How heavy were shields?

What shields where and when?

Depending on where you are, you might want to find an armor museum, or SCA group; both have ways of letting you try.

here is a website I check constantly http://www.by-the-sword.com/

Wait a sec, I couldn't find anything about weight. lol

The British Museum tends to list dimensions including weight for the items in its armor collection.

Armour is really heavy if you are carrying it in your hands or in a bag but not too bad if you are wearing it... I know several re-enactor friends of mine who wear thier mail when travelling to and from events (if they use public transport) rather than carry it in a bag.

I second the 'go to a re-enactment event and ask if you can handle one' advice. in fact, go to a large public event and ask around the traders there - they may let you handle all the shields and weapons you can get your hands on if you promise to be careful and look like you may buy.

A small shield like a buckler weighs about 2 pounds, and is solid metal.

Larger shields would be from 5 10 pounds, except for the large roman body shields, which I have no idea how much they'd weigh. A medieval knight's kite shield would be heavier still, and was frequently secured with a strap around the neck. This limited the ability to move it about.

A sheild like a buckler had to be light so it could be moved quickly. A heavier shield would be held such that it would prevent attacks to an entire side of the body, so it wouldn't be necessary to move it much (this gets very tiring).

Depending on the era, the knight's shield is either wood with metal reinforcements, or entirely metal. If it is metal, it isn't very thick. Even wood would be a half an inch thick at the most. More would be too heavy to be useful.

When I was actively fighting, I built my own shields. After extensive research I settled on cloth covered and rimmed Heater (Knight shaped shield) shields. I built a press and laminated wood 3/8s of an inch thick. A layer of cloth on each side was glued on and seven layers of the same cloth was glued around the rim. (1.5 inch with)

This was as close as I could come to some of the examples found in museums in Europe. Typical weights were two to five pounds, this is a shield that covers me chin to groin and shoulder to shoulder with a five inch deep recurve built in.

As to resisting steel weapons, we took old shields (normally after two or three seasons) and would mount them on a Pell so they would move when hit. Then we brought out all our toys, grin. Slashes, chops, thrusts and the strongest strokes we could manage were showered on the shield. My strongest stroke, using a nine pound uber sword, normally capable of sinking a one and a half inch deep dent in a 16gauge helm, would cut about an inch into the top of the shield. The shield would remain functional for about two hours of deliberate abuse.

Arrows, Pile point penetrated, but stuck after about a sixth of the arrow had passed through the shield. The force of the arrow was not enough to stick in to the Pell, It would not be much fun if the arrow hit the arm supporting the shield though. Broad tips would punch about an inch into the wood.

Just my experience,
Kevin
(AKA Thorgierr KSCA)

There was a time when I knew this, but there was a specialty type curved rectangular tower shield that Romans assigned to protecting siege engines used that had spikes on the bottom for implanting them in the ground like a makeshift sort of crenellation. They were not intended as a dueling shield. I seem to remember them oxhide on wood and weighing more than 15 pounds. Then like Sarpedon mentioned the small bucker which was little more than a glorified brass knuckles in terms of its use. You also might look up shields of the Masai. There's a LOT of variance across history.