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This is NOT a "leather" question, but knowing many of you are also involved with other heavy materials and fabrication, I thought I'd ask ... I'm sewing a canvas awning that utilizes snaps to attach to a steel framed roof rack on our expedition van. Problem = I've tried several varieties of self-tapping "screwstuds" and none seem to do the trick! The screwstud will start to bite into the steel but then it seizes and the head either strips or completely spins off. Here's a link to screwstuds I'm using ... http://fasteners.fasnap.com/viewitems/screwstuds/self-drilling-screwstuds Notes: I've used various types of self tapping screws in the past without this issue (i.e., sheet metal roofing screws). Side by side these look identical to these screwstuds, other than they don't have a snap top. Just to rule out the strength of the steel frame, I tried some of my regular self tapping screws on the same metal and had no issue. Also tried predrilling smaller diameter holes into the steel frame and then use the self-tapping screwstuds, still no luck. They bite and then strip or break. I tried a slightly larger drill bit size and the hole ends up too big to provide any grab for the screwstud threads. I even tried "drilling" a hole with the standard self tapping screws that I have, backing out the standard and then screwing in the screwstud. Same issue, either the hole is too large and no bite, or too small and the screwstud seizes. Also each of the above with lubrication (heavy cutting oil), no change. I am using a basic cordless impact driver to set the screws, just like I always have. This really has me stumped! Pictures attached of the screwstuds I'm trying and my roof rack that I'm trying to attach them to. Any thoughts, suggestions, tricks would be appreciated!!

I've recently run into a delima regarding folded leather straps that I created where I intend to layer one folded strap on top of a wider folded strap. The issue that I am having is that my grommets and snaps are deep enough to set properly as the neck and posts don't clear the layers. I'd need grommets and snaps that are about 3/8 in depth/length. In this case, I am not looking for suggestions on shaving or altering the piece; I'm specifically looking for hardare that can can handle the depth of the project. Any vendor suggestions would be great! Thank you in advance!

I bought at auction a lot of leather supplies when Whitman Leather Co of Cintinnati Oh retired and closed its doors. I had no idea how much I had actually won in the auction as it was online only and pictured rolls of leather. I am interested in selling a lot of this stock but am a little overwhelmed with the amount of everything. They made premium saddles, as well as other horse/tack products and many many different types of gear belts and accessories for the Ohio police and fire departments. If you're interested in seeing pics of what I have or if you'd be interested setting a time to come see message me and I'll try to answer any questions.

Hello, everyone! I'm looking to do an equipment upgrade in the near future and I need a little guidance from those who have already taken this path... I currently set snaps, rivets, etc by hand (& hammer). Same thing with the Delrin makers mark that I've had since I started this little journey...I plan to upgrade to a metal one as part of this retooling. What do you suggest for a press-type machine that would handle those duties as an upgrade? Modified arbor press? I know the GoldStar press works with snaps and rivets...does anyone have experience using it with their makers mark? As always, the input and suggestions from this community is appreciated and helpful! Thanks in advance! Chris

Hello; We just purchased a building which used to be the home of a leather working company. They produced everything from halters (horses & cows) to dog leashes. We purchased the building and contents because the family did not want to spend the time to sort all of this out. We are now in the position of trying to find homes for everything. There are over 900 halters, there is all sorts of equipment and tons (literally tons) of hardware in this building. He bought his hardware by the pallet and most is North & Judd. There is a 55 gallon container of a tanning compound he had custom made for his business and a dipping tank, I can not even tell you everything that is here because not being in the business I would do it a dis-service, so I have attached some links to pages of pictures we have so far. If anyone is interested in, please let us know and let's see if we can work it out. There is also a cart of 1/8" Leather shoulders here which we have sold a few and were told they were excellent by the fella who purchased them. He made gun holsters out of Texas. Here are the links: https://app.box.com/s/wl7mlcqjr9wsvnsp9lxavw1rocncl5df https://app.box.com/s/2fpit4r5yrx4xzn5qmnv https://app.box.com/s/cevypyk34jn8gewm1t8c https://app.box.com/s/iw1ya8rpyr68kgyzh1qv Let me know if you have any question and I will do my best to answer them or take additional photos if needed. Thank you.

