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+--- Thread: Make Your Own Rivets (/showthread.php?tid=3706)
Make Your Own Rivets - Matt Lukes - 08-12-2005
Avete omnes
Just as I suspect the majority of reenactors who do at least some of their own metalwork, I've always bought rivets, but recently a combination of being commissioned to make some 'as-authentic-as-possible' gear and acquiring some original Lorica segmentata fittings, I've just worked-out a VERY easy way to make my own authentic-looking rivets. It's actually amazingly simple- it just never occurred me to try before. I think they look a lot better than the commercial perfectly-domed ones, there's only a few seconds of work involved in making each rivet and what's even better that you can save more than 65% on the cost.
Here's a picture of everything that's used:
![[Image: rivet0011ww.jpg]](http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/8041/rivet0011ww.jpg)
#10 (10 gauge) solid copper electrical wire (available at Home Depot), a ball-peen hammer, a block of steel at least 1/4" thick, an anvil surface, a 7/64" HSS drill bit and a steel nail. Also pictured is a finished rivet.
Really in creating a rivet, all you're doing is peening one end into a flat dome shape like you'd do in actually securing a pre-made rivet. The important thing is that you have to preserve the shank and end, and for that you use a very simple form- a block of steel with a hole drilled through it that is the diameter of the wire from which you'll be making the rivet. This will keep the shank from spreading out while you form the head.
#10 copper wire is just a little less than 1/8" in diameter- a fairly standard size of rivet used for our purposes, and it's readily available. It's important for the form hole to be as close as possible to the size of the wire, so a 7/64" drillbit is used. The hole must go all the way through the steel of the form as the finished rivet must be popped-out from the opposite side.
I've found that cutting the wire 'blank' about 4.5mm longer than the thickness of the form will yield a good sized head. Much more will make it harder to shape the head evenly (the wire is more apt to just bend), and less yields a head too close to the diameter of the shank to trust its strength.
It's VERY IMPORTANT to put a drop of oil in the form so you can easily get the finished rivets out- the copper bits you see in my form are what taught me this- they're rivets that I couldn't get out after forming :lol: Add an additional drop of oil after every 3 or 4 rivets or as seems necessary.
Here's a quick illustration of forming the head:
Place the blank in the form on an anvil (or equivalent)- you DON'T have to anneal the wire
![[Image: rivet0029ce.jpg]](http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/848/rivet0029ce.jpg)
Strike the projecting portion around it's permimeter with a ball peen hammer to spread it out evenly (hold the form securely)
![[Image: rivet0033fv.jpg]](http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9065/rivet0033fv.jpg)
Finish the head by continuing the rotation as well as striking the center until it's reached the desired height, shape, etc.
![[Image: rivet0047hr.jpg]](http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/7522/rivet0047hr.jpg)
To remove the new rivet, simply flip the form over, place it over an open space (like the Hardy hole on an anvil), place a nail (with the point cut off) on the rivet and hammer it GENTLY out. The nail should be close to the same diameter as the rivet so as not to spread the shank out. The oil should make this an easy task- one strike is often enough to just pop the rivet out.
Now I have found that the shanks of these new rivets aren't exactly 7/64" in diameter- so it's best to drill 1/8" holes in the pieces you're riveting together. The rivets will, with some coaxing, go into 7/64" holes, but the fit isn't ideal. Then again commercial 1/8" shank rivets don't seem to fit in holes drilled with a 1/8" bit either...
Anyhow, 3 or 4 seconds of hammering will give you some really cool-looking rivets (you can also control the head size/ shape and the shank length at will) and save you a bundle- the best price I've ever found for copper rivets is $19.95CAD/lb, and 1lb of copper wire costs me only $6.70CAD.
Valete
Matt
Re: Make Your Own Rivets - santell - 08-12-2005
Now that is very slick! I love tools.
Re: Make Your Own Rivets - Matt Lukes - 08-14-2005
And here's my reproduction of an original Lorica segmentata fitting from my collection to show how authentic these hand-made rivets can look:
![[Image: rivet0079vb.jpg]](http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/6775/rivet0079vb.jpg)
Matt
Re: Make Your Own Rivets - Emeraldweapon7d - 08-15-2005
wow, that's slick! and it LOOKS simple enough for me not to screw up.
