How to Construct a Functional Shield in 21 Not-So-Easy Steps

This guide will let you follow the misadventures of Lord Rumfish as he works to construct his first shield (he being me, just so we have plenty of narrative confusion, and for additional hair-pulling, changes in tense and subpar grammar). Switching to first person, let’s go over what we’ll need for shield construction, and then add further items as the project progresses. If some of the listed items are not free from a parent or friend to borrow, you must rent it, buy it, find an alternative, or be S.O.L.

= Equipment: =


 * A pair of sawhorses (free from parents’ garage)
 * A jigsaw, in this case handheld (free from parents’ garage)
 * A sizeable piece of 0.5 inch or thicker plywood (free from parents’ garage)
 * A drill (free from parents’ garage)
 * Hand clamps (free from parents’ garage)
 * Hammer (free from personal belongings)
 * Nebulous other materials and equipment, constructer will determine later (Not quite so free, listed after each section)
 * Gloves (free from parents’ garage)
 * And my Mitts

Step 1: Lose Your Mind
This step is the most important one of the process, as it will be the key deciding factor in your determination to build a shield. To want a shield, you therefore are likely to want to USE a shield, which means putting yourself into combat a shield would be necessary for. This means you’re eccentric, which is a word rich people use when they mean crazy. Without the motivation insanity provides, the project may stop before it ever starts, and that would be a shame.

Step 2: Do Some Research
I would say “Internet Research” but in our era that’s simply assumed to be the default, and other methods may work as well or better. Read what others have done, compare with historical examples (what few have survived) if possible, then ask someone who has done shield construction before what works and what doesn’t if any such people are available. As for me, I read an SCA article that basically determined the following in my mind: I wanted at minimum a ½ inch of wood between me and death, a handle sturdier than the one the guy in the article used (he just had leather straps with rivets for both his hand and arm, which seems flimsy, impractical and potentially painful to me), some sort of arm strap, quite possibly cushioning on the inside of the shield, and I used the larger shield measurement he had gone with and expanded upon it slightly to make certain I would have plenty of wall, er, shield, to play with. I decided to make a round shield since it seemed easier to cut as a first project. The diameter ended up being around 32.5”, which turns out to be pretty massive but it works for now. I’d say it would be quite realistic to reduce that to 28” or 26” diameter, mostly just make sure you’ve got room for your handle and/or arm strap, depending on the type of shield you’re constructing.

Step 3: Get to Work
At some point, I feel it is imperative to stop planning and jump in. Perfection is unattainable, but a shield is not beyond reach. With that in mind, take that big hunk of plywood, get it onto the sawhorses, stick in a pin, tie a string to it that has a pencil tied to it at the desired radius (half the diameter, remember math class?), and draw a nice dark circle. Once you’ve got a circle clearly outlined on the plywood, get everything ready (be sure not to saw or drill into your sawhorses during this process) then use the jigsaw to cut out a circular chunk of plywood. At this point in the process, it looks so much like a shield already that it feels like you can’t be far off. Oh, but you are.

Additional Equipment:


 * Thumb tack / pin / tiny nail – (free from personal belongings)
 * String – (free from personal belongings)
 * Pencil – (free from personal belongings)

Step 4: Brainstorm
Now that you’ve actually got a physical object ready with the dimensions you’ve chosen, you need to map out a plan as to how exactly the shield is going to come together, even if it’s only a mental map. In my case, I determined that I wanted a large, solid handle to anchor my hand with, and to cut up a large, old leather belt to use as the arm strap (see Additional Equipment below). I figured out where I wanted my arm to be and what direction the handle should face when I grab it. I wanted sheet metal attached to the front to help absorb blows and provide a shiny metal look. I wanted padding on the back for my arm and possibly body. I decided to use nuts and bolts with washers instead of rivets since bolts are much easier to mess around with in the inevitable event of making mistakes. I also decided to get some metal strips with holes (to put bolts through) as a sort of cross brace, and I put some on the front and back. My thought here was that the front ones could help absorb direct impact while the back ones could reinforce the wood and provide support structure. Putting the bolts through both front and back sets seems like it provides stability, though this must be balanced against the number of holes drilled through the wood. Every hole you put through the wood is weakening the wood’s structure, so clearly there comes a point where it stops being beneficial to add bolts and braces. Additionally, I decided to tack down some sheet metal folded onto the back of the shield for additional anchoring.

