Rivet, rivet, rivet...

[Mirimaran]

Hi all,

Still working on my anglo-saxon inspired knife sheath, and I was wanting to make some rivets from some small nails, but I don't seem to be making much headway. Anyone out there make their own rivets? Any how-to's? As usual, any help is greatly appreciated!

Ken

[Greg]

In this article, making rivets and shaping them so that one end is flat peened and the other is domed/mushroomed, which winds up looking rather nice, is covered. I think either this or a simple variant of the technique described might service you well.

I've found that if you anneal the metal before riveting, especially for a low-stress job like holding a scabbard together, it peens much more readily with pliers. Basically, you just heat it with a torch until it's red hot or so, and then have it cool slowly rather than just taking the torch off and quenching it. Softens it up a bit.

[Ringulf]

That is helpful Greg!
I have been making my own with some low grade roofing nails and a #8 washer.
I could go to a better nail but had not been anealing them as suggested.

Tandy has some very nice rivets for leather working, I love the copper ones! They look great and work very well and using the rivet setter makes it quite easy. The tool is a punch with a hole set next to a concave dome. I put the rivit on the anvil, put the object being rivited (normaly leather, but I have also been sandwitching the CS tangs in) then the washer. The hole of the punch is placed over the stem of the rivet (which is slightly tapered) and tapped all the way down till it seats, then I use a pair of lineman dykes to snip it off. The bevel on them leaves the perfect amount of stem to use the concave dome.
A few strikes and it is domed well enough to hold but I normaly peen it a bit to shape it to my liking.

You can get the kit from Tandy online or in the store. It is not very expensive, the copper rivets however you must determine by the size of the project.
The punch has also worked with the roofing nails for me, but I don't us the dome for more than just starting it, I do most of my shaping with the ball peen. One caution when using the system on leather, do not use the punch all the way to the face of the leather as you may recieve the impression of the footprint of the tool on the face of the leather. I go down till I have started the domed effect on the rivet, then use the ball peen to get a more controled shapeing.

This may be all elemental and old knowledge to experienced metal and leather workers, it has been a rediscovery for me, but now that I am doing it more and at a latter stage of developement, I find it good information.

[Alderic]

I did help someone rivet a coat of plates or similar once... he was using what looked like copper roofing nails and washers. He was cutting the nails to about 1/4 inch after passing through the material and then flattened them, first with the peen to spread the metal and then the flat face of the hammer to smooth and flatten.

[Beornmann]

I have found the galvanized roofing nails don't peen as well I would have liked. They tended to bend and become too loose.

[wulfgar]

I used roofing nails and washers on my first set of SCA armor. They held up real well and I don't ever remember having to replace a broken one.