Modest experience with wooden bosses

By Arttu Peltoniemi

The inspiration for wooden bosses came originally from an article describing the Tira bog find. The first shield we built was mostly inspired by this find. (Read about building the first shield here: https://hirdmenn.blogspot.com/2020/06/making-of-our-first-viking-shield.html )


In the making of our first shield we got a birch burl that I (Arttu) shaped first with power tools close to the finished shape and to give it an authentic finish I did the final shaping with an axe and chisels. The work was frustrating and I hated every moment. The wood was so hard that it did not want to cut in any direction, and was really unrewarding to work with. After the shape was ready it was rewarding to test it.


In the first test we compared the wooden umbo to a plank a little thicker than it. The result was that the plank broke in two pieces, whereas the umbo got only a small arrow mark. Its first scar if you will. (See the first test here: https://youtu.be/jbnn0td5k70 )


Later among many of our tests done to our thin shield (later named as the pale blade eater) I and Joeli both successfully threw a spear to the umbo and those throws left even smaller scars to it than the original arrow test.


This was very interesting in comparison to the experience our friends at the Virtus reenactment club had under a training hosted by Hirdmenn member Sakari Saaristo (aka Sire Sasa). 


Me (Arttu) and Sakari had been building Republican Roman scutums with wooden bosses.



The example on the picture was tested against a spear throw and the result was quite different from the results on the boss made out of birch burl. 



These tests are not to be compared one on one since they were done from different distances and with different spears by a different thrower. Still the result is similar to that we had when testing a thick plank against an arrow. The wood breaks along the grain and lets the point through.


As the burl construction in our modest experience with wooden bosses was meaningfully superior I wanted to make more of those. I had found an old piece of pine furniture with a huge burl and took it to a friend's workshop. There I was happy when making the umbo as it was so quick and easy to make… until it dawned on me while doing the final shaping with my axe… pine burl is soft and easy to cut. It would not give the same results. I decided to finish my umbo and show that it breaks. We prepared a show / test and I unfortunately missed my spear thrust. Still one can see the umbo exploding here: https://youtu.be/GmYSaxqayuc


There is a legend among reenactment group Grey Wolves that a reenactor known by the name IhmisSusku had built an umbo out of a birch burl and it had lasted many battles, but it eventually exploded when hit by a Dane axe.


This story made me notice small cracks on my original birch umbo. I don't do a lot of blunt weapon fighting with my reconstructions, but still the boss had received quite an amount of damage and little cracks had started to form. I had a feeling that this is what happened to IhmisSusku's Umbo. My understanding is that she did quite a lot of blunt fighting, and thus I think the umbo eventually broke, because of the growing amount of cracks weakening its.
Thus I wanted to test my construction against historically plausible blunt damage and we tested the umbo against sling shots.

The hit to our umbo happens at the end of this video at 22:48. I feel the whole video is worth a watch. See it here:



After seeing a big new crack on our umbo, I feel these wooden bosses have quite clearly a short lifespan. I still feel it can be longer than a shield's lifespan is. 


A disclaimer. 

These tests don't really compare to each other, or create a bigger picture. Much more systematic testing needs to be done to get any definitive information. This being said, we hope our experience adds to the understanding of wooden shield bosses and their properties. We hope to do more useful tests in the future. 


Stay tuned by following us on Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to our Youtube channel. We will not post often or with regular intervals, but eventually we might have more data and more answers. We would also respect if you can point us to good tests and research done by smart people. 


See you in events.

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