I Make an Awesome Viking Shield

This was a much easier project than the helmet. I took a break from the helmet because of rivets! So. .in that time I made my shield. There were a few gotchas and pitfalls, though. .

It's pretty common to make these shields out of plywood, but I didn't really want to do that, as I like the more authentic look of laminated wood. So at first I though I was going to use tongue and groove siding but it turns out tongue-and-groove (at least the one example I could find a Lowes) had a look to it that didn't work so I ended up buying those planks of pre-laminated pine that they have wrapped in plastic. This ended up working well. they are fairly straight and it reduced the amount of gluing I had to do to just one piece. As for the Shield boss. .no I didn't make it . . I bought it from www.viking-shield.com. Here's the link:

http://www.viking-shield.com/p/126/economy-center-boss

The wood planks I bought at Lowes. 

If you have a workbench but don't have a bench vise, GET ONE! 

This is by far the most useful tool in my garage. I use this on virtually every 

project I undertake. ALSO. .don't get a little-bitty one. Get one that's big and

sturdy enough that you can pound on it with a hammer. 

Here. I use my 'bench dogs'. . which make my bench vise

into a large clamp. Here they are on the vise end.. . .

. . .and here they are on the bench end. I have pre-drilled holes in 

my work bench for these to fit in at various distances from the vise.

I used these to clamp and glue my two planks together. 

Here. I'm drawing my circle. I popped two lines corner-to-corner with 

my chalk-box to find the center. Then put a nail in the center. 

I then drilled holes in a yardstick, one for the nail and the other for my pencil. 

Here, I've used the ruler again to draw a curve for cutting the supports.

I did this because it looks better.  LEAVE SPACE between

your support and the edge of  your shield  . . . 

 . . . so that you can fit your jigsaw by the planks. . Otherwise you'll 

have to turn it over, redraw your circle and cut from the top. 

It's painted! I used wood stain. The brown is an oil base and the Red a 

regular water base. I just used the oil-base because it comes in a 

small can and it's cheap. For the colors you have to 

buy a quart and it ain't cheap!

I cut some of the metal I had leftover from my helmet for these 'spokes'. 

Cut a hole for  your shield boss. Be careful to mark off where

your shield boss is going to go before you cut the hole. Once you 

cut the hole, you no longer have an exact center 

reference point for drawing circles. 

Here I've made my 'handle' and attached my shield boss. 

For the handle I used harder wood than the pine I'd been using

for the rest of this project. I dadoed out the grooves for the

supports but this is not necessary. . 

Here it is! Shiny!

For the spokes I used furniture nails. They come in various decorative

heads. I used the 'nickel' heads. I drilled small holes in my metal

strips and just nailed them down. It looks great and is EASY!. .

 . . . and the inside. I swear the camera really does add 15 lbs!

 Attack of the DWARVES!

.. .AND the video!

Pounding to Music

This is actually really cool. .

I was really surprised how the video ended up so well timed with the music. It was all luck! This sequence is in Part 6 of my Viking Helmet video, but I clipped out all the boring talking. The music is Ralph Machio's (actually Steve Vai's) winning solo in the duel at the end of the movie 'Crossroads'. .

The Viking Helmet (Part 7)

PART 7. Where I realize too late that sanding is a time-consuming and pretty much useless endeavor.

It's interesting how quickly we learn (even at the ripe ol' age of 44) when we just start doing things. by the fourth panel I had the hammering pretty much figured out. I learned that the technique that worked best for me was to start in the middle and slowly work out with the ball peen hammer in an ever expanding circle, mashing out the folds as I went. The last panel was a breeze and looked the best. I might have to make a helmet for my kid, just because it seems like a shame not to make another one, now that I know how to do it! Besides, what kid doesn't want a viking helmet!?

After I completed the panels I made the mistake of going back to the internet. I saw this picture of this helmet with a mirror shine.

Please don't look at this picture. 

http://www.arador.com/armour/how-to-make-a-spangenhelm-2/

It made me want to have a shiny helmet too! So. I removed a panel and started sanding it. This was a mistake!. It didn't make it worse or mess it up, it just took forever and it didn't make my helmet cooler. It did however, make that panel look different. . Not better, mind you, just different. . so. . I had to sand the other three panels to match!. .Basically, I did a lot of work for not much gain. Oh well.

I may try to polish them up with a wheel and some polishing compound. This will be quick and, while it won't remove the bumpy texture, it should remove the brushed-nickel look. Besides, the frame has sharpie marks all over it that need to be buffed out.

When I was done with the sanding I put the panels back in and started screwing the helmet together.
I decided to screw the entire helmet together starting at the top and moving downward in a spiral. This way I would hopefully avoid having the helmet lose its shape as I tightened it up.

Here it is with all four panels complete and inserted

The inside view

The long-sword I found by a dumpster

Tightening the screws, starting at the top and working my way down. 

I did end up unscrewing the bottom screws and letting the straps expand down as I screwed the panels in. I had to re-drill new holes at the bottom and the rivets will be uneven. . Oh well. Report me to the guild. 

