Yup, having held center-grips where the handle wasn't recessed this is what it's about. It'd be hard to overstate what a difference moving the center of mass into your hand makes! The rest of the design comes from protecting the hand. That's less about arrows, though, than spears. An arrow may be unlikely to hit your hand, but if I know where your hand is and it's not covered by a nice metal dome, you can bet I'm gonna aim for it. (& if you can't hold your shield anymore, your life expectancy isn't very long)
DynamicWorlds Absolutely! Thanks heaps for sharing your practical experience. have you done tests of spear vs shield, I'd love to know how well they can penetrate?
I am Shad if you want spear on shield action you can play pokemon. Just use Rampardos the spear pokemon against Bastiodon the shield pokemon. If you do a video on spears on shields please reference these pokemon for the couple of people that will understand.
I think protecting the fist is very important.If a weapon penetrates the shield by an inch the only place it's really going to cause problems is the fist since it's usually the only part of the body that close and a relatively small wound can incapacitate it.
Yes but this is a problem that is easily fixed by any form of hand protection. Gauntlets, maille mittens, etc. Even if the shield is pierced a little, almost all of the piercing power of the blow is removed by the shield. Thusly, the gauntlets or mittens would protect from the remainder.
@@CoffeeSnep It really doesnt matter... Shields with bosses were designed much much earlier than plate gauntlets, and we all know that medieval folks liked to have some plate overlapping mail when possible, so the boss acting as protection still applies. It would also be kind of impractical to make a weapon that cannot be used safely without a piece of armor when you can much more easily put that armor on the weapon itself and also have it serve more functions. Another point is that if a couple of arrows penetrate where the grip is, even if they dont hurt you they could make the shield much harder, or even impossible to wield depending on penetration and position of the arrows.
@@BananaMana69 I was more talking about a powerful blow that lands next to the boss, but isn't covered and could still hit the hand at an angle (unlikely but possible). Most of the impact would be removed, and gauntlets or maille mittens could take care of the rest. While I agree that something like a javelin stuck in a shield could render it useless (such as the application of the Roman pilum) but I don't think something as small as an arrow or even several would make it too heavy or imbalanced to be practically used. Besides, it's not too hard to break them, pull them out, or cut them, unlike something heftier like a javelin.
Ethan Metcalf I think they mean arrows could incapacitate a shield if there was no boss because one arrow piercing near the middle would make it dangerous to hold
my teacher who's a real geek on icelandic viking tales said that the boss is to protect your hand. makes sense when you're going up against people who mainly use axes
Since the hand is the only part of the body which is actually close to / touching the shield, it would need extra protection from penetrating blows / arrows / spears. I'm guessing that, ultimately, the boss fills a variety of functions.
I guess that on a buckler the weapon catching feature would be far more important. With a big shield, if the weapon goes on its way, it no big deal. If you meet a weapon with a buckler and the weapon slips, I can see it continuing on its way to do very nasty things with you.
03:00 I totally agree! If catching an opponent's weapon were the purpose of the boss, then clearly a smooth dome wouldn't have been the common shape for them. Even the least creative armorer could come up with better patterns than that! :)
i would like to say that if that boss was made of metal was to protect the hand because weapon had a lot more difficulty to penetrate a round metal boss and because shield was used to stop arrows to . If you have your hand in the center with a metal boss it was most likely gonna deflect to the wooden part of the shield and not penetrate as much to hit you BUT with the shield strapped on your arm if the arrow was gonna hit where your arm rest it would probably penetrate your arm to so lot less protection against arrows
Very nice video and I totally agree with your points mate. ps: Don't wish to be rude but I am trying to place your accent, but not being mother tongue it's not easy for me...mmm South African? Australian? If I am completely off please don't get offended it would be my ignorance m(___)m Keep up the good work pal
+Metatron HEY IT'S THE MIGHTY METATRON! G'day! and that colloquial greeting should answer one of your questions ^_^ Sorry for the late reply mate, for some reason I'm not getting alerts when people leave comments. But yes I'm as Australian as you are Italian my friend, except I don't drink beer or swear . . . so I don't exactly conform to all the Australian stereotypes :P I'm truly honored you like my video, come by anytime. Keep up your excellent work, I'm still hanging out for your video on the spatha.
I am Shad ahah nice one :D my aunt is Australian too ^^ Ye I get that problem too with the notifications, I think youtube just can't keep up xD Ye I hope to be able to make that video soon mate :) Love your channel :3
+I am Shad Hey Shad where in Australia do you live? I'm in Melbourne and I'm looking for people to train with. I want to practice the shield techniques shown in Roland Warzecha's videos but our local HEMA club only does longsword, sabre and dagger so I'm down to drilling alone :( pm me if you're based in Melbourne and are interested in praciticing together
it might be coincidence, but having a round boss should slightly strengthen the shield. For the same reason you scratch a circle into a crack on glass or have holes at the end of slits in leather; it would stop (or more less discourage) most cracks through the grain of the wood from continuing through the center to the other side (splitting your shield in two). It's just a theory, a shield theory. Dun dun dun!!
hey Shad, don't mean to be rude, but you should look into shield walls. It's an infantry formation that was used throughout the middle ages, including by the Vikings. Basically the front line forms a wall of shields that would than smash into their opponents shield wall or shield fort. Both armies would than hack away at each others shields, putting their best armed forces at the front and the flanks. The basic strategy was to put the bulk of your forces at the center while you sent archers around the flanks forcing your opponent to thin out his center to deal with the archers picking at his relatively unprotected flanks. This is where the "punch" shield boss cames in. You would use your shield boss to smash into your enemy in an attempt to break, or punch, through the enemies line. Think, almost like a rugby match, but to the death with shields and swords. but what about dragons!