Additional Equipment:


 * Old wide leather belt for arm strap (free from personal belongings, but also $1.50 at Goodwill)
 * Gorilla Glue (free from parents’ garage, this will help attach everything somewhat)
 * See Step 5

Step 5: Go to Lowe’s
Any hardware store will do here, but Lowe’s is close and works for me. Now that these decisions are made, there’s nothing to do but spend some money. After hunting extensively for sheet metal, I ended up buying some of the cheapest available (around $8 a sheet, requiring two sheets to cover the shield’s diameter). I could have bought thicker, tougher sheet metal but as this project is a trial run I decided to save larger expenditures (around $30 a sheet) for when I knew what I was doing. In the same aisle are many other metal accessories, including some strips of metal with evenly spaced holes along the middle. After considering my shield’s size in the brainstorming stage, I had enough foreknowledge here to decide upon a 6’ and a 5’ strip, with the intention to cut them to the sizes I need (see Step 6 & 7). Also purchased was the largest handle I could find (resembles a garage door handle), the screw holes of which match in size and spacing with the metal pieces I had found. Serendipity.

Additional Equipment:


 * Use of someone’s car – (free from personal belongings if you don’t count the gas)
 * 24” x 36” Flat Sheets - $7.95 each, $15.90 total
 * 1.375” x 6’ (14GA) Plat STL (as reads on my receipt) - $6.47
 * 1.375” x 5’ (14GA) Plat STL S - $6.46 (this one might have been steel, where the top one may have been aluminum or something, otherwise the 1 cent price difference seems pretty silly)
 * Extra Heavy Pull (handle) – $4.98
 * Subtotal: $33.81
 * Tax: $2.03
 * Total: $35.84

Step 6: Measure Out


Using proper tools, decide how you want your iron supports to go on the shield. I chose to have the grain of the wood going perpendicular to the metal supports after some discussion with Dad, since wood is more likely to split along the grain and is therefore more likely to need support across the grain to hold it together. That was our logic, anyway. I decided upon 2’ and 2.5’ lengths when I bought the supports, so I drew onto the plywood where their eventual areas would be once bolted on, and I also drew which spots would be the bolts to drill later. Since I would only end up with three 2’ pieces, I put two on the front for absorbing impact and one on the back aligned with the top front piece. The two 2.5’ pieces would be across the grain in the middle of the shield on the front and back. Additionally, go ahead and measure and mark the sheet metal so that you’ll know where to put it when the time comes, including the markings for the supports (these will show up very faintly on sheet metal, so you might want to use a marker). I decided to overlap the two pieces since I needed two, with bolts and supports covering the section that has crossover to firmly anchor it. While this measurement and marking is critically important, it is not the most fun part of the project.

Additional Equipment:


 * Measurement and marking tools – (free from parents’ garage)

Step 7: Hacksaw


The 5’ piece was cut in half and went across the wider middle section of the shield front and back, while the 6’ piece was cut into three 2’ pieces, two of which went on the front to absorb impacts and one of which mirrored the top front piece on the back. There are other ways of cutting metal, but what I have readily accessible is a hacksaw, so I cut them by hand after marking the locations. This step isn’t uproarious fun either.

Additional Equipment:


 * Hacksaw – (free from personal belongings)

Step 8: Go Back to Lowe’s
Whoops, you’ve forgotten to get the 0.25” wide 1.25” long bolts with nuts (you know these measurements because you bring the handle along to compare size), and accompanying washers. Make a quick trip to buy the needed goods. End up not buying enough washers and supplementing them with some from the garage later in the process (you need 2 per bolt, one on each side).

