How do I anneal brass eyelets?

Josh Mason

Josh Mason

Tombstone hand. Graveyard mind.
Joined
Jun 15, 2011
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Finding a lot of info on cartridges, but not much else. Got some kydex eyelets that want to crack pretty badly, and never had that happen before. Just wanted to see if I could remedy this myself. I have a little Evenheat oven. What are some times, temps, and quench methods for this stuff? Thanks guys!
 
i read online people heat brass shells for reloading to 650 degrees to anneal them. they didn't mention a quench.
 
Annealing brass should be done by heating it to red. You can quench or not-it doesn't contain carbon and won't harden.
 
So I don't really need my fancy Evenheat or anything, just torch em to red? Awesome. As usual, I overthink these things. Thanks guys!
 
Yea, but be careful with that torch - thin brass melts VERY easy. I just ruined a couple of reloading brass other day by not watching my torch tip enough. Knock them in water from red hot anneals brass or copper pretty good.

Ken
 
A torch is a bad idea for annealing brass eyelets.

The problem with torch annealing things like brass eyelets is they will end up discolored. Then you have to tumble them and that work hardens them a bit.

The hardness drop point in annealing for brass is 580F. At 600F it is half-hard, and by 700F it is dead soft. The best way to do this is in a regulated oven. Soak time should be an hour. Pickle in sodium bisulfate for a few minutes after annealing and they should look fine. Tumble only long enough to brighten if needed.
 
Awesome! Thanks Stacy. I was wanting to keep them black, and will try to find a blackening solution if the heat gets them real weird looking. I think these are a black oxide finish of some kind.
 
Heating them with a torch makes them black.........
 
If they are black, test a few and see how the color may change.


How are you installing the eyelets...with a press and die made to fit the rivet?
 
I had some eyelets from Indexed Fastners that just were a pain in ass with cracking and color coming off.

I used a small torch and in a dark room heated them and watched the color and quenched in water.

It annealed them nicely and then use Brass Black to color them.

But the best bet is go to knifekits and buy some eyelets and skip all that drama.
 
Bill - great! I was hoping that they wouldn't change color on me

Stacy- I have a nice die set from Tracy over at usa knifemaker. I must have pressed thousands of their Siska eyelets with absolutely no problems. It's reported that they have experienced some quality issues lately with the supplier. I called over there and looks like others are having this problem too. I just can't wait until next week to get new ones. I have to try to get some knives out the door.

Adam - the knife kits eyelets split on me relentlessly. That's why I went to Tracy. Let's see if I can torch some and flare em down right. Thanks for all you guys help!
 
I had heard they got a bad batch you should contact them and talk to them about that.

I know Index fastners inc supplies many of the businesses so they might have got some from them or might be having a problem with their current supplier
 
Josh,

So how did it turn out?

I just received some 1/4" 8-8 rivet from Knifekits and they performed awesome!

So if you need to get some try that size if it works for you.
 
Hey Adam, just got an email from the supplier, and they told me that they're currently testing a new batch from Siska to check for the cracks. I don't know.....I got knives to make man. Starting to really throw a wrench in the whole damn operation. The knife kits eyelets alwYs split on me, so I turned to the Siska. Seems like I have nowhere to turn to now.

I annealed some of them with a torch. The black coating came off, and they just didn't flare like I want them. I just want these guys to get their shit together so I can work.
 
Josh,

What length of eyelet are you using and what thickness of kydex?

Might try shortening them a bit to see if that helps.
 
They're sending me some more to try, but I don't know when the newest batch of theirs will be in. I'll keep trying with these. Eyelets man. Busted up my whole game.
 
Josh Mason said:
I just want these guys to get their shit together so I can work.
Click to expand...

Josh you literally took the words right out of my mouth.

Just found this thread now.

We just started using a new bag of 1000 (order placed on july 16th) of the Siska s-61 black eyelets from USA knifemaker and at least half of them are splitting. Checked our dies just to make sure they look fine. They do. This is the second time in a year that I'm having this problem, last time was with knifekits.

We used to get our eyelets from knifekits until we started having issues with theirs (suddenly, at the beginning of a new batch, late last year). I had a thread going on that, I got some answers and it turned out that knifekits' supplier (stimpson) had started outsourcing their eyelets to overseas. Adam, it sounds like maybe they've fixed the issue now. I may have to try knifekits again.

Anyway, after that issue we started buying the siska eyelets from USA knife maker. The first bag of 1000 worked really well, (only a few in the whole bag split). Then when we started using this latest batch of the siska eyelets we started having serious splitting issues again. I called both siska and USA knifemaker and got slightly different stories from them. Waiting for more info from USA knife maker.

My suspicion is that either USA Knifemaker got their cheapo eyelets and their siska eyelets mixed up OR siska has changed something about their product.

So did you guys get to the bottom of this? I agree Josh, this is really throwing a wrench in the gears. I'm getting way to good at drilling out split eyelets :mad:

-mike
 
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