3:51 Your shield still flips forward slightly because you chose the cross bar hand grip construction where the hand grip sits slightly behind the centre of gravity. This style was most common in viking age Scandinavia. Contemporary Anglo Saxon and Frankish shields as well as Scandinavian shields from the Vendel period tended to have two half circles cut out in the shield board behind the boss, as opposed to a full circular hand hole. The remaining 'bridge' between the two half circles is then reinforced with a metal bar and acts as the hand grip. This allows the hand grip to sit closer to the centre of gravity thereby making the shield less susceptible to flipping downward on its own weight. Bending the shield board into a lenticular shape also helps as it puts weight behind the centre of gravity to counterbalance weight of the boss dome
If you punch with the shield rim, you've got significantly less of the shield's surface area covering and thus protecting your body, than if you punch out with the shield boss.
I think that the reason why some kite shields had bosses in artwork was mostly because they weren't strapped kite shields. They were kiteshaped handheld shields.
To quote the Medievals: "Rand sceal on scylde, fæst fingra gebeorh" 'The boss on the shield will be the fixed guard for the fingers' -Maxims II Basically: The boss is where your fingers go.
I think that it might also be psychological. A boss encompasses your hand in metal making the shield FEEL safer, and therefore more comfortable. This might have made shields with bosses (sometimes) more popular, even if it isn't actually protective.
To me, the more obvious role of a shield boss is that it allows the bearer to hold his shield farther from his body and with less of the arm when the enemy is firing a volley of arrows or throwing javelins. If your whole forearm is directly behind the shield, then a much larger area is exposed if the shield is pierced, potentially disabling your arm. On the other hand, a boss allows you to hold the shield out with just your hand, and being made of metal, it will probably hold up better than wood, fabric, or leather. Having the whole shield made of metal would be impractically heavy and/or costly to produce, so making just the area directly surrounding the hand out of metal gives the benefit of added protection without significantly increasing the weight of the shield.
Pressure = force / area Simple physics:) This is why smaller things like needles can pierce the skin but if you put your hand on a bunch of drawing pins you won't get hurt. This is also why insects with larger mouth pieces can't pierce the skin. This is why knives are made with a thin blade, because if it were thick it wouldn't cut as effectively. Greater 'pressure' (the scientific term for pressure, not necessarily the everyday use of the word pressure) = greater cutting ability
when I read the title my first thought was the tower knight from demon's souls, I was mistaken in thinking that's the kind of boss that this video would be about.
Boss is also for not having your knuckles stabbed if something penetrated the shield. There are many various ways weight were distributed on shields, hint: not the center.
@Shadiversity I always thought boss' were there to preven strikes from axes that could split the shield or piercing thrusts/drives through the centre of the shield where it would make sense that it is most vulnerable to warping the wood or splitting/parting to allow the blade/blade tip through into the hand or arm depending... am i wrong in thinking that? ( Wooden shields only)
Reading John Gwynne’s “The Hunger of the Gods” he brings up the boss of the shield in fights more than once. I needed this video for me to be able to understand what it is he’s talking about.
Putting an arrow straight through the boss on that hardwood shield is super underrated; I don't have any personal experience but I'd imagine that's FAR more challenging than just punching through the wood/rawhide of the rest of the shield's face. Not to mention how much harder it is to even land a hit on that surface without it just deflecting off the dome. Very impressive!
In some arrow tests I have seen arrows penetrate 6 inches or so into a shield before coming to a stop. If the warrior was holding the shield a little bit away from his body, it seems like these arrows wouldn't injure any area aside from his hand, which is necessarily close to the shield. That is what I always thought that the boss was for. Though the balance issue makes a lot of sense.
If you punch, or push and then punch with the boss, you get the huge benefit of still being protected. Less force than the edge, but protection is still there, therefore, i rather punch/ push with the boss.
The best way to illustrate this is to try it and feel it. Once I stupidly thought, a shield is so easy to make. Just screw an old drawer handle onto a piece of plywood. So I did it. Then I picked it up. It's almost useless. You can't hold it upright, it swings horizontal on you. This guy is inarguably right, it becomes 100% apparent when you try it.
Good points Shad,but look at anglo saxon shield bosses from 4 -7th cent,pointy some with a disc on the end, indicating use in an aggressive fashion.Also they usually deflect arrows & light Javelins.Cheers mate.
+kerry mcmanus We don't know if those shields were flat like the viking shields. Period artwork seems to suggest they were domed/lenticular. With a domed/lenticular shield you can't strike your opponent with the edge of your shield as easily and this might be the reason why they had spikey cone shaped bosses to make up for their lack of offensive capabilities.
