Domed buckler (IKEA-shield)

This instruction shows how to easily build a domed buckler by using an IKEA decoration item.

• a bamboo bowl from IKEA, about 45 cm diameter
• a shield boss
• 0,5 m of cloth for covering the shield
• wood glue
• rawhide for the edging
• a curved branch for the handle

First of all you take the bowl.

Remove the base. That is easily done by using a sharp knive and a screwdriver for levering.

Next you need to get the center hole. In my case a small part of the center seen in the picture just cracked which was quite convienent. Otherwise you drill a hole what can be effortlessly made bigger afterwards by cutting along the bamboo winding with a knive until the diameter of the hole is as wide as the inner diameter of the shield boss.

You can see the excised stripes quite well here.

Sand the edges on the inside and outside afterwards to get them rounded nicely. By that you can remove the residues of the base and roughen the whole surface of the bowl so later the wood glue will stick better. When you are done, it should look like this:

Detailed pictures showing the edges of the insinde and the outside:

Next you need the cloth and the wood glue. At first the inner side of the shield is done. Cut the cloth in a roughly fitting shape, you should leave about 4 cm protrusion on all sides. Then dab the bowl lavishly with the wood glue, so the cloth can be placed on it. Press it on and smooth it down working from the center to the outer edge.

Cut some of the cloth in the center hole off but leave about 1 cm protruding. Stick it to the bowl by turning it over to the outer side.

Proceed in the same manner with the cloth on the other edges and let it dry for a couple of hours when you are done.

As the glue is all dried, the other side of the bowl is going to be covered with cloth as well. The process is the same as before: First do a rough cutting, dab the bamboo with glue, put the cloth on it and press it on and smooth it.

After some short surface drying you cut the unnecessary cloth off and stick it to the bowl by wrapping it around the edge. It should line up with the rear end of the rim. If everything succeeds fine, your workpiece will look like this after the last step:

Inside:

Outside:

Outer rim in detail:

Now the wood glue takes at least a whole day to dry completely.

You can use the time to look for a piece of wood that will work as a handle for the shield. A curved branch whose bending is congruent to the bowl's can be quite handy in this case because the fiber course matches with the bending, so it gets more stable.

At this point you can also paint the shield if you want to.

In this next step the rawhide is attached to the buckler to get a robust edging. First the rawhide has to be laid in water to get it flexible (some soap helps to prevent the inconvenient reek) and - if required - cut in stripes. For good handling the striped should be about 4-5 cm wide.

These stripes are then put on the rim of the shield and are fixed with clothes pins or something comparable until the rawhide has dried.

Be mindful of an adequate overlapping of the stripes because the rawhide shrinks while drying.

Many people prefer to attach the rawhide as long as it is wet, because this builds up extra tension on the shield which is useful when it is made from planks. But in the case shown in this instruction it is rather a disadvantage, so we sew the rawhide after drying.

You should change the positions of the clamps two or three times while the rawhide is drying because it's more difficult for the water to evaporate from underneath a clamp.
Check the position of the rawhide on the edge as soon as it has dried and may correct it before sewing it. Then you drill holes through the rawhide and the shield and attach the rawhide to the shield. You can use parcel string to have a very robust threat. The seam should be made with saddle stitches - i.e. you are doing a running stitch with two needles/threats parallelly.
This attachment has the advantage that there isn't anything spiky or sharp sticking out after taking damage in fight as it would be the case when using nails for attachment.

In a very last step handle, shield boss and shield have to be connected to each other.
A simple and stable option offer forged nails that get trimmed barely over the wood on the backside and get riveted over a washer.

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