Additional Equipment:


 * Bag of 4 1.25” bolts – $0.98 each, 4x for $3.92
 * Bag of 5 0.25” SAE Flat Washers - $0.86 each, 3x for $2.58
 * Subtotal: $6.50
 * Tax: $0.39
 * Total: $6.89

Step 9: Feel like a Blacksmith
Now that you’re ready, go ahead and prep the sheet metal. Borrow your dad’s tin snips to trim excess corners, then make evenly spaced cuts along the metal that extends away from the shield’s surface. What I mean by that is that you have a target round surface area, with excess coming over the edge (well, you don’t have to, but this is how I did it). I planned on folding the excess around the edge onto the back and tacking those flaps down to better anchor the sheet metal in place. Of course, if you tried to just fold it over without putting some cuts along it the metal would bend and warp and look fearsomely ugly by the time all was said and done. If you’ve ever fried a piece of bologna and you didn’t split its sides as it cooked, you know what I’m talking about. Having these cuts in the metal avoids having folds in the metal. After you’ve got that done (which may require weighing it down and/or using clamps to keep it steady), then comes the fun part: hammering those sections you just cut around the side and onto the back of the shield. For the initial folding I used a 16 ounce rubber mallet so that I wouldn’t abuse the metal quite so badly (though as it turned out even cheap sheet metal can take a beating). You have to overlap them some as you go, and this is natural. In fact, doing so means you’ll have less trimming to do, and use fewer tacks when you nail them down later. That step is still a little ways off though.

Additional Equipment:


 * Tin snips – (free from parents’ garage, and COMPLETELY AWESOME)
 * 16 ounce rubber mallet, optional – (free from parents’ garage)

Step 10: Go Back to Lowe’s
Ooops, forgot to get those tacks to tack down the sheet metal strips on the back with. Dad was making a trip to get more shelves, so it wasn’t really a waste of time.

Additional Equipment:


 * Black cut tacks, 25 per container – about $1 each or less, $2 total

Step 11: Heavy + Metal = Gorilla?


Now that your forearms are satisfyingly aching from hammering, it’s time to consider the order of things again. Sure, we could drill the wood right now, but to nail two birds with one stone I instead opt to gorilla glue the sheet metal to the “front” face of the plywood so that I drill both at once. Spend 10 minutes locating a spray bottle that actually works because the opposite surface needs to be wet, then apply the glue and the water and weigh down the surface so that they stay touching. It’s worth noting that we wore latex gloves because gorilla glue can stain skin and ruin clothes. Anyhow, we used clamps and heavy objects to keep the surfaces together, which can be about anything – driveway salt, hunks of rock, bricks, plywood, mallets, outdated D&D 3.0 books… This is a lengthy pair of steps (one for each piece of sheet metal) because the glue takes 2 to 3 hours to dry.

Additional Equipment:


 * Latex Gloves – (free from parents’ garage)
 * Working Spray Bottle – (eventually free from parents’ garage)
 * Heavy Objects – (free from around the house, or just about anywhere)

Step 12: You Know the Drill
Now that you have the bolts, and the sheet metal is tenuously attached, go ahead and drill. These were already marked spots, so you just need to borrow your dad’s drill and get to work. Be sure to clean up the area afterwards, especially since there are tiny slivers of metal lying around after drilling through the sheet metal.

Additional Equipment:


 * Hand drill – (free from parents’ garage)
 * Shop vac, optional – (free from parents’ garage)

Step 13: Go Back to Lowe’s (Yes, Really)
Well, this time you’ve just got to face the music: this wasn’t very well planned out and you’ve forgotten to buy things you needed. Buy shorter tacks that don’t have the chance of poking through the front after asking a store rep about it, waiting for the area’s store rep to get back from break, only to discover they were in plain sight and simply not advertised well. Also, try to acquire some foil tape (a bit more industrial than duct tape), which will be used to go around the shield’s edge, smoothing out sharp places and giving it a more uniform look, as well as holding down the edge of the foam padding later. This involves looking near duct tape, being dissatisfied, asking a store clerk about it, getting referred to another one who tells you to look near stove pipes in aisle #, get to aisle # and discover that you’re two rows off from stove pipes, then finally find the metal repair tape. Forget to buy more washers this trip and make do with what’s in the garage later.