Great point Henrick,& yes most of the artwork we see they are lenticular.Look up ravens warband, check out a shield by Dr. Richard Underwood.He also has an excellent book called Anglo Saxon Weapons & Warfare with some very interesting weapons..Cheers mate.
Another less common method was to have a circular concave shield. They had a single raised handle and no boss. This would put the center of mass approximately at the handle. It also would help to deflect blows away. Historical examples of such shields tended to be on the small side but larger than a buckler, which also were sometimes concave, but with a somewhat different structure.
I think it's very good design feature to have protecion of the hand holding a shield. The thing is, a wooden shield doesn't necessarily stop the arrow completely, it will go through a bit. However, when holding a shield, you don't just brace into it -- you keep some distance between you body and the shield. So the protection it offers to your body is enough, even though arrow doesn't just bounce off and burrows into it most of the time. But the one part that you can't keep apart from the shield... is your hand holding it. Even if chances are slim that an arrow hits the centre of shield with enogh force to damage your hand...It still is nice to reinforce the only vulnerable part in your shield. Or rather, the only vulnerable part of a person holding one.
Even though I agree with your reasoning, one has to wonder why there are examples of round shields that have off-center grips and bosses. As far as I remember, the Sutton Ho shield is one of those.
MoonfaceMartin88 Great point to bring up! As I understand it off center, center grip round shields were made primarily for use in shield walls. I talk a little bit about it here: th-cam.com/video/HNFxTmRFPv0/w-d-xo.html
some types of the roman Scutum - especially the cylinder type - had a boss too - and it is not for weight distribution but to allow much more of the body to fit behind the shield (by pressing yourself in the space the handle does not occupy). To still get an up-tilt, some variants have mounted the boss just slightly off center.
A little bit late to the party, but this reminds me of a teacher I had that did those renaissance reenactment fairs, he claimed it was for offensive use and that's where the term "getting bossed around" comes from.
Punching, or rather pushing with the boss does help with keeping you protected. If you punch with the edge of the shield you expose the arm that the shield is holding and half of your body.
Shield lockup for shield wall. Look at that round greatshield, it is twice as wide as your body, if you locked shield wall, that boss makes a GREAT index for that.
Do you have any advice on length? When i write i either write too much or not enough. The time difference between writing and playing is verry different.
Tyler Timermanis This is a tricky one. It's really what works for you. I don't think I spend more time preparing to narrate than I do narrating. But what I do prepare are short kind of premises that could take several sessions to complete. Such as liberate a castle from orcs. Small premise, but long playtime to complete. Of course I go into a little more detail such as working out secret passages into the castle, small trigger events like that the orcs secretly have a giant ogre tied up to set lose on their enemies.
A boss as an offensive tool works much more effectively in a shield wall or other tight formation where swinging your shield around to strike with the edge would get you or those around you killed. IIRC the medieval Romans (Byzantines) even added spikes to the bosses of the shields of their front rank soldiers to make it all the more dangerous to attack their infantry lines.
I just figured it was something to do with how the timber in the shield was joined together in a round shield with the boss holding it together. I thought those shields would have had straps to hold on to.
The boss also lets you hold the shield straight. Most people when they grab something, the hand extends both ways from the straight line. Having the grip without a boss means that your going to be gripping something in a semi-unnatural position.
I agree I have worked on a lot of shield bosses over more years than I care to thing about. I have seen several with an iron bar running across the centre as to form a hand grip. I have never worked on one made of light plate they are heavy thick pieces of iron most often cast
Something else the boss does it protects the fist from arrow fire. I say that because the boss shields don't have straps, so by forcing the individual to hold the shield by one hand, a protected hand, any arrows which get through won't impact the arm or hand of its carrier. Now of course, linen or leather armor would make it unnecessary, but if you're more lightly armored, like in summer warfare or viking style warfare, it does offer advantages by ensuring unprotected flesh isn't up against the surface of the wooden shield
I think the boss is there to protect the fist, if you had no boss an axe could break through the wood and damage your knuckles meaning you can’t grip the shield anymore. If it’s a kite shield and you arm get broken you can still hold it up with your shoulder muscles.
Boss is there to give shield bearer to deflect sword blade so the blade will jerk when hit and deflected on the boss, in addition it makes shield bearer able to chip, bend and possibly break attackers blade... thank you.
I think the boss would be very useful against arrow volleys, as if you held the shield away from your body, and arrows piercing the shield wouldn't reach you, and your hand would be protected by the boss.
my opinion. to apply the logic of basic physics a shield held in extended position relies on the strength of to wrist. this would be completely inadequate facing the force of a heavy axe etc. therefore we may conclude that a shield without a boss would use the forearm and that a boss is most efficiently used on small shields such as the buckler. to deflect a blow rather than absorb and with with less weight able to be used for punching( esp with a spike). just my opinion based on physics and fighting style used with such medievil weapons
Without watching the video - the boss protects your hand, which needs to be in the plane of the shield to be able to wield it properly. Let's see what Shad says...
Merry Xmas! And balancing a heavy shield purely from your forearm muscles alone, in long combat, would be impossible.... No roman legioner had to balance a "scutum", whatever form, without a boss, for hundreds of years.... Please keep it up and best wishes from Romania!!
