Rimbind Hand Forged Steel Viking Shield Boss and Fitting Kit with Valknut Engraving & Full Leather Strap Set | Shield Building Gift | RK-1532

This is everything that turns a plank board into a shield, laid out as one kit. At the centre is a hand raised steel boss with a deep hemispherical dome, a wide flat flange pierced for six rivets, and a Valknut set inside a ring of knotwork engraved across the crown. With it come a coil of natural veg tan leather rim binding, six rivets and six washers, a pair of short buckled leather arm straps for the forearm and elbow, and one long buckled strap for the shoulder. The Valknut itself is an honest puzzle. Three interlocked triangles, found carved on the Gotland picture stones and on the Oseberg ship burial, always in scenes that involve Odin and the dead. No Norse text explains what it meant. The name is modern, coined in the nineteenth century from Norwegian words meaning slain warrior knot.

The boss is raised, dished and engraved in a Czech Republic workshop, and the leather is cut and the hardware set in the same building. This kit is the fittings only. The shield board itself is not included, because board diameter, thickness and timber are the things you want to choose for yourself. The boss is the one part of a shield that reliably survives in the ground, and our guide to Viking shields explains why.

Specifications

What a shield boss is actually for

People assume the boss is decoration, or armour for the middle of the board. It is neither. On a Viking round shield the grip is a single bar across the back of the board, held in the fist, and to make room for that fist a hole is cut clean through the centre of the shield. The boss is the steel cup that covers that hole. Without it your hand is exposed through a gap in the middle of your own shield.

That single design choice is what makes a centre grip shield behave the way it does. Because the hand sits at the pivot point, the shield can be rotated fast in any direction with a flick of the wrist, and it can be punched forward into an opponent, which a strapped shield cannot do. The dome does a second job as it works. It is a curved, hardened surface at the exact point an incoming blow is most likely to land, and a curve deflects far better than a flat. A strike that would split a flat board slides off a dome and carries its energy away sideways.

The flange matters too. It is wide so the six rivets sit well out from the hole, spreading the shock of a hit into the sound timber of the board rather than into the cut edge of the hand hole.

Steel, leather and how the parts go together

The boss is raised from 16 gauge mild steel. Mild steel rather than a hardenable grade is the right choice for a boss, because a boss is supposed to deform rather than crack. A dent can be hammered out on a stake in ten minutes. A crack cannot. Sixteen gauge is close to a millimetre and a half and gives a boss with real presence in the hand without making the finished shield front heavy.

The rim binding is natural veg tan, undyed, so you can dye it to match your board or leave it to darken on its own. Veg tan is used for a shield rim because it wets and forms. Soak the strip, fold it over the edge of the board while it is damp, tack or stitch it, and it dries hard and tight around the rim, which is what stops a sword edge from splitting the outer laminations of the board. The arm straps are heavier bridle weight leather with roller buckles so they can be set to your forearm and left there.

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 kit that means your line or design goes onto the dome in place of the Valknut and its ring. Full detail is on the engraving page.

Fitting it to a board

This kit suits a plank board round shield of the usual sort, glued up from planks, faced with linen or rawhide if you want it, with a hand hole cut at the centre and a grip bar across the back. Mark the boss flange onto the face, cut the hand hole to clear your fist inside the dome, drill the six holes through board and flange together so they line up, and set the rivets over the washers on the back face so the washer spreads the load into the timber. Fit the grip bar first, then the boss over it. Do the rim binding last, while the leather is still damp, and let the whole thing dry standing on edge. If you are new to this, build the board a little thicker than you think you need. Boards are cheap and knuckles are not.

Care

Wipe the boss down and put a light film of mineral oil on it after any wet day, because bright steel on the front of a shield takes the weather first. If it dents, dress it out from the inside over a rounded stake rather than hammering the outside flat. Feed the leather straps once or twice a year with a neutral conditioner, and check the buckle stitching before an event rather than during one. Undyed veg tan will darken with sun and handling, which is normal and looks better every year. There is more in our guide to steel care. If the finished shield is going on a wall, choosing a shield for display covers the mounting.

Made in the Czech Republic

This is a handmade piece from the Czech Republic, made in a workshop that still forges, grinds and finishes by hand instead of stamping parts out. The smiths there have kept the older way of working, and the wood, horn and leather are shaped and fitted by hand as well. Two pieces of the same design will never be identical, and that is part of what you are buying.

Ransack Viking is a United States company. We handle the import ourselves, look over every piece when it lands and ship from our warehouse in Memphis, Tennessee. Engraving is done in the United States after the piece arrives, so your design goes on before we send it out.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand made, not machine made or bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph. A raised boss carries the marks of the stake and the hammer, so the sweep of the dome and the play of light across it differ from one to the next, and undyed veg tan varies in tone from hide to hide. Grain, tone, hammer texture and exact profile vary because each one is worked by hand from natural materials. The dimensions, the material and the build are the same every time. The character is not.

Frequently asked questions

Does this include the shield board?

No. This is the fittings only, which is why it is priced as a kit. Board size, timber and thickness are personal choices and shipping a finished board costs more than the board.

What size board does it suit?

It is proportioned for a normal Viking round shield, which historically ran roughly 30 to 36 inches across. The boss and strap set work across that whole range.

Can I use this on a strapped shield instead?

You can fit the boss decoratively to a strapped shield, but the boss exists to cover a hand hole. On a strapped board with no hole it is ornament rather than function, and you would not cut the hole.

Is the leather rim binding dyed?

No, it comes natural so you can dye it to match your board or let it darken naturally. It is veg tan, so it takes dye well and forms hard when wet fitted.

Will the boss stop a real blow?

It will deflect and deform the way a mild steel boss is supposed to. It is not certified protective equipment, and no shield fitting should be treated as a guarantee against injury in a contact bout.

How long before it ships?

Processing is one to two weeks because each boss is raised to order, then free shipping within the United States. Returns are accepted within seven days.

What is in the box

• Hand raised steel shield boss with engraved Valknut and knotwork ring
• Coil of natural veg tan leather rim binding
• Six rivets and six washers
• Two buckled leather arm straps and one long buckled carry strap
• Care card and lifetime warranty against defects
• Forged and finished in the Czech Republic

Explore the range

See more in shield bosses, round shields, Viking shields and Viking armour, or read the guides.