A display shield is bought for a wall, which changes the calculation. Weight stops mattering and the face becomes the whole point, so the painting, the boss and the rim do the work. These are still hand made boards with real rawhide edging and riveted metal rather than printed foam, which is what makes them worth looking at from two feet away as well as from across a room.
What is on offer
The classical pieces are the showiest. There is a curved Roman scutum at 37 inches tall with a steel boss, painted wings, a rawhide edge and a fitting kit, and a legionary scutum at 40 inches with a curved laminated body, rawhide edging and a steel dome boss. The Greek hoplons are bronze faced aspides at 30 and 32 inches, one with a painted running boar, a riveted rim and a leather carry strap, one with a meander border, a porpax arm band and an antilabe grip, plus a steel faced Spartan aspis at 30 inches with a bronze meander rim and a painted crimson lambda. The Norse and later European boards run 20 to 30 inches: a 30 inch planked round shield with a steel dome boss and an engraved knotwork roundel, a 20 inch dished steel face with an etched knotwork border, a 24 inch steel round shield with an engraved Celtic knotwork border, a 24 inch carved hardwood board with a double headed eagle and a blackened steel rim, one with a bronze toned Roman eagle and a forged grip bar, a painted star board with concentric bands, and a 30 inch steel heater with a blue painted face. Prices run from 279 dollars to 479 dollars.
Choosing and hanging it
Diameter is the thing people get wrong. A 40 inch scutum dominates a wall in a way that photographs badly and lives awkwardly. Our notes on choosing a shield for display deal with size, face and where the light falls. For the fixings, the display guide covers mounting weight safely. The classical faces are in Roman and Greek shields and the Norse boards are in Viking shields.
Ransack Viking is a US company based in North Babylon, New York. These pieces are handmade in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from New York. Engraving is done in the US after arrival: text 19 dollars, symbol 39 dollars, family crest 49 dollars.
Free US shipping
On most pieces. Heavier and oversized ones carry a flat charge.
Hand Forged
Heated, hammered and ground by hand.
Engraving available
Names, dates or Norse runes on most pieces.