I always used to imagine the boss was there to protect the hand behind the shield. If an arrow or weapon goes through your shield by an inch or two, it's not really going to be an issue... unless it's the area in which your hand is, hence you use the boss as a safeguard. If a sharp piece of metal ends up lodged in your hand or almost severing a finger, you're going to have a bad time.
I'm going into work tomorrow with a round piece of wood and telling my supervisor to get on top of it. I can proudly say then that I have a boss on my shield xD
I think a primary reason for a boss being made of metal is to protect from missiles since they could penetrate a wooden shield you wanted the part of your body that had to be close to the shield to have protection from them.
ig that can only be part of the reason, because otherwise 1) they could just be a flat plate over the hand and 2) ud be likely to see them even more on strapped shields, where the whole forearm is against the wood. although I suppose part of 2 could be because of improvements in armour
Have you seen The Last Kingdom? There are Kite shields with bosses on them and they were used in a shield wall formation in a way where they're locked together by the center of each other's shields. I look one of the fight scenes in season 1 Episode 4 for reference.
a shield boss has two main uses in my mind. first center of mass as shad described but the second really important reason is to protect the hand from piecing/thrusting weapons/attacks. imagine holding a shield with no boss before gauntlets where available. spear or sword stabs the center of your shield; ah my hand drop shield. bosses aren't normally on kite and heater shields because plate gauntlets in middle and late middle ages made the boss not needed; but some kite and heater shields did have bosses this is likely because they chose preference, wanted double protection or could not afford gauntlets. use a ball pein hammer on some sheet steel and a boss could be in roughly 10 minutes compared to gauntlets which is hours roughly.
The boss DOES improve the round shield's resistance to breaking, actually, and it is because of the middle of the shield being cut out and the dome added in it. In a situation in which, say, a horse or a charging axeman with danish axe or the like hits the shield in the edge hard enough to break the metal edge of the shield, the shield then may break in half without the boss if the force is sufficient - with the boss, only part of the shield will splinter, as the force applied to it will reach and be dispersed on the metal. The shield will still be damaged, possibly beyond repair, but it will not immediately fall apart, which will allow the user to sto the charge, or at least have the shield take the brunt of the force, and not just go through it.
Distribute weight!
Like a boss!
Punch an enemy!
Like a boss!
Catch an enemy's weapon!
Like a boss!
Screw the pommel!
Like a boss!
End them rightly!
Like a boss!
The boss can be unscrew like a pommel??
Jose A It can’t be removed without disassembling the shield.
While reading this I could hear it in the voice of Jacksetpiceye.
damnit I was gonna make this joke
Do they ever let you out of that room?
Lady Melisandre Yes, but only for my weekly beating.
@@shadiversity That's a paddlin.'
Hodor is outside!!
0:52 "A boss is an offensive tool"
Yep bosses can be veeery offensive! XD
GermanCurl They can also be tools?
Complete and utter tools.
Seemstress , very true! haha
Aggretsuko, Anyone?
Yup, having held center-grips where the handle wasn't recessed this is what it's about.
It'd be hard to overstate what a difference moving the center of mass into your hand makes!
The rest of the design comes from protecting the hand. That's less about arrows, though, than spears. An arrow may be unlikely to hit your hand, but if I know where your hand is and it's not covered by a nice metal dome, you can bet I'm gonna aim for it. (& if you can't hold your shield anymore, your life expectancy isn't very long)
DynamicWorlds Absolutely! Thanks heaps for sharing your practical experience. have you done tests of spear vs shield, I'd love to know how well they can penetrate?
I am Shad if you want spear on shield action you can play pokemon. Just use Rampardos the spear pokemon against Bastiodon the shield pokemon. If you do a video on spears on shields please reference these pokemon for the couple of people that will understand.
Description: Many shields have a boss, so what are they for?
Me: ...Covering your hand.
Your jokes are shad.
Mine too.
Duch Zwodziciel So shad, so very very shad ^_^
Some belated constructive criticism. They're not bad. Timing is ok. Just don't overuse them.
Why doesn't my shield have a boss ? Because I AM THE BOSS !
***** WHO DA BOSS? YOU DA BOSS!
+I am Shad I suggest you're gonna need to be level 20 if you plan on FIGHTING that boss.
Who's top chicken?
Duke of Lorraine But if you're the boss, it does have a boss xD.
I love your picture. That is all.
Move along.
I think protecting the fist is very important.If a weapon penetrates the shield by an inch the only place it's really going to cause problems is the fist since it's usually the only part of the body that close and a relatively small wound can incapacitate it.
Yes but this is a problem that is easily fixed by any form of hand protection. Gauntlets, maille mittens, etc. Even if the shield is pierced a little, almost all of the piercing power of the blow is removed by the shield. Thusly, the gauntlets or mittens would protect from the remainder.
@@CoffeeSnep perhaps shield bosses predominanted in times and places where body armour was rare?
