Rivet pressing Question?

shotgunner11

shotgunner11

Joined
Dec 17, 2005
Messages
7,809
Hey kydex experts!!

I work with .08 kydex and rivets to match. I have been using a homemade doohickie I turned out to press them. I have an arbor press but have just been hammering them on the concrete floor of my shop out of pure laziness, not wanting to try to adapt my arbor press to work with the dies. It all worked pretty good, but I was cracking a ton of rivets so I ordered the hammer dies from Knifekits.com to try out and while they work and don't crack as many rivets, they completely flatten the fronts of the rivets and I just don't like the look of it.

How is everyone else doing it? Are the $40 dies from knifekits.com worth the money?

Is there another, better way?
 
Are you using the knifekits eyelets? Other brands, even if they seem to fit knifekits stuff, can get funky with their setters. I've never used the hammer setter, but I do have the dies. Right now I'm just chucking 'em in the drill press with a vice attached to the table which works fine, but it's a little irritating having to switch everything out constantly.

I've had very few cracked eyelets using them, and most of those were most likely caused by not checking the eyelet edges. By the way, if you haven't found a better way, the best way to remove those cracked eyelets is a small rat file. Just file the coner on one side til the head pops off and push the rest out. It takes a bit longer than cutting, but you don't run the risk of scratching the sheath

shotgunner11 said:
Hey kydex experts!!

I work with .08 kydex and rivets to match. I have been using a homemade doohickie I turned out to press them. I have an arbor press but have just been hammering them on the concrete floor of my shop out of pure laziness, not wanting to try to adapt my arbor press to work with the dies. It all worked pretty good, but I was cracking a ton of rivets so I ordered the hammer dies from Knifekits.com to try out and while they work and don't crack as many rivets, they completely flatten the fronts of the rivets and I just don't like the look of it.

How is everyone else doing it? Are the $40 dies from knifekits.com worth the money?

Is there another, better way?
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the reply.

Yea, I am using Knifekits eyelets, never thought to check them beforehand to see if they will crack.

I guess I'll suck it up and get the better flairing dies.

The hammer system works OK but the bottom part doesn't really fit the eyelets right off, I have to flair them with my homemade setup first then switch to the knifekits parts to flaten them out well.
 
I haven't tried them, but American Tag makes eyelet dies. Their eyelets are pretty much identical to Knifekit's as far as head shape, so they could work. If not, their "long shank" eyelets are 8-8 and much cheaper than KK. I think they only run about 6 or 7 dollars per die set which is much less than knifekits. I may order a set Tonight and see how they do.

shotgunner11 said:
Thanks for the reply.

Yea, I am using Knifekits eyelets, never thought to check them beforehand to see if they will crack.

I guess I'll suck it up and get the better flairing dies.

The hammer system works OK but the bottom part doesn't really fit the eyelets right off, I have to flair them with my homemade setup first then switch to the knifekits parts to flaten them out well.
Click to expand...
 
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