Crossmarch Hand Made Wooden Templar Kite Shield | Black and White Field | Red Cross Pattee and Engraved Gilt Border | Crusader Reenactment Gift | RK-1439

Crossmarch is a hand made kite shield, planked in wood, faced and painted, bound at the edge in rawhide and finished with a wide engraved border strip running around the rounded top. The field is divided black above and white below with a red cross pattee laid across the join, the arms of the cross flaring outward from a narrow centre in the way the pattee is properly drawn. The border strip carries a running scroll of hand cut ornament along its whole length.

The kite shield arrives in northern Europe in the eleventh century and takes over almost immediately, and the reason is the horse. A round shield covers a man standing behind it, but a man on horseback has a long exposed left leg hanging down the flank of the animal that a round board simply cannot reach. Stretch that board into a long taper and the point covers the thigh and the knee while the rounded top still protects the shoulder and the head. Every mounted figure on the Bayeux Tapestry is carrying one. Ours is planked, painted, bound and engraved in our Memphis, Tennessee workshop.

Specifications

Enarmes, guige and why a kite shield is strapped rather than gripped

A Viking round shield is held in the fist on a single bar at the centre. A kite shield is not, and the difference is fundamental to how it works. The kite is carried on enarmes, a set of leather loops on the back through which the forearm passes, so the shield hangs on the arm rather than on the hand. That leaves the hand free to hold reins, and it puts the weight along the length of the forearm rather than at the end of a lever, which is the only way a board this large can be carried for any length of time.

The second strap is the guige, a long adjustable belt that goes over the shoulder and across the chest. It does two jobs. Riding with the shield slung on the guige takes the whole weight off the arm on the march, and in a fight it acts as a safety line so a shield knocked loose stays with you instead of falling away. On the tapestry you can see the guige plainly on almost every mounted figure.

Because the shield hangs from straps rather than a fist, the enarmes have to be set to your specific forearm. Loops that are too far apart let the shield rock, and loops too close together mean you cannot control the point. That is why the arm loop, the guige and the rivets come loose in the box rather than fixed at some average position. Lay the shield face down, put your arm where it wants to be with the top edge at your shoulder, and mark from there.

The wood, the rawhide and the painted field

The body is planked, boards butted and glued edge to edge, exactly as the surviving medieval boards were built. Planked construction lets the face flex slightly under an impact and gives it a predictable failure line along a plank join, rather than the sudden brittle split you get across the grain of a solid slab. The plank lines stay visible through the paint and they are meant to be.

The rawhide bound edge is the piece that keeps the whole thing alive. A bare wooden edge splits inward when a blow lands on it, opening the board along its length. Rawhide applied wet shrinks hard as it dries and clamps every plank end together, so an edge strike bites into hide instead of into wood. The engraved border strip running around the top does the same protective job at the widest, most struck part of the shield while carrying the ornament.

The field is painted by hand rather than printed, and the cross is laid as a true pattee with concave flaring arms. Be clear on use. This is built for display, wall mounting, costume and light reenactment. It is not made to any full contact combat standard, where organisations specify board thickness, rim construction and edge padding and inspect against them.

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 shield the gilt border strip is the engraving field, so your runes, a motto or your own device take the place of the running scrollwork shown. Read the engraving page for what will fit in that band.

Mounting and display

A kite shield is a strong wall piece because the long taper draws the eye downward and fills a tall narrow space that most objects cannot. Hang it from two points rather than one, with heavy picture hooks or a French cleat catching the rim on both sides of the widest part, so the weight is shared and the shield cannot swing.

Do not hang it by the guige strap alone. Leather creeps under a constant load over years and a shield that comes off a wall onto a hearth is not a repair you will enjoy. If you want it both usable and displayed, fit the enarmes and guige first, then hang the board from the rim and leave the straps free. Keep it out of direct sunlight if you can, because strong sun will fade a painted red over a few summers.

Care

Keep it dry and keep it indoors. Painted plank and rawhide both take on moisture, and a shield stored in a damp garage will lift paint at the plank joints and soften the rim binding. Indoors it needs nothing beyond an occasional dusting with a soft cloth.

If the painted face is marked, wipe it with a barely damp cloth rather than any cleaner, since solvents will lift hand applied paint quickly. The rivets and any steel fittings will spot in humid air, so a light wipe of oil once or twice a year keeps them clean. General notes on steel fittings are on the steel care page.

Forged in Memphis

The planks are jointed, the board is shaped, the face is painted, the rawhide is wet bound and the border strip is cut and engraved in our Memphis, Tennessee workshop. This is not an importer catalogue shield with a label on the back. That is why our lifetime warranty against defects in the build, the binding and the fittings has no end date and needs no 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. Plank lines fall where the boards fall, the painted edges are laid by hand so their line weight varies, the rawhide takes its own colour as it dries and the cut scrollwork has its own rhythm. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Is this shield usable or only for the wall

It is genuinely usable for costume, film, photography and light reenactment, and it hangs beautifully. It is not built to any full contact fighting standard, so do not take it into a line where people are hitting each other with steel.

Does it come with straps fitted

No, and that is deliberate. The leather arm loop, the guige strap and the rivets come loose in the box so you can set the enarmes to your own forearm. Straps fitted at an average position suit nobody exactly.

What is the difference between a guige and an enarme

The enarmes are the loops on the back that your forearm passes through and that carry the shield in use. The guige is the long strap over your shoulder that takes the weight on the march and keeps the shield with you if it is knocked loose.

Is the cross historically Templar

The red cross pattee on a white field is the device most associated with the Order of the Temple, granted to them in the mid twelfth century. The black and white division of the field here is our own design decision rather than a documented Templar arrangement.

How big is it and will it fit my wall

Roughly 40 inches tall by 20 inches at the widest point. Measure a 40 by 20 rectangle on your wall before ordering, because a kite shield reads much larger in a room than it does in a photograph.

How long does it take to ship

Processing is one to two weeks because each shield is planked, painted and bound to order, then shipping is free within the United States. Returns are accepted within seven days. Custom border engraving adds a few days.

What is in the box

• One planked kite shield, painted, rawhide bound, with engraved border strip
• Leather arm loop and guige strap, supplied loose
• Set of shield rivets for fitting the straps
• Fitting notes for setting the enarmes to your forearm
• Forged and finished in Memphis, Tennessee

Explore the range

See more in kite shields and bucklers, round shields and shield bosses, or read the guides.