INTRANZ

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. This is easily done by using a sharp knive and a screwdriver for levering.

Next you need to make the center hole. In my case a small part of the center seen in the picture just fell out while taking away the base which was quite convienent. Otherwise you drill a hole that can be easily be made bigger afterwards by cutting along the coiled bamboo with a knive until the diameter of the hole is the same as the inner diameter of the shield boss.

You can see the excess strips quite well here.

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

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

Covering with cloth

Now you need the cloth and the wood glue. You should do the the inner side of the shield first. Cut the cloth in a roughly fitting shape, you should leave about 4 cm excess on all sides. Cover the bowl evenly with plenty wood glue, then place the cloth on it. Press it on and smooth it down working from the center to the outer edge.

Cut the cloth away in the center hole, leaving about 1 cm allowance. Glue the allowance around the rounded innner edge

Proceed in the same manner with the cloth on the other edge and let it dry for a couple of hours.

When the glue is all dried, repeat the procedure on the outside. The process is the same as before: First do a rough cutting of the cloth, cover the bamboo with glue, put the cloth on it, press it on, and smooth it.

After a short drying time cut away the unnecessary cloth and wrap it around the edge. The edge of the cloth should line up with the rear end of the rim. If everything worked right, 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 that matches the curve of the bowl can be quite handy because the fiber remain unbroken whicht makes it more stable.

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

Edging

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

These strips are then put around the rim of the shield and are fixed with clamps, clothes pins or something comparable until the rawhide has dried.

Be mindful of an adequate overlapping of the strips, 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 on 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 correct if needed 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 thread. The seam should be made with saddle stitches - i.e. you are doing a running stitch with two needles/threads parallelly.
This method has the advantage that there isn't anything spiky or sharp sticking out after taking damage during fights as it would be the case when using nails for attachment.

Riveting

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

Finished

  • en/anleitungen/ikea_schild.txt
  • Zuletzt geändert: 2022-06-07 10:59
  • von Falke