The Board

The shields were always round but they could be flat or convex. There are three main sizes of shield.

• Small: about 1 to just under 1 .5ft
• Medium: about 1.5 to just over 2ft
• Large: about 2ft 4in to 3ft

The size of the shield was concurrent with the age/size of the wielder. Usually younger and smaller wielder had the small shield. The larger and older wielders had the larger shield.

The thickness of the shield ranged from 5mm-12mm. The average was 7mm. There are some cases where the shield was 16mm.

As time went on, shields generally were made larger in diameter and thicker.

The wood that was used to make the shield vary also. They were made from alder (Alnus), willow (Salix), maple (Acer), birch (Betula), ash (Fraxinus), oak (Quercus), and lime (Tilia). Each wood has its own characteristic about it. Lime, alder, willow and poplar are all lightweight wood species. Oak is heavy and splits on impact. Ash more elastic and flexible, but as heavy as oak. Maple was a shrub so it wouldn’t make proper planks. Each type of wood board had different thickness from each other. Total put together shield could weight anywhere from 6lbs-11lbs.

(Dickinson pg.43)