@@CoffeeSnep It really doesnt matter... Shields with bosses were designed much much earlier than plate gauntlets, and we all know that medieval folks liked to have some plate overlapping mail when possible, so the boss acting as protection still applies. It would also be kind of impractical to make a weapon that cannot be used safely without a piece of armor when you can much more easily put that armor on the weapon itself and also have it serve more functions. Another point is that if a couple of arrows penetrate where the grip is, even if they dont hurt you they could make the shield much harder, or even impossible to wield depending on penetration and position of the arrows.
@@BananaMana69 I was more talking about a powerful blow that lands next to the boss, but isn't covered and could still hit the hand at an angle (unlikely but possible). Most of the impact would be removed, and gauntlets or maille mittens could take care of the rest. While I agree that something like a javelin stuck in a shield could render it useless (such as the application of the Roman pilum) but I don't think something as small as an arrow or even several would make it too heavy or imbalanced to be practically used. Besides, it's not too hard to break them, pull them out, or cut them, unlike something heftier like a javelin.
Ethan Metcalf I think they mean arrows could incapacitate a shield if there was no boss because one arrow piercing near the middle would make it dangerous to hold
my teacher who's a real geek on icelandic viking tales said that the boss is to protect your hand. makes sense when you're going up against people who mainly use axes
Since the hand is the only part of the body which is actually close to / touching the shield, it would need extra protection from penetrating blows / arrows / spears. I'm guessing that, ultimately, the boss fills a variety of functions.
I guess that on a buckler the weapon catching feature would be far more important.
With a big shield, if the weapon goes on its way, it no big deal.
If you meet a weapon with a buckler and the weapon slips, I can see it continuing on its way to do very nasty things with you.
03:00 I totally agree! If catching an opponent's weapon were the purpose of the boss, then clearly a smooth dome wouldn't have been the common shape for them. Even the least creative armorer could come up with better patterns than that! :)
DEFLECTING a weapon, however...
Distributing weight, LIKE A BOSS!
i would like to say that if that boss was made of metal was to protect the hand because weapon had a lot more difficulty to penetrate a round metal boss and because shield was used to stop arrows to . If you have your hand in the center with a metal boss it was most likely gonna deflect to the wooden part of the shield and not penetrate as much to hit you BUT with the shield strapped on your arm if the arrow was gonna hit where your arm rest it would probably penetrate your arm to so lot less protection against arrows
Very nice video and I totally agree with your points mate.
ps: Don't wish to be rude but I am trying to place your accent, but not being mother tongue it's not easy for me...mmm South African? Australian? If I am completely off please don't get offended it would be my ignorance m(___)m
Keep up the good work pal
+Metatron HEY IT'S THE MIGHTY METATRON! G'day! and that colloquial greeting should answer one of your questions ^_^ Sorry for the late reply mate, for some reason I'm not getting alerts when people leave comments. But yes I'm as Australian as you are Italian my friend, except I don't drink beer or swear . . . so I don't exactly conform to all the Australian stereotypes :P
I'm truly honored you like my video, come by anytime. Keep up your excellent work, I'm still hanging out for your video on the spatha.
I am Shad ahah nice one :D my aunt is Australian too ^^
Ye I get that problem too with the notifications, I think youtube just can't keep up xD
Ye I hope to be able to make that video soon mate :)
Love your channel :3
+I am Shad Hey Shad where in Australia do you live? I'm in Melbourne and I'm looking for people to train with. I want to practice the shield techniques shown in Roland Warzecha's videos but our local HEMA club only does longsword, sabre and dagger so I'm down to drilling alone :( pm me if you're based in Melbourne and are interested in praciticing together
so ahh when are you guys going to do colab.?? that would be cool just saying, hint.. hint..
Ah. I was guessing New Zealand. Alright!
it might be coincidence, but having a round boss should slightly strengthen the shield. For the same reason you scratch a circle into a crack on glass or have holes at the end of slits in leather; it would stop (or more less discourage) most cracks through the grain of the wood from continuing through the center to the other side (splitting your shield in two). It's just a theory, a shield theory. Dun dun dun!!
hey Shad, don't mean to be rude, but you should look into shield walls. It's an infantry formation that was used throughout the middle ages, including by the Vikings.
Basically the front line forms a wall of shields that would than smash into their opponents shield wall or shield fort.
Both armies would than hack away at each others shields, putting their best armed forces at the front and the flanks.
The basic strategy was to put the bulk of your forces at the center while you sent archers around the flanks forcing your opponent to thin out his center to deal with the archers picking at his relatively unprotected flanks.
This is where the "punch" shield boss cames in. You would use your shield boss to smash into your enemy in an attempt to break, or punch, through the enemies line.
Think, almost like a rugby match, but to the death with shields and swords.
but what about dragons!
I think the boss was there to protect the hand from arrow penetration. It was not uncommon for arrows to penetrate the shield.
I’ve always thought that shield bosses were there so it would have room for your fist when holding.
ow the jokes at the end cracked me up XD
djleonGfree Lol, I'm glad I'm not the only one ^_^
Like a battleaxe splitting a shield....
There's also more air resistance when hitting with the boss.
Derick Gabrillo But It also hurts. A lot.
@@grayblackhelm6468 not as much as the side, or using your other weapon.
I have those stainless steel Ikea bowls in my kitchen!
