steel boss in 16 gauge, a deep hemispherical dome on a flat flange with six rivet holes and a Valknut cut inside a knotwork ring, six rivets with washers, a coil of undyed veg tan leather for the rim, two short buckled arm straps and a long buckled carry strap. If you can glue up planks and cut a hole, this is the cheapest way to a shield you actually built.

Sizes, construction and weights across the range

Every figure comes from the specification panel of a piece on this page. These are made by hand, so several are given as ranges rather than single numbers.

Note the boss kit row. It is fittings only. You supply the board.

Sizing and how a shield hangs

Diameter is the number people compare and weight is the number that decides whether you enjoy owning it. A 24 inch board at 7 or 8 pounds can be held out at arm's length and moved around. A 32 inch hoplon at 16 pounds cannot, not by most people, and it was never meant to be. It sat on a shoulder and in a line.

For a wall, diameter is about the space. A 24 inch shield reads as an object on a normal wall. A 30 inch shield dominates one. Measure before you order, and remember the fittings on the back mean the shield stands a little proud of the plaster rather than sitting flat against it.

For costume and light reenactment, take the 24 inch boards. They are the right size for a person to carry for a few hours, they clear a doorway, and they do not clout everyone you walk past. The 30 inch boards are more historically generous and considerably more tiring.

Boards, bosses and rims

The timber shields here are built the way the originals were. Planks glued edge to edge rather than plywood, because plank grain running one way lets a board flex and split along the grain instead of shattering, and 12 mm is close to the range archaeology gives for Viking age boards. Linden is named on one of them, which is the traditional timber and light for its stiffness.

Bosses are mild steel or brass, domed over the cut hand hole and riveted through the board, usually with six rivets. The boss is structural. It is the only thing standing between a strike on the centre of the board and the back of your hand, and it is why a shield without one is only ever a wall decoration. The kit here uses a deep hemisphere on a flat flange, which is the strongest arrangement of the two common shapes.

Rims are rawhide, leather, or rolled metal. Rawhide is the interesting one. It goes on damp, shrinks as it dries and pulls the whole board into compression, so the planks are held together by the rim as much as by the glue. If you buy a rawhide bound shield and store it somewhere very dry for years, that binding will keep shrinking and eventually crack. Somewhere with normal household humidity is fine.

Grips, straps and how you hold it

Two systems are on this page and they are not interchangeable.

The Viking boards use a centre grip. A bar or a leather strap crosses the hand hole behind the boss and you hold it in your fist. The shield can rotate freely, you can punch with the boss, and you can cover high or low by moving your hand a few inches. It also means the entire weight is on your fingers, which is the reason those boards are built light. Several here also come with an arm strap and a longer carry strap so you can sling the shield on your back.

The hoplons use a porpax and antilabe. A bronze or leather band at the centre takes your forearm and a grip at the rim takes your hand, so the load spreads across the whole arm. That is what makes a 16 pound shield carryable, and it is why a hoplon cannot rotate or punch. One of these adds a leather shoulder pad at the upper rim, because in practice the shield rested there.

Care and storage

Timber shields want stable humidity more than anything else. Very dry air shrinks the planks and can open a glue line, and very damp air swells them and loosens the rawhide. A normal room is fine. Do not hang one over a radiator or in direct sun, because the paint will fade and the board will move.

Steel bosses and steel faced shields need the same treatment as any bare steel. A wipe after handling and a light film of oil or wax once or twice a year. Bronze toned finishes are sealed, so leave them alone and dust with a dry cloth rather than a metal polish, which will cut straight through the finish. Leather straps take a conditioner occasionally. Painted faces are sealed but not armoured, so do not scrub them.

Engraving and painted work

Several of these already carry cut or etched work: a Valknut on the boss, an Elder Futhark rune ring around the centre, an engraved knotwork roundel, a meander border rolled into a hoplon rim. Steel bosses and steel rims can be engraved after they arrive in the United States.

Text engraving is 19 dollars, a symbol is 39 dollars and a family crest is 49 dollars. Elder Futhark is a phonetic alphabet rather than a code, so a name is transliterated by sound, and there is no rune for the letter C. Engraving is permanent and an engraved piece cannot be returned, so check the spelling before you order rather than after.

Where these come from and how they ship

Ransack Viking is a US company based in Chicago, Illinois. The pieces are handmade in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from Chicago. Engraving is done in the US after arrival.

Every face on this page is painted or carved by hand, so the device on your shield will not be a pixel copy of the photograph. Brush edges, stain depth and the grain under the paint all vary. Shields ship flat in a large box and they are bulky rather than heavy for their size, so check that someone can take delivery.

How to choose

Start with what it is for. If you want to hold it, buy a 24 inch planked board with a centre grip and accept that it will not stop a truck. If you want it on a wall, buy for the face, because at three feet away nobody is looking at the boss. If you are building a Greek kit, the hoplons are the only shields here that will look right, and you should be honest with yourself about the weight.

Then check the fittings. Some of these ship with straps and a grip already fitted, some ship with the fittings loose in the box for you to rivet where you want them, and one ships as fittings alone. The specification panel on each product page lists exactly what is included. Prices run from 169 dollars for the boss kit to 479 dollars for the largest bronze faced hoplon.

Browse related categories

• Kite shields and bucklers
• Shield bosses and shield fittings
• Roman and Greek shields
• All Viking shields
• Medieval helmets to go with the board
• Leather armour and body protection

Guides worth reading first

• Viking shields explained: construction, size and use
• Round shield versus kite shield
• Choosing a shield for display
• What Viking helmets actually looked like
• Renaissance faire and reenactment kit, what to actually bring