Additional Equipment:


 * Shorter Tacks, 25 per case – about $1 each or less, $4 total because you’ll be damned if you’re coming back to Lowe’s again for this project
 * Metal Repair Tape – about $8
 * Trip total: about $13

Step 14: Hammer Time
Now I tack down the sheet metal around the back edge. Trouble is, a tack won’t go through sheet metal combined with plywood, it just bends and warps off of it. While this seems to encourage my theory of absorbing blows, I end up having to use much bigger, sturdier nails to start the holes and then send the tacks through afterward. This isn’t too hard through one layer of sheet metal, but when two overlap it becomes a chore to get the hole started even with a 12 penny nail. I end up switching nails 3 times during the process because I dull the points on them. This part was extremely labor intensive to my surprise, and I hit my thumb a good many times during it. Fortunately, I knew that would happen so I wore gloves and didn’t swing super hard.

Additional Equipment:


 * A handful of big sharp nails – (free from personal belongings)

Step 15: Attachment
OK, now put the metal supports into place, the front ones being over top of the sheet metal and the back ones right against the wood, and get the bolts and washers into place (locating more washers around the garage as mentioned previously). This is done with a socket wrench, and a screwdriver to hold the bolt steady once it’s time for final tightening (many thanks to Dad for assisting me over the various aspects of this shield). Part of this attachment also involves the handle, which syncs up with a pair of holes that go through two pairs of supports, top and bottom that is. Hot damn, it’s looking like a shield now, if a bit sharp, uncomfortable, and lacking an arm strap.

Additional Equipment:


 * Socket wrench or socket set – (free from parents’ garage)
 * The last few washers – (free from parents’ garage)
 * Phillips Head Screwdriver – (free from personal belongings)

Step 16: Go to Wal-Mart
Yes, Wally World was a likely enough place to find the padding I wanted for my arm, and Mom spotted a likely candidate in the camping supplies section: a cheap foam pad for sleeping bags, color blue. There’s always some reason to go to Wal-Mart, and this was no exception, so I didn’t feel bad for making another store run.

Additional Equipment:


 * Cheap Foam Padding – about $6

Step 17: Strapping Lad
After musing about how to attach the old belt mentioned in Step 4, take the infinitely useful tin snips and cut off the excess belt length not needed for an arm. Situate the belt with the bolts you placed for it, then drill holes through the belt and attach the bolts and washers through it. Drill a little hole for the buckle, and suddenly there’s an arm strap on the shield. It needs some padding at the top for comfort’s sake, so take some duct tape (it’s cheaper than metal repair tape and more flexible for this purpose), cut some excess foam into pieces, and create your arm padding on the belt (this is separate from the arm padding that will be flush with the shield’s back). Getting the right thickness and shape for the belt padding is trial and error, I have multiple layers on mine.

Additional Equipment:


 * Duct Tape – (free from personal belongings)

Step 18: Measuring and Trimming
Taking the foam pad, I cut it into two hemispheres (since the shield is too big to fit it as a single piece) and make measurements and markings on the foam, indicating areas I can tack it down without hitting supports, bolts or sheet metal. Using a utility knife, cut out a space for the handle to pop out, and then have the material meet back underneath the handle. Also cut slits out for the belt to come up through. The foam pieces are the right size, now they just need…

Step 19: Gorillas get the Gist
Gorilla Glue! Use the clamps and weights again (along with the spray bottle) to keep the surface of the foam firm against the shield’s back. This mostly involves waiting.

Step 20: Karate Kid Hammering (or, Nails Work This Way in Heaven)
With the foam glued down, use the areas you drew before and nail in some of the tacks that were too long before but appropriate now. I have to take a moment and appreciate the beauty of nailing tacks into a material that holds them in place for you while you hammer. You can push the tack into the foam by hand, hit it twice at most with the hammer, often just once (like the Karate Kid), and it’s done. Fini. No chance at all of hitting your thumb, and the foam just absorbs the blow if you do miss. Compared to some of the other crafting steps, nailing these tacks down was like getting a massage or eating a Frosty.

Step 21: Taping


Using duct tape (because it’s just the back and it doesn’t need expensive tape), cover the break between the foam hemispheres and tape around places that need extra support, such as the handle and the arm strap. Put on finishing layers of tape as utility and aesthetic demand.

Voila! At long last, the shield is ready to get battered to pieces! I named it simply, “Mark I.” Watch for an update after it has been battle tested, and thank you for bearing testament to my insanity and misadventures.