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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Dies for flaring rivets?
- Thread starter sketchbag
- Start date
If you're going to do that, I'm thinking it might be more efficient for us to do a group buy together (I want to get some kydex and tools, too), ship it to me, and then I'd ship all YOUR bits up to you. Not sure how things work, but it'd probably be cheaper than you buying from independent stores.
Bill DeShivs
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2000
- Messages
- 12,724
You don't need dies.
Use a steeply tapered punch to flare the rivet as much as possible, then peen the edges down with a tiny hammer. It requires a little bit of practice, but is easy once you get the hang of it.
Bill
Use a steeply tapered punch to flare the rivet as much as possible, then peen the edges down with a tiny hammer. It requires a little bit of practice, but is easy once you get the hang of it.
Bill
Thanks! I'm still gona try to find the right die, but if all else fails Ive got something to fall back on.
Are there different types of eyelets, or just sizes? I assumed they were the same thing with varying diameters and length. If I'm mistaken please fill me in.
Already spoke to the folks at knifekits (where I was going to buy initially) they recommended their $80 press and the $35 die to go with it, and dont have anything else.
texasknife hasnt gotten back to me, gona phone them tomorrow, I imagine the die that comes w/ the pack of rivets works just fine for them, but they also have a punch/anvil type die for 1/4" eyelets apparently which is what I was inquiring about.
I've used the eyelet setter from Tandy for years and never had a problem. In particular, the "eyelet setter w/anvil 3/16"" and "eyelet setter w/anvil 1/4"" seen on this page:
http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/products.asp?dept=208
A tip when using these, use your finger to wipe on a tiny bit of oil around the nose of the setter before you set the rivets (eyelets). It will help the rivet roll without splitting. Also, some rivets taper inward quite a bit. A long tapered punch, as mentioned before, will help start it to roll - then use the hand setter. You can usually get a clean, nice rolled over eyelet without splitting.
http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/products.asp?dept=208
A tip when using these, use your finger to wipe on a tiny bit of oil around the nose of the setter before you set the rivets (eyelets). It will help the rivet roll without splitting. Also, some rivets taper inward quite a bit. A long tapered punch, as mentioned before, will help start it to roll - then use the hand setter. You can usually get a clean, nice rolled over eyelet without splitting.
I recently sent 31 blades to Paul Bos for heat treat. I've been making kydex sheaths in the past using the nickel plated eyelets from Tandy (they work quite well) along with their hand setting dies. In anticipation of the new blades I wanted to step up the quality of the kydex sheaths. So a week ago I broke down and ordered the eyelet setting dies from knifekits.com (along with a bunch of kydex and rivets). Brown Santa (AKA "the UPS man") showed up this afternoon.
Here's a quick review. I'm impressed. The dies are a bit on the expensive side, but the quality is way above the little hand setting ones. I happened to have an old Jet arbor press (looks pretty much like the one knifekits.com sells) so I didn't get the press, just the dies. My press works great with the dies, BUT the dies can be used without it. I set a few practice eyelets by hand using a rawhide mallet (so as not to mushroom the shank). They worked very well, they are two piece, with a pointed shaft that goes through the eyelet and lines both pieces up. Because of that, you almost can't mess it up and roll the eyelet unevenly. I did find that a small bit of oil, per my previous post, got a better roll. I only had one eyelet split, and that was before I started to touch on the oil. Cleaning the recessed rings of the dies with a toothpick got off the dried machining oil and also helped with a cleaner rolled eyelet.
The short of it is, these are worth the money. They roll a bit nicer than the Tandy hand setters and they are definitely more foolproof. (My only complaint I really had with the Tandy's is they were plated. The plating has kind of a matt finish that tended to be harder on the black painted eyelets. Because of that, I used the nickel plated eyelets.) If I was going to use these knifekits.com dies like handsetters, I would take a wood block and drill a 3/8" hole (the size of the shank) in it to hold the bottom die. After that, it's just putting the eyelets in the sheath and a few light taps to get a great job.
I hope this helps.
Merry Christmas,
lukus
Here's a quick review. I'm impressed. The dies are a bit on the expensive side, but the quality is way above the little hand setting ones. I happened to have an old Jet arbor press (looks pretty much like the one knifekits.com sells) so I didn't get the press, just the dies. My press works great with the dies, BUT the dies can be used without it. I set a few practice eyelets by hand using a rawhide mallet (so as not to mushroom the shank). They worked very well, they are two piece, with a pointed shaft that goes through the eyelet and lines both pieces up. Because of that, you almost can't mess it up and roll the eyelet unevenly. I did find that a small bit of oil, per my previous post, got a better roll. I only had one eyelet split, and that was before I started to touch on the oil. Cleaning the recessed rings of the dies with a toothpick got off the dried machining oil and also helped with a cleaner rolled eyelet.
The short of it is, these are worth the money. They roll a bit nicer than the Tandy hand setters and they are definitely more foolproof. (My only complaint I really had with the Tandy's is they were plated. The plating has kind of a matt finish that tended to be harder on the black painted eyelets. Because of that, I used the nickel plated eyelets.) If I was going to use these knifekits.com dies like handsetters, I would take a wood block and drill a 3/8" hole (the size of the shank) in it to hold the bottom die. After that, it's just putting the eyelets in the sheath and a few light taps to get a great job.
I hope this helps.
Merry Christmas,
lukus