Leather rivets failed

[Uncle Alvah]

What am I doing wrong?

This is my old hunting pouch, a tad over 40 years old.

I need to make a new shoulder strap, and I used rivets to fasten the leather.

On both ends where the strap attaches to the pouch, the rivets failed first use.

You can see the damaged rivets in the pic, I hope.

The two failed rivets were in the folded over piece seen on the upper left, they have to reach thru two layers of leather in the strap, plus the thickness of the bag itself.

Additionally, I don't think I'd trust the other rivets too far either.

I'm sure I could pop one off using thumb presure, but then again, strength against force in that direction is perhaps not the strong suite of rivets in the first place? Regardless, the strap end rivets failed EASILY, popped when picking up the loaded bag first time.

 

[rafterob]

It appears the rivets in the top picture are much too long for the leather thickness, that would cause them to collapse sideways like they did instead of flaring into the head like they should. Another thing that will cause rivets to fail under stress is being too short for the leather thickness, in that case the shaft simply does not reach fully in to the head. The shaft of the rivet should be even with, or just slightly higher than the leather thickness. Did you use a rivet set on the heads? It does not look like they were even hammered. I don't use a set, I just smash em flat with a hammer, not as purty, but they sure hold good.

 

[ladysmithtrading]

From the pictures it looks like the rivets were not long enough for the layers of leather in between them and you did not get enough pinch on the leather for the stud to mushroom inside the rivet,are you using the setting tool for that particular style of rivet? another option would be to go to the local REAL hardware store or tack shop and pick up some copper rivets and burrs, the kind that you slide a washer over and peen down, guarantee those would work, good luck and let us know how it turns out!

 

[Uncle Alvah]

I used a setter/anvil that came with the rivet assortment, just a little disk with one side concave and a steel setter. I thought it odd that the instructions specified that the concave side of the anvil went down, against the bench top, but since I have zip for experience with these things, I figured I'd best follow direction......

 

[LRB]

What Beaverman said. When I was a firefighter, if we went up the 65' ladder on the aerial truck, we wore a heavy leather safety belt with a large spring clip to lock in with. That belt was put together with copper rivets and washers. It was over 20 years old when I hired on, and was not replaced for another 10. Our lives often depended on that belt, and it never gave up. Strangly, it was never cared for either. It always made me nervous, but it held up.

 

[bedbugbilly]

Ditto to what Beaverman said about the copper rivets - they should work great and take care of your prolem. I sew just about everythng in my leatherwork - hunting bags, holsters, etc. but when I use a rivet - it's always the copper ones.

 

[omarick1948]

Tandy also sells copper harness rivets. Also, some of the big home improvement stores, like Lowes and Home Depot!.... The rivets your using are not made for heavy use!

Rick

 

[Troy Allen Christianson]

I never trust the brass rivets without some kind of back-up stitching. The copper rivets are much more secure.