How should shield straps be properly affixed to a wooden shield? It looks like Patrick Kelly's shield from Mercenary's Tailor may have had the straps held in place with rivets, but I'm not sure. Any clarification on the issue would be most appreciated.

either or.

if you use bolts and nuts, peen the bolt down over the nut head.

long nails work nice too. especially if they can be clinched.

I was just gonna say what Chuck said. At one point I owned an early mid 18th century Scottish targe that had that cinched nayles to hold then strapping in place.

i have made somewhere around 8 shields from different eras. The most common way of attaching strapping (sp) that I have seen on original medieval shields was with clinch nails, and then with rivets using square washers.

What is "clinching" nails?

Pound the nayle in, there will be some of the shanke protruding from the front, hammer it over(breaking at a right angle) into the face of the shield, this locks the nayle in place and therefore the strap.

The 18th century Scottish targe I used to own had nayles with rather large heads closer to roofing nayles in size. I don't know what the shanks were shaped like ,none of the nayle shanks were exposed. Square nayles were common for carpentry but I don't know if this carried over to shield manufacture or not.

If you decide to use clinch nails you can get them from Van Dyke's Restorers. I have been using them to attach period hardware to chests.

www.vandykes.com