"shield-splitter" /Early Vikiing shield Archeological specifications added

[half eye]

Fellas,
      The latest "crazy" project is an early Viking type armor piersing arrow head. Got a new friend in Mr. Wolfsongforge.....sent him a photo of some viking arrow heads from the Danish National Museum and asked if he could replicate one of them.....as you can see from the photos the head is nearly indesturctable. Hafted it up on a Ken 75 shaft which proved way tough also. Well that left me with a need for a heavier weight bow......confiscated a mollegabet I'm building for a fellow PA member....draws 70# @ 28" so figured he wouldn't mind....sort of test the bow same as the head.
      It's my understanding that Viking shields were made from 1" thick oak, so I grabbed a piece of white oak that was 1-1/8" thick, 6" wide, and 4 feet long....and had at it, well at least one time. The arrow went away cause the early heads were "tanged" and not "socketed" but this thing is very potent......anyway here's the pics, hope ya find 'em worth lookin at.
     Oh ya, that forged head come out like it had never been shot at all, this thing is a true "warhead".
rich

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[mullet]

 That is a tough point, Rich. Here is one my friend, Claude VanOrder reproduced after going to that museum a couple of years ago. This is a replica of the one that was found in a skull of a viking.

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[aero86]

wow, that head means business!  that sheild would be really damaged.  even with another in it, might damage it enough  to make it useless in defense..

[Barrage]

Cool head and some pretty impressive results. 

[gothmog]

Very cool Rich.  Bet that was fun.  If that head has socketed, think the shaft would have survived?

[ken75]

i sure envy your play time , although i guess you paid your dues already. purty wicked head and impressive board splitting action there. try that again with that wimpy recurve i sent you if it splits the board i send you a half dozen more cherry shafts !

[Tsalagi]

Awesome, just awesome! Thanks for posting this! Great pics!

[Wolfsongforge]

Ahh! now that be a kettlingur klora!(inside joke!) when you get the other 5 and the 6 bodkins, i would like to see what kinda damage they would do to a board or any hard target.
if anyone is interested they are made of iron. plain ole iron, just like they were way back when. they have been carburized in the same way(well kinda i used propane for heat source) they were packed in a can of charcoal, leather trimming and bone powder. as the heat started to smoke and smolder those in ingredients, the carbon migrated into the iron, making steel. or as it was called steeled iron.

way to go Rich, I love experiments!

God Bless
Kenneth

oh BTW Rich the word for the bow is Orm Koss

[zenmonkeyman]

Too cool!  I may have to tackle some rebar next time I head home to the farm.

[Cromm]

Cool, The head looks great. Alot like the Mongolian heads.

[youngbowyer33]

It did make it all the way through, which is very impressive, but the holder of the shield would be perfectly alright.

[Kviljo]

Eyh, Mullet, the vikings didn't use flint points

The best Viking shields were made from linden, and were far form 1" thick. A properly made shield with two layers of linden glued at 90 degrees with an outside layer of rawhide would probably stop any historical arrow. Perhaps except the largest Mary Rose arrows.

[Wolfsongforge]

From what i have read, they were 1/2" planks of linden, but also birch, and oak was commonly used. and correct they were layered 90 degree's from each other.
BUT only the richest of the warriors could afford a rawhide cover and backing for their shield.I have seen that head(well i made it lol) an d i have a few of Rich's heavy weight bows. and i have no doubt it could go through 2-3 layers of thinner panels with no problem. I guess there is only one way to find out. need to layer 2 thinner layers of wood and give er heck!

God Bless
Kenneth

[Thwackaddict]

Great looking head and excellent performance.May not have hurt whoever was behind with that shot but if ya got another arrow or two in there that shield is shot!!LOL great job guys!

[markinengland]

Kenneth,

Why would only the richest warriors be able to afford a raw hide backed shield? Back then surely wood and hide were not in short supply. Metal was valuable so they may not all have had central metal bosses. But surely, if your shield was your protection and if it was made from failry available resources you would have a good one?

The sagas talk of warriors having many sheilds and replacing them as they were broken by war axes etc!

War at the time often relied on the sheild wall. You wouldn't have many friends or live very long if your sheild was rubbish?

It would be good to see how this arrowhead performs against a laminated linden shield with rawhide front/back. Test I have seen say that a war axe might split such a sheild, but would an arrow?