Painting featuring a Valkyrie carrying a shield with a boss. The boss is pointed, which is rather unusual.

A shield boss is a round, convex or conical piece of material at the center of a shield. Shield bosses (or sometimes, just "bosses") are usually made of thick metal but could also be made of wood. The boss was originally designed to deflect blows from the center of round shields, though they also provided a place to mount the shield's grip. As time went on and heater shields with curved bodies became more popular, and enarmes superseded the bar grip, the boss became more of an ornamental piece. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1704x2088, 823 KB) Artist: Peter Nicolai Arbo (Norway 1831-1892) Title: Valkyrien Painted 1869. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1704x2088, 823 KB) Artist: Peter Nicolai Arbo (Norway 1831-1892) Title: Valkyrien Painted 1869. ... The Valkyries Vigil, by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Robert Hughes. ... A shield is a protective device, meant to intercept attacks. ... Heraldry displaying heater-shield escutcheons The heater shield is a form of shield characterized by its distinctive shape. ... Shield with enarmes highlighted Enarmes are the leather gripping straps attached to the back of shields throughout the Medieval period. ...

Often, bosses are not present on non-circular shields due to the differences in technique; with a round shield, one makes a punching motion towards an oncoming blow, while with a heater or kite shield, attacks are blocked by pivoting the shield about the body.^{[citation needed]} A boss provides a significant advantage for deflecting blows when using a punching motion, but is not very effective when using a pivot to block an attack. Look up Punch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Punch can refer to: Punch from Punch and Judy Punch (magazine) Punch (drink), various mixed drinks often containing fruit or fruit juice, sometimes alcoholic Punch (strike), blow made with a fist. ...

Manufacture

In medieval times, shield bosses were made by armourers out of sheets of iron or steel. The armourer started with a flat, relatively thin sheet and sunk the metal into a bowl, which might then be planished and buffed. The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times. ... Location within China Changchun (Simplified Chinese: 长春; Traditional Chinese: 長春; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chang-chun) is the capital of the Jilin province in northeastern China. ... Diagram of planishing, showing planishing hammer, workpiece, and planishing stake Planishing is a metalworking technique used to smooth sheet metal. ... Polishing is the process of creating a smooth and shiny surface by using rubbing or a chemical action. ...

External links

• Arador Armour Library article on construction of a shield boss