Before 2 min in, drunken me sitting around my "camp fire" shouts out into the night, "it's to protect your hand duh!"
By far the best lecture and explanation on the shield boss I have heard. Well done sir excellent video.. Thanks
3:51 Your shield still flips forward slightly because you chose the cross bar hand grip construction where the hand grip sits slightly behind the centre of gravity. This style was most common in viking age Scandinavia. Contemporary Anglo Saxon and Frankish shields as well as Scandinavian shields from the Vendel period tended to have two half circles cut out in the shield board behind the boss, as opposed to a full circular hand hole. The remaining 'bridge' between the two half circles is then reinforced with a metal bar and acts as the hand grip. This allows the hand grip to sit closer to the centre of gravity thereby making the shield less susceptible to flipping downward on its own weight. Bending the shield board into a lenticular shape also helps as it puts weight behind the centre of gravity to counterbalance weight of the boss dome
Here's an example thethegns.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/the-shield-from-bidford-on-avon-grave.html
If you punch with the shield rim, you've got significantly less of the shield's surface area covering and thus protecting your body, than if you punch out with the shield boss.
I think that the reason why some kite shields had bosses in artwork was mostly because they weren't strapped kite shields. They were kiteshaped handheld shields.
To quote the Medievals:
"Rand sceal on scylde,
fæst fingra gebeorh"
'The boss on the shield will
be the fixed guard for the fingers'
-Maxims II
Basically: The boss is where your fingers go.
I think that it might also be psychological. A boss encompasses your hand in metal making the shield FEEL safer, and therefore more comfortable. This might have made shields with bosses (sometimes) more popular, even if it isn't actually protective.
To me, the more obvious role of a shield boss is that it allows the bearer to hold his shield farther from his body and with less of the arm when the enemy is firing a volley of arrows or throwing javelins. If your whole forearm is directly behind the shield, then a much larger area is exposed if the shield is pierced, potentially disabling your arm. On the other hand, a boss allows you to hold the shield out with just your hand, and being made of metal, it will probably hold up better than wood, fabric, or leather. Having the whole shield made of metal would be impractically heavy and/or costly to produce, so making just the area directly surrounding the hand out of metal gives the benefit of added protection without significantly increasing the weight of the shield.
Basically, the boss has a LOT of uses, from parrying to locking up to having the boss cavity for the fist depending on handle design.
Pressure = force / area
Simple physics:) This is why smaller things like needles can pierce the skin but if you put your hand on a bunch of drawing pins you won't get hurt. This is also why insects with larger mouth pieces can't pierce the skin. This is why knives are made with a thin blade, because if it were thick it wouldn't cut as effectively.
Greater 'pressure' (the scientific term for pressure, not necessarily the everyday use of the word pressure) = greater cutting ability
when I read the title my first thought was the tower knight from demon's souls, I was mistaken in thinking that's the kind of boss that this video would be about.
Boss is also for not having your knuckles stabbed if something penetrated the shield. There are many various ways weight were distributed on shields, hint: not the center.
Captain America's shield is all boss
That's America's boss.
@Shadiversity I always thought boss' were there to preven strikes from axes that could split the shield or piercing thrusts/drives through the centre of the shield where it would make sense that it is most vulnerable to warping the wood or splitting/parting to allow the blade/blade tip through into the hand or arm depending... am i wrong in thinking that? ( Wooden shields only)
Came into this thinking he was going to talk about video game bosses wielding a shield.
Well shields have bosses because they need someone in charge, in there weren't bosses there would be total anarchy in the shield kingdom.
Loo
Lol
Reading John Gwynne’s “The Hunger of the Gods” he brings up the boss of the shield in fights more than once. I needed this video for me to be able to understand what it is he’s talking about.
Putting an arrow straight through the boss on that hardwood shield is super underrated; I don't have any personal experience but I'd imagine that's FAR more challenging than just punching through the wood/rawhide of the rest of the shield's face. Not to mention how much harder it is to even land a hit on that surface without it just deflecting off the dome. Very impressive!
My dream of seeing one of these TH-camrs dual shield (dual wielding shields) just came true...my life is slightly more complete.
In some arrow tests I have seen arrows penetrate 6 inches or so into a shield before coming to a stop. If the warrior was holding the shield a little bit away from his body, it seems like these arrows wouldn't injure any area aside from his hand, which is necessarily close to the shield. That is what I always thought that the boss was for.
Though the balance issue makes a lot of sense.
A boss on a strapped on kite shield would be more decorative and that's what I might use for my kite shield.
I’m the boss of like, three people. Two of them are younger siblings. 🤣
If you punch, or push and then punch with the boss, you get the huge benefit of still being protected. Less force than the edge, but protection is still there, therefore, i rather punch/ push with the boss.
The best way to illustrate this is to try it and feel it. Once I stupidly thought, a shield is so easy to make. Just screw an old drawer handle onto a piece of plywood. So I did it. Then I picked it up. It's almost useless. You can't hold it upright, it swings horizontal on you. This guy is inarguably right, it becomes 100% apparent when you try it.
Good points Shad,but look at anglo saxon shield bosses from 4 -7th cent,pointy some with a disc on the end, indicating use in an aggressive fashion.Also they usually deflect arrows & light Javelins.Cheers mate.
kerry mcmanus Thanks for the info! Cheers.