The video

The Viking Helmet (Part 6)

Greetings!

PART 6 of the epic viking helmet blog, where I get to bang as hard as I want on a piece of metal and bend it and mangle it. . When I was a kid people paid to do this stuff to a car at the Halloween festival.

Actually, this is a bit of a back-up. I was so sure that my first attempt was going to fail miserably that I didn't film it (although in retrospect, that would've made the best video). . Anyway, since I didn't film the dishing of the first panel, I did with the second and this post is about that.

Here's the first one pretty much finished. 

Here's the raw-cut second panel. I measured around the perimeter of the helmet from the center of one frame 'spine' to the other to get the bottom measurement, then up the spine to get the height. 

Then. . I measured to the center and drew the triangle (for reference). From there I just eyeballed the curves. 

This will end up quite a bit oversized, since you are lengthening all the edges as you bowl out the center. 

Here's a picture of my amazing glove. I don't know who got me these as a gift, but thanks again! They have a great gripping texture on the palm that let me really get ahold of that slippery metal. 

Pounding the metal

Step One

Shiny!

Beard check. 

The Video

The Viking Helmet (Part 5)

This is PART 5 of my Viking Helmet blog.

In this part I finally start trying to make the panels. I have carved a hole in my 'Dishing Stump' and laid a towel down on it and just basically started pounding on a metal plate with a ball-peen hammer. In my next segment I go into more detail about how I cut the piece and marked it and show some video of myself pounding it. .In this video I concentrate more on the 'planishing'. . which is the step where I pound the bumps out using my "planishing post" (which I've been calling a 'dishing post' in my videos). .

It went better than I'd expected and about as well as I'd hoped. It shaped nicely and the metal was not too thin as I had feared. I'll mention again that it would have been better if the frame were heavier metal. The frame was flexible enough to bend with the plates and so the whole hat got a little twisted and bent. Had the frame been rigid, the plates could have been flexed to the frame without changing the shape of the helmet.

Make sure you use a center-punch before drilling your holes!

The helmet frame is assembled! 

At this point I just cut out a piece of metal, sat down at my stump and started banging away with my ball-peen hammer. The next chapter will have more detail on how I did this part. 

Here's the result of about 5 minutes of pounding with the hammer.  

Pound and fit.. pound and fit.. pound and fit. . 

Here's my dishing stump. . I drilled a bunch of big holes with 

a spade-bit then chipped out the debris with a large wood chisel

I lay a towel on it when I'm pounding. 

Here it is. . Now it needs to be cut down to size and shaped 

a little more. . At this point, I'll mark where the

frame is (see next image). 

Marked the triangle where the frame is and then 

measure out to the center of the frame (3/4-inch in my case)

Now, grab your planishing hammer and . . . 

. . .bang away on those bulgy dents against your planishing anvil. 

here's the video

The Viking Helmet (Part 4)

This is PART FOUR of my excursion into the arcane world of metalworking. .

This is where I get ambitious and am cast down with a mighty vengeance for my insolence. . So. .I had to start over..  .But it's ok because I forgot a bunch of stuff and it was better to just start from scratch.

Here I am apologizing for the tank top.. It looked even worse in HD!

Here's the frame partially assembled. 

Mark which way is UP!

Here's where I screwed up. . I took the fine looking frame you see above and then went to the internet and got jealous of the cooler looking Spangenhelms I saw there. Most come to a slight point at the top, and also the frames bend down over the panels. 

Well. . I thought I could just take the frame off, bend a point in it, then bend the thing lengthwise. That was a stupid thought, because of course you can't do that and still have a gradual curve (like shown in the pic above). . 

Because of this both my frames got all mangled and so I had to start over on the frame pieces. While I was doing that I decided to go ahead and mark and drill all the holes while I still had the piece flat and unattached. 

DON'T DO THIS!

Laughing at my mangled crosspiece. 

Measure and mark out the holes. 

Here's the video

The Viking Helmet (Part 3)

This is PART THREE of the further adventures of a helmet-making amateur.

Here, I make the template and start cutting metal!

My paper template of the frame. I'll take it apart and use

the parts to mark off the metal

Here I am thinking about what holes I'm going to drill. .

That's my thinking look. 

Mark the parts so you know what goes where. 

The metal is marked

. . .and cut. 

The Video

The Viking Helmet (Part 2)

Greetings .

This is PART TWO of my viking helmet manufacturing comedy of errors.

Here I make a 'Planishing Anvil'. This is a tool used to smooth the metal after it's hammered. .Normally a large solid steel ball is used, but I didn't have a large steel ball, I just had a fencepost.

I used my radial saw to cut a rough point on the fencepost

Here I ground it down to a rough rounded shape with my Bench Grinder

I squared it up using my radial saw so it would 

Stick in my bench vice. I made it square since it was uneven

on top and I thought I may want to turn it. i.e. I could have 

squared only two sides but wanted options. 

My handy dandy hole marking jig (before I punched the holes in it)

Holes are punched. Now it can be used to mark holes on the frame.

The video. I don't know why there's no preview image. 

Rest assured it's just an image of a fencepost.