Would jeweler's brass make an effective shield boss?

[Crispianus]

Had a couple of ideas:

Do you think a half-inch-thick wooden boss covered inside and out with thin glued leather and a 14AWG/16SWG boss on top would stand up to use, or is it more likely to be a liability when the wood cracks?

I had also thought of just using a bell cymbal with a little piece of metal soldered over the hole and the lathed grooves planished away.  Cursory research indicates that they tend to be thick enough at 2-2.5mm, but are commonly made of bronze with a 20 percent tin content and prone to cracking when struck too hard.  And that's just with a drumstick, not a blunt steel spear.  They're sometimes made of softer bronze, so maybe I can find one that would work.

Easily I think decent wood is pretty forgiving, I once watched three guys try to destroy an 8mm x 80cm round shield made of Linden, not even good linden, glued edge to edge planks no covering or anything else, of course they did...... eventually.
Leather on wood? thin leather would likely be usefull to hold broken boards together if glued in place on a replica, but I think other then looking good unless its pretty thick its not really going to add to any protective value, and in this case would add additional weight.

I shouldn't think too hard about it your never going to make a bullet proof boss without an enormous amount of effort and likely cost in both time and money, and its just not worth it for something that will eventually get destroyed no matter what you do, or even worse end up too heavy too use effectively.

Consider the types of weapons that your opponents are using I expect them to be blunt and not that heavy and most people will pull their blows....

The best thing is to go with is what you've got or just use mild steel, its cheap and works fairly easy and you should be able to make a boss that will work well enough from 16SWG. If your worried about getting it squashed on your hand (which I've never seen happen) glue some thick felt inside the boss making sure you have enough room of course, many early medieval reenactors used to use spun 18SWG bosses (or even thinner) they were cheap and stood up well enough.
Believe it or not there are people out there selling bosses made from 2mm stainless that weighs 1.5kg! for 100+ bucks I think they may actually be bullet proof...... not really something you need.