Ludus Dimicationis

A visitor in the shop this evening. Alfred working on his shield. First we cut circular grooves with the router, to guide the planing. Color the bottom of the grooves with pencil. Then use the scrub plane to rough out the tapering. Then the jack plane to straighten the tapering. Finally a light pass with the sander to remove any bumps that would make it difficult to glue on the hide

The hand hole on my old shield, the one on the left is almost D-shaped, simply from modifications made during use to lessen chafing on the hand. On the new shield Ihave tried to make this more pronounced, to find out if it is an improvement. It is possible that the D-shaped hole is better suited for a different style than our current hypothesis on viking period shield fencing. Only one way to really find out.

Willow round shield. Hide covered on the front and the back. Very heavy boss, It is a chamber grave 8 hedeby reconstruction, forged by Anders Helseth (Helseth's Hammer). Total weight before paint and strap is 5,2kg diameter 90cm. As an experiment I have cut the hand hole in a D shape to minimize chafing on the index knuckle. I am not aware if any finds support this however.