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Daggrim

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Posts posted by Daggrim

  3. Posted · Report reply

    I just finished a helmet using the Ohio Travel Bag jiffy rivets, rather than the Tandy style. I had problems with them not setting. Turns out the OTB rivet can be 2mm shorter than the Tandy rivets, and still work! The rivets were too long, altho they would've been perfect had they been the Tandy style. The shanks were bending over and the heads were easy to pull off. Luckily I had some shorter ones, and they fixed the problem. Still, they are not as snug as the Tandy's, so I hope it's just a learning curve thing.

    I looked into using some REAL rivets, the copper burr, as more authentic and stronger, but for ease of use, and time involved, I stayed with the jiffy's. Later, if I go more for quality and authenticity, I'll revisit that idea.

    Doug

  5. Posted · Report reply

    Hey Bree...got it!

    Maybe not a fair test, as I remembered seeing this in the past, so I already knew the lines had to be extra long.

    Reminds me of somthing that happened to me when I was about 5 yrs old. A bunch of us kids crawled into the storage shed of the town butcher. There were stacks of chicken cages in there, and a couple of the older boys tricked us into getting into them. Well, they slammed the doors shut, and told us that the butcher would find us in there in the morning and butcher us. We were screaming and crying after they left us, but one by one we all escaped. Some of the doors weren't even latched, mine included. When I finally just tried pushing it, the door opened right up.

    So what did I do for my still trapped friends? Nothing. I ran like hell and never looked back. I just kept my mouth shut and didn't eat any sausage for the next couple weeks.

    So, that's my experience about escaping from a self imposed limitation.

    Doug

    [

    quote name=Bree' date='Feb 8 2009, 05:25 PM' post='87385]

    Go here

    http://www.ninedotsystems.com/exercise.php

    When and only when you have tried to find the solution for a sufficient time then you can look at the solution at this URL

    http://www.ninedotsystems.com/exercise2.php

    The solution requires you to escape self imposed limitations.

    :red_bandana::red_bandana::red_bandana:

  9. Posted · Report reply

    Thanks Frank, I'll check out their sites.

    Just a further note on the gun blue. I blued my rivets, and rinsed them well in hot water, but there was a residue left on them. Not wanting to handle that stuff when I was riveting, I waited until they were dry, then I cleaned them like we all clean our chain mail. I put them in a wooden barrel filled with sand, and rolled it up and down the deck of the ship. Well, actually, I put them in some tupperware filled with sand and shook it up, in my kitchen.

    Doug

  15. Posted · Report reply

    Marcel,

    I have some results from a couple home experiments. The vinegar has negligible results in 24 hours on brass or nickel rivets, whether sanded or not. I tried gun blueing compound, and it darkened the nickel, sanded and unsanded, to black in 5 minutes. It darkened the sanded brass, but not the unsanded brass, in 5 minutes. Gun Blue contains Selenium Dioxide, which I assume is the ative ingredient. No odor or fumes, but carries a health warning for California residents about birth defects. The rest of us don't matter, I guess, or have immunity:)

    Anyhow, those results are all I need for what I'm doing, so I'm very happy. Gonna order a few hundred 15mm nickel rivets, then buy a quart of gun blue, and say goodbye to all the time I've wasted matching up leather helmet parts, trying to find a combination that's not too thick for my 12mm rivets. Thanks for you responses. Maybe these results will help you, too.

    Dag

  16. Posted · Report reply

    Thanks for the comments, people. Keep 'em coming, please. BTW I already changed the photo Windy mentioned. Guess it's time to upgrade more photos, as some of them represent work I did 3 years ago.

    Bree, matbe you're right. I'm still considering what you've been saying about pricing. I know most of my patrons aren't hard core rennies. They're what we call playtrons, who love to come to the faires all dressed up to play, but don't drop big bucks. I need to start attending the really big faires, where there's a larger hard core clientele with the big budgets. That's my plan for 2010...Business Plan...written down, even. Aren't ya proud of me?

    Dag

  20. Posted · Report reply

    My last post was about finding longer black rapid rivets. As an alternative, I could antique the nickel or brass ones that are available. But how? I think I've seen a thread about this in the past. Any quick chemical baths that could give a more subdued look to nickel or brass? Thanks again, folks for your help.

    Dag

  21. Posted · Report reply

    I'm in absolute agreement with John.

    Be interested in them as a person.

    Don't be a "monologuer".

    Try to ask as many questions as you answer.

    Say what you're gonna do, and DO what you say.

    I also get my product/website on different forums. It's easy to drop a link to your website without being overly mercenary. I made a connection for ten pairs of turnshoes that way.

    I try to show off my helmets whenever the venue makes it possible...an admitted rarity. For instance, last weekend I participated in a ski race as a Viking skier in old time garb, with vintage wooden skis and a leather Viking helmet. A big contrast to the lycra clad greyhounds, but a helluva lot of fun for me. A possible contact...I met an Olympic hopeful for the 2010 winter Olympics who had her picture taken with me, and we traded emails.

    So, that leads me to one of my major postulates of life. "Go ahead and just do it, because y'never know..."

    Dag

  22. Posted · Report reply

    Freki,

    Really nice work. Beautiful rich colors. I love those old Norse dragons...they look so unlike our modern versions of dragons...almost like hounds. How cool to live in the ancestral home of the Vikings! They had such a unique sense of beauty...those dragon boats, and their knotted artwork, and the gripping beasts, and the fierce looking helmets. I enjoy the Norse. They were the global cosmopolitans of their time. Some have called them the first modern Europeans.

    Daggrim

  24. Posted · Report reply

    Okay, I'm going to try something nutty. I'm going to post a link to my website, and I'd like some opinions on my pricing for the helmets. There are many resources available for figuring out pricing, and I'd like to consider this as one of them. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, so this is the straightest way I can think of to cut thru some of the fog of my hemming, and puzzling, and counting on my fingers, trying to guess a fair price. Anybody open to giving it a try?

    Daggrim

    http://leatherhelms.com

  25. Posted · Report reply

    Hi all you helpful people. I use rapid rivets to hold my helmets together, and I need some that are 15 mm long in the shaft, or about 5/8 inches. I found some that work great from Ohio Travel Bag, but they don't come in black. I can get nickel and brass, but I use black mostly. I need the rapid rivets, too, as the round helmets require an odd riveting jig, and I can't hammer them harder than rapid rivets require. Also, their rivets now cost about $15 per hundred! Oof! I've been using Tandy rivets for a long time, but I'm upgrading my leather to thicker stuff, and thier longest rivets just won't work anymore.

    My fallback option is to skive the helmet panels, but I'd rather not go thru figuring all that out just yet. Such as, should I skive before or after the hardening/molding process. Which skiver would work best, etc.

    Thanks, Daggrim

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