+kerry mcmanus We don't know if those shields were flat like the viking shields. Period artwork seems to suggest they were domed/lenticular. With a domed/lenticular shield you can't strike your opponent with the edge of your shield as easily and this might be the reason why they had spikey cone shaped bosses to make up for their lack of offensive capabilities.
Great point Henrick,& yes most of the artwork we see they are lenticular.Look up ravens warband, check out a shield by Dr. Richard Underwood.He also has an excellent book called Anglo Saxon Weapons & Warfare with some very interesting weapons..Cheers mate.
I saw a program where they were using modern firearms against the shield boss. They actually did pretty well.
very nice! never thought of the center of gravity thing.
Another less common method was to have a circular concave shield. They had a single raised handle and no boss. This would put the center of mass approximately at the handle. It also would help to deflect blows away. Historical examples of such shields tended to be on the small side but larger than a buckler, which also were sometimes concave, but with a somewhat different structure.
I think it's very good design feature to have protecion of the hand holding a shield.
The thing is, a wooden shield doesn't necessarily stop the arrow completely, it will go through a bit. However, when holding a shield, you don't just brace into it -- you keep some distance between you body and the shield. So the protection it offers to your body is enough, even though arrow doesn't just bounce off and burrows into it most of the time.
But the one part that you can't keep apart from the shield... is your hand holding it. Even if chances are slim that an arrow hits the centre of shield with enogh force to damage your hand...It still is nice to reinforce the only vulnerable part in your shield. Or rather, the only vulnerable part of a person holding one.
Even though I agree with your reasoning, one has to wonder why there are examples of round shields that have off-center grips and bosses. As far as I remember, the Sutton Ho shield is one of those.
MoonfaceMartin88 Great point to bring up! As I understand it off center, center grip round shields were made primarily for use in shield walls. I talk a little bit about it here: th-cam.com/video/HNFxTmRFPv0/w-d-xo.html
As a Married Man, You should know. You can change shields....You can change jobs....But you can't change your boss.
i think bosses are also good to protect your hand from high speed projectiles like war bow arrows:
some types of the roman Scutum - especially the cylinder type - had a boss too - and it is not for weight distribution but to allow much more of the body to fit behind the shield (by pressing yourself in the space the handle does not occupy). To still get an up-tilt, some variants have mounted the boss just slightly off center.
A little bit late to the party, but this reminds me of a teacher I had that did those renaissance reenactment fairs, he claimed it was for offensive use and that's where the term "getting bossed around" comes from.
I thought it was obvious... to protect your hand
Brilliant. Ive always wondered why shields didn't tip like that
Punching, or rather pushing with the boss does help with keeping you protected. If you punch with the edge of the shield you expose the arm that the shield is holding and half of your body.
Shield lockup for shield wall. Look at that round greatshield, it is twice as wide as your body, if you locked shield wall, that boss makes a GREAT index for that.
No one said a word about the noises made by striking the sword over them. Psychological attacks!
I always thought the boss was to keep an axe or hatchet from cleaving threw the wood and maiming your hand
Shield Boss sounds like a Scandanavian heavy metal group
Nice vid, i ran my first rpg recently and your videos helped a lot. :)
Tyler Timermanis That's wonderful to hear! thanks heaps for letting me know and I'm honored I could help.
Do you have any advice on length? When i write i either write too much or not enough. The time difference between writing and playing is verry different.
Tyler Timermanis This is a tricky one. It's really what works for you. I don't think I spend more time preparing to narrate than I do narrating. But what I do prepare are short kind of premises that could take several sessions to complete. Such as liberate a castle from orcs. Small premise, but long playtime to complete. Of course I go into a little more detail such as working out secret passages into the castle, small trigger events like that the orcs secretly have a giant ogre tied up to set lose on their enemies.
I am Shad thank you shad
A boss as an offensive tool works much more effectively in a shield wall or other tight formation where swinging your shield around to strike with the edge would get you or those around you killed. IIRC the medieval Romans (Byzantines) even added spikes to the bosses of the shields of their front rank soldiers to make it all the more dangerous to attack their infantry lines.
I just figured it was something to do with how the timber in the shield was joined together in a round shield with the boss holding it together. I thought those shields would have had straps to hold on to.
I would say right about it's there for balance, but I would also say it's there to protect the fist because anti projectile reasons
I've seen bosses with the handle set in so that the whole fist is in it, thus improving the C.O.G.
Strap to the arm is my only choice. Better control, better grip, better face strikes. Huzzah!!
The boss also lets you hold the shield straight. Most people when they grab something, the hand extends both ways from the straight line. Having the grip without a boss means that your going to be gripping something in a semi-unnatural position.