Re: Make Your Own Rivets - Magnus - 08-15-2005
Hey, that's really cool Matt. How many rivets can you do in a minute? Do you consider it cost effective to do it this way?
Re: Make Your Own Rivets - Matt Lukes - 08-15-2005
Ave Matt,
Sure it's cost effective- each rivet takes about 5 seconds to make from cutting the wire to removing it from the die, so I can make somewhere on the order of 10 or 13 per minute. If you assume 4 rivets for each plate, I can make enough to do an whole Balteus in about 4.5 minutes. But the real reason I now love that I can make my own rivets is that I can completely control their appearance; I always thought that commercially-available domed rivets looked a tad, well, perfect :lol: and the heads are so large that any attempt to roughen the dome spreads it out making it quite large. Flat-headed rivets are even worse as they often have a concentric circle pattern on the head and that takes forever to remove. Now that I've seen a number of real Roman rivets up-close, I can see the heads are actually quite small, so regular 1/8" shank domed rivets are just too big (and I can't find anything smaller). Then there's the fact that they cost 3x more and you have to take the shank lengths they make- which can mean a lot of waste. Make your own and you can control everything
Re: Make Your Own Rivets - santell - 08-16-2005
Matt,
I have never seen real hardwear up close, do the rivets have that faceted appearance? If so, I might give this a try.
Re: Make Your Own Rivets - Matt Lukes - 08-16-2005
Well, the permiter of the real rivets is highly variable- you can see some facets and even some cracking on the original I posted- but of course the center area is smoothed-out (either flattened or domed somewhat) when the rivet is peened in place.
Matt
Hammered rivets - Northman - 08-19-2005
Good job on the rivets. I've used this method before, but mostly with iron. I also use this to modify commercial rivets. Slip them into your metal block, with the rest of the rivet sticking out the other side. Then place it over the hardy hole or pritchel hole in your anvil. Then use your hammer to "peen" the existing rivet head - adding those facets and hammer marks. You just need to add those marks, not actually spread out the rivet head. A few seconds work makes the commercial rivet head look like hand made. A little practice quickly shows you how much hammering to do.
Just my humble thought to share.
Mike Ameling
Re: Make Your Own Rivets - Matt Lukes - 08-19-2005
Absolutely- I did this with a couple of long nails (flattened out the heads) to make helmet cheekguard pins
rivets - Florentius - 10-06-2005
As always,
Bravo Matt. More truly excellent initiative, creativity, and recontruction from the house of Lukes.
Vale, Florentius
Re: Make Your Own Rivets - Matt Lukes - 02-21-2006
One new thing to this how-to: having acquired a number of new original pieces, it seemes the 'faceted' rivets I originally showed aren't the most common of types- domed ones appear to be rather moreso. They're not nearly so huge as the commercial 1/8" shank dome head rivets, so making them is still more authentic- so I made a dome die out of a thick nail, and added a final step to the formation of my rivets. I made the concave depression in the die with a dremel round diamond grinding tip (it took a while :lol: ), then hardened and tempered the tool with a propane torch. Now after peening the rivet so that its edges project relatively evenly around the shank, I place the die over it and give it a few whacks to form the domed head. Here's a photo of the die and a finished rivet. The die doubles as a peening tool as well- place it in a vise then attaching a rivet, simply place the head in the tool and whack it from the other side. This preserves the dome shape and actually makes it really easy to peen rivets in odd places that might make using a flat surface difficult.
![[Image: RivetDie.jpg]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v351/Panzerknacker/SPQR/RivetDie.jpg)
Matt
Re: Make Your Own Rivets - aitor iriarte - 02-22-2006
Matt,
Have you considered selling 'tools' like that in sundry diameters? 8)
Aitor
Rivet setting tools - Peroni - 02-22-2006
Salvete,
For those that would rather not make their own, these types of rivet setting tools are available commercially. I have a few.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b242/ ... vetset.jpg
Regards,
Re: Make Your Own Rivets - aitor iriarte - 02-22-2006
Adrian,
I haven't been able to trace them in Spain...
Which diameters are available? Matt says that those available to him are rather 'huge'!
Aitor