It’s nice to work with a person who knows exactly how a shield should look from a historical point of view and knows how to make it with high quality! We can also add that it is felt immediately if a master has done a thing with love. It serves for a long time, and it just becomes special both for the master and for the one who bought and uses the object. Products for HMB sports are no exception. Doing something for our sport is a very time-consuming task of high quality and you need to love it very much.

Today we will introduce you to Carlos Peñalver, the shield maker and owner of the Escudos Combate Medieval workshop from Spain. The workshop was nominated for the HMBIA quality mark, which will be given to the winner of our The Artisans and Craftsmen People’s Choice Award competition.

Its owner is engaged in HMB and understands perfectly well that only a very high-quality shield can protect a fighter or bring his victory in battle closer. Carlos concentrated on making shields.

“I have been making combat shields since 2015. I started making it as a hobby, helping a friend in his start in medieval combat, and in the end, I liked it so much that I started manufacturing for more friends”. 

Carlos is a historian with a master’s degree in war science and this helps him a lot in the theoretical part of his work. But it is equally important for the master to know the properties of the materials with which he works. He shared with us the main steps involved in transforming several different materials into a shield.

“I think the most important thing in the process of making a shield is molding the wood very well to create a sturdy shield. I like working with the materials from the beginning. In the first place, I mold the wood to get the shape I want. Then, I do it more resistant, though in this sport nothing is resistant enough. 

When I have the shape and the resistance I want, I step up with more materials like leather, fabric, and even some metals. 

Also one of the parts that I like the most is painting the heraldry of the fighters. All my creations have a printed logo of my workshop, but I think I would recognize all my shields out of a million!!!”

According to Carlos, he is usually lucky with customers. Usually, there are no problems in working with them. He uses the required measurements from the sport so that there are no problems in the fighting. Carlos usually talks to new fighters concerning the type of shield they need. 

In general, the process of shield crafting requires lots of time and sometimes the fighters are so eager that they write to me every day asking for the status of their shields. The master understands that every fighter wants to get his shield and rush into battle as soon as possible, but the quality does not tolerate fuss!

In the end, it should be especially noted that there is something very important that feeds and inspires the master to create his masterpieces.

“In this sport, I have found friends who are now my second family”. 

What could be better than your favorite job? Only when this work is harmoniously combined with the support of loved ones. Carlos has it all. And how actively they will support him in the course of summing up the results of our vote, we will see very soon!

In the meantime, we are preparing a new article for you about other nominees of the Artisans and Craftsmen People’s Choice Award competition, and we invite you to remember those wonderful crafters who we have already talked about earlier:

Henrikas Viteika workshop from the UK
Workshop of Anna Muzalevskaya from Russia
Historicum workshop from Poland
Past Time Pedlar workshop from the UK
Ivan Lukic, craftsman from Serbia
Patterson Shieldcraft from the UK
Racaire’s Workshop from the USA
Knight Art Workshop from France
Rogday’s Craft” Yar-Tur workshop from Ukraine
Výroba štítů Workshop from Czech Republic.
Evil Russians workshop from New Zealand
Bogdan Mihaylov Worksop from Ukraine
Средњовековни Занати workshop from Serbia
MedievalUA workshop from Ukraine 

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