I agree I have worked on a lot of shield bosses over more years than I care to thing about. I have seen several with an iron bar running across the centre as to form a hand grip. I have never worked on one made of light plate they are heavy thick pieces of iron most often cast
Something else the boss does it protects the fist from arrow fire. I say that because the boss shields don't have straps, so by forcing the individual to hold the shield by one hand, a protected hand, any arrows which get through won't impact the arm or hand of its carrier. Now of course, linen or leather armor would make it unnecessary, but if you're more lightly armored, like in summer warfare or viking style warfare, it does offer advantages by ensuring unprotected flesh isn't up against the surface of the wooden shield
I think the boss is there to protect the fist, if you had no boss an axe could break through the wood and damage your knuckles meaning you can’t grip the shield anymore. If it’s a kite shield and you arm get broken you can still hold it up with your shoulder muscles.
your boss is mounted from the wrong side of your shield
4 Years later, Shad is indeed now a Boss.
And it's easier to mold metal into the shape to cover the hand than wood.
its to protect your damn hand
Logically the boss is also serving a dual purpose to reinforce the weakest point on the shield, the center.
Boss is there to give shield bearer to deflect sword blade so the blade will jerk when hit and deflected on the boss, in addition it makes shield bearer able to chip, bend and possibly break attackers blade... thank you.
That commentary with the boss was funny
Its to prevent square on blows, like armor for your shield, your shield lasts much longer with one than without.
I prefer the 'Dark Souls' style kite shield grip, vertically rather than horizontally. Gives you more leverage.
And put more comfort
For a moment I tought Shad was going to talk about BMW
Many bosses extended further from the shield rather than being a globe.
I think the boss would be very useful against arrow volleys, as if you held the shield away from your body, and arrows piercing the shield wouldn't reach you, and your hand would be protected by the boss.
It's probably due to game limitations, but I always found it funny how characters in all Dark Souls games hold their shields. Now I know why.
my opinion. to apply the logic of basic physics a shield held in extended position relies on the strength of to wrist. this would be completely inadequate facing the force of a heavy axe etc. therefore we may conclude that a shield without a boss would use the forearm and that a boss is most efficiently used on small shields such as the buckler. to deflect a blow rather than absorb and with with less weight able to be used for punching( esp with a spike). just my opinion based on physics and fighting style used with such medievil weapons
Without watching the video - the boss protects your hand, which needs to be in the plane of the shield to be able to wield it properly. Let's see what Shad says...
The local LARP group almost exclusively favors round shields, so I made a kite shield to try it out. Never going back. :P
Merry Xmas! And balancing a heavy shield purely from your forearm muscles alone, in long combat, would be impossible.... No roman legioner had to balance a "scutum", whatever form, without a boss, for hundreds of years.... Please keep it up and best wishes from Romania!!
Poor Romania
They sound like thy are Roman yet the Romans used the Danube as a border
I always used to imagine the boss was there to protect the hand behind the shield.
If an arrow or weapon goes through your shield by an inch or two, it's not really going to be an issue... unless it's the area in which your hand is, hence you use the boss as a safeguard.
If a sharp piece of metal ends up lodged in your hand or almost severing a finger, you're going to have a bad time.
It's very very rare that an arrow will actually punch through a sheild, and then dead center even more so.
If Murphy's law has taught me anything, I'd probably pick a shield with a boss than a shield without a boss, if nothing but for some peace of mind :P
In short, the boss is to protect your hand while holding the shield.
I'm going into work tomorrow with a round piece of wood and telling my supervisor to get on top of it. I can proudly say then that I have a boss on my shield xD
You can make ramen in a Viking age boss! Not so much in a Vendel age boss though. Well, you can, but it's harder to clean.
I think a primary reason for a boss being made of metal is to protect from missiles since they could penetrate a wooden shield you wanted the part of your body that had to be close to the shield to have protection from them.
ig that can only be part of the reason, because otherwise 1) they could just be a flat plate over the hand and 2) ud be likely to see them even more on strapped shields, where the whole forearm is against the wood. although I suppose part of 2 could be because of improvements in armour
I wouldn't mind having a nice sharp spike on my shield
I always thought the boss was to protect the fist and allow the shield to be held more easily due to the hollow.
Have you seen The Last Kingdom? There are Kite shields with bosses on them and they were used in a shield wall formation in a way where they're locked together by the center of each other's shields. I look one of the fight scenes in season 1 Episode 4 for reference.
a shield boss has two main uses in my mind. first center of mass as shad described but the second really important reason is to protect the hand from piecing/thrusting weapons/attacks. imagine holding a shield with no boss before gauntlets where available. spear or sword stabs the center of your shield; ah my hand drop shield. bosses aren't normally on kite and heater shields because plate gauntlets in middle and late middle ages made the boss not needed; but some kite and heater shields did have bosses this is likely because they chose preference, wanted double protection or could not afford gauntlets. use a ball pein hammer on some sheet steel and a boss could be in roughly 10 minutes compared to gauntlets which is hours roughly.
The boss DOES improve the round shield's resistance to breaking, actually, and it is because of the middle of the shield being cut out and the dome added in it. In a situation in which, say, a horse or a charging axeman with danish axe or the like hits the shield in the edge hard enough to break the metal edge of the shield, the shield then may break in half without the boss if the force is sufficient - with the boss, only part of the shield will splinter, as the force applied to it will reach and be dispersed on the metal. The shield will still be damaged, possibly beyond repair, but it will not immediately fall apart, which will allow the user to sto the charge, or at least have the shield take the brunt of the force, and not just go through it.