Would jeweler's brass make an effective shield boss?

[Dan D'Silva]

Thank you.  I'll give it a try if I can't find a wider piece I can afford.

For the rim, work the metal outwards on the inside using a cross peen hammer to broaden the rim, its better fixing with a few nails rather then many small ones, though again use what was historically done.

Neat.  I hadn't thought the rim could be made wider.

The reason I think of using escutcheon pins is because the violin shield boss from Samos has a lot of tiny holes around the edge, as do some other purported ancient bronze bosses.  It might also have been stitched through the board, I suppose.  Either way, the method of attachment seems not to have been quite the same as for the later Roman and Migration period shields.

Generally I prefer to cut a shaped hand hole in the shield, rather then just a circle, with the grip as part of the shield board or grafted in, the upper part larger to accomodate the hand, and make the boss to fit comportably over this arrangement.

Well, I have stupidly already cut a five-inch hole in the center-gripped one, so there's nothing to do except look for metal that's wide enough.  But yeah, a slightly smaller hole would've sufficed.

Reenactors overbuild everything so they don't have to repair their stuff after every event.

Indeed -- and I'll admit that's what I intend to do.  It'd be kind of a luxury to me to have one overbuilt shield and one more authentic one.  (Though AFAIK we still don't know how those violin shields were actually made, so true accuracy isn't on the table -- "plausible" would be the best to hope for.) It doesn't matter so much whether the one I have gets dinged up, I'd just like it to survive a few battles without having to undergo a major rebuild -- or failing in use such that it puts me at risk of injury.