Press studs/snappers in silver?

[enigma]

Hi all

Im making a leather cuff with sterling silver rivets and horses heads ( sorry, very predictable ) and can't find silver press studs anywhere.
I thought of making buttons and did make one to try but the leather is too thick so makes it hard to do up (4mm)
Any ideas where I can find them or how I could make a different sort of fastening in silver?
I have the standard nickel ones but it seems a shame to use those when everything else is sterling
Oh and I can't use a buckle fastening as there is a horsehair braid that sits where the strap would need to go.

Thanks in advance

[Dennis]

The standard bought in rivets, consist of two tubes with heads, one tube fits closely inside the other and has a closed tip, which is weak enough to bulge when tapped. This is what holds the rivet together.

I have tried to replicate this using silver tubes but not succeeded in making a reliable version. So as an alternative for leather, it is possible to use a single headed tube and pass it through a washer on the other side before spreading it. This will never look very professional and could be scratchy on skin.

So the last option I can come up with is to use two, headed components and glue one inside the other with five minute two-part epoxi.
The inner part can be a tube or a wire. The heads can be disks, textured or plain, cut with a disk cutter and domed, or left flat.

If you need very small disks, they can be sliced from thick round wire. Here is an old project cuff to show some rivet heads and the finish of the rivets inside. The other picture shows a belt end, with glued rivets Dennis.

[enigma]

Thanks very much Dennis,

The rivets are ok, I made those with silver tube and wire as Soham demonstrates in his vid - he also uses a dab of Epoxy.
Its the snappers that I couldn't figure out but searching for what other folk have done I found this:


Apparently they are called 'Sam Brown studs' .
I made some this morning out of silver so will fit everything together later and hope they work

[CJ57]

I hope they work Sarah, I've had a look at my dad's Sam Brown and they were only used after it was buckled to keep the rest of the tongue in place and tidy. Maybe on a cuff they will be secure enough as the only fastening

[Dennis]

It would be great if we could see the finished product, Sarah.

I bought some of those Sam Brown fittings years ago, but could never find a use for them. If you are making your own, they will no doubt be more light weight than these. Regards, Dennis.

[enigma]

Thanks Caroline and Dennis,

They worked well actually but I wasn't happy with other aspects of the design so have started again after spending ages making rivets *sigh*
I think mine are actually chunkier than those Dennis, the leather is nearly 4 mm thick and overlaps and I wanted something easy to do up and that would stay done up which they did really well.
I shall be using them again when I remake it and I will be sure to post pics

[ps_bond]

I bought some of those Sam Brown fittings years ago, but could never find a use for them.

I used to get through an awful lot of them when I was making belt pouches for the bushcraft lot. Nice and simple, but I admit I prefer a decent press stud as a fastener (or Pull The Dot fasteners ideally).

[enigma]

Whats a 'pull the dot fastener' ?

[ps_bond]

They're a trademarked press-stud variant that only releases when you pull the fastener where the dot is. Means that pouches and similar can't be caught on branches (for example) and open accidentally.

[enigma]

Thanks Peter!