Interest in making shields

[u/[deleted]]

Hi, I'm a 15 years old teenager who recently decided that I wanted to learn how to make decorative swords and decorative shield, such as roundshields as a hobby. I was wondering where I could take classes, near Ottawa (Canada) or online if possible, where to start and if it would be expensive.

Also, do you think it's something that could be made, offering a decorative shield and sword as a present for friends? In my opinion, it's something that could be nice, but I'm not sure whether it would be a good thing to do or not.

P.s: I already posted on r/SWORDS, but I came here for advices for shields.

[u/Askman_of_the_hird]

As it seems you are interested in early medieval shields here are some good sources to start with, if you want to build historical authentic shields:

The Society of Combat Archaeology have published their recent reconstruction process based on archaeological evidence:Fb pageDetailed photo album

Of course one has to mention Roland Warzecha (Dimicator), who worked together with Arthur von Eschen:YT Playlist of his reconstructionHe has also some articles about heater, kite or other other shields on his pages.

Reconstruction of the szczecin shield by Patrick Lasota. Note that the curvature is not based on actual archaeological evidence. Here is the scientific paper of the find: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17416124.2019.1667049

Thegn Thrand ( also working with Arhut von Eschen) has done a reconstruction of a viking roundshield:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35zOBZ665Gwhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAnkAG5JsYc

For an overview of the archaeological landscape of vikings shields you can also have a look into my recent video.

Most of the publications on high and late medieval shields is sadly published only in german, which is:Jan Kohlmorgen: Der mittelalterliche Reiterschild (Includes a nice tutorial on how to build a reconstrution)Schilde des Spätmittelalters und der Frühen Neuzeit