$90 Sold as a lot, US shipping included. Great deal, the punches alone retail at $40/ea. Everything works properly, I've just upgraded some things and no longer use these tools. Great for someone getting into leather crafting. PM if interested. CS Osborne slot punches: 3/4" & 5/8" CS Osborne round strap end punch: 1" CS Osborne knife (needs sharpening) Tandy mini & maxi hole punch sets (complete) Tandy edge beveler size 2 Splash tool for tubular rivets Misc line 20 snaps, nickel Misc segma snaps, nickel Misc grommets & eyelets, nickel

Hi, I was browsing on the internet and saw something like this and thought it would be a good idea to make something with this kind of buckle closure. But I have no idea what it is called and can't seem to be able to describe it well enough for google to come up with anything similar. Does anyone know what it is called and where I can get these? I am in UK.

I'm looking for some custom copper rivets with my brand on them, a la jeans. I'm also looking for some 1cm and similar size flat top snaps with my brand on them. Any ideas?

I'm making some fashion items using 8-10 oz skirting leather that I skive down to 3oz to set snaps into. I'm using # 21 snaps that I get from Sheridan Leather. My last time on this site researching the best way to consistently set snaps is ongoing because successful setting is still inconsistent. I also have this vague memory of seeing a message about someone who makes snaps with a business logo/brand on it which I haven't found in the subject thread. I'm interested in engraved logos on snaps but my question is whether I saw a conversation about that here of if I'm imaging it. Obviously before I go to using my own "branded" snaps I also want a 100% success rate on setting snaps. (Back where I started.)

So I've been on a quest to use materials and components made in the USA for my projects. It's a point of pride for me, and also a selling point when talking to people about my items. I've been fairly happy with Hermann Oak veg tan, and I've been very happy with Maine Thread's polycord, so those areas are sorted. Finding quality metal hardware has been a real pain, however. I have a Gold Star press, so I wanted snaps and rivets that fit my existing dies. I have a strong dislike for plated steel, as a lot of my things go outside and will eventually rust here in perpetually soggy Western Oregon. I finally found Dot Fasteners and Rome Fastener Sales. Dot never got back to me regarding samples or country of origin. I called Rome and talked to Georgia, who sent me sample snaps and rapid rivet samples almost immediately. No charge for a handful of each to check on my press. So far so good! The samples appeared to be high quality and did indeed work with my dies, although I had to slightly file down the ligne 20 snap socket die. Here's where things got strange/frustrating. I emailed the sales email address asking for a quote (there are NO prices anywhere on their website) and got no response. I emailed Georgia, copying sales, asking the same info and got no response. About a month later I called back and was transferred to Robert who apologized and took down all the part numbers and my email to send me a quote. I got nothing. A few weeks later I called again and got Francine, who again took the part numbers and promised to email or call that day or the next with the quote. She called me back a couple hours later with a detailed quote for all the items, which was great. They have a $125 minimum on the full order, no minimums on individual items, and I should email my order with part numbers and quantities to Robert, which I did. I got no response or confirmation and had about totally given up on them, but about a week later Francine called to get my payment info (credit card) and said my order was shipping. I told my wife, "I've never had to work so hard to give a company my money!" Several days later my order arrived (complete and correct, you can bet I checked it...) and I'm pretty pleased with the quality. I ordered ligne 20 & 24 snaps, some small rapid rivets, and some snap hooks all in both solid brass and nickel over brass. Ligne 20 brass and nickel over brass. Ligne 24 brass and nickel over brass. As for a recommendation, I don't quite know what to say. So, here are the bullet points for you to decide if you want to try them... Service: Obviously getting pricing and ordering is not as easy as it should be. I don't know if my experience was standard, or if I just had some especially bad luck. They were also out of stock on several less common items (nothing that was critical for me to get) and, again, I don't know if that's a normal thing. Quality: Good, but also a couple of odd inconsistencies. The nickel L20 sockets are stamped "ROME * USA", while the brass ones are stamped "ROME * MILFORD". The nickel L20 eyelets are stamped "ROME * USA" very clearly, while the brass ones are stamped "ROME * ROME" very lightly. I like having them marked, but it's odd that they don't all match. The L24 parts have no markings. The brass parts all appear to have a clear coat protectant on them, which only time will tell if it holds up. The brass is not polished looking, like a plated finish would be. That's fine with me, but some might object. Selection: Very good. Lots of variations on snap cap or eyelet lengths, lots of rivet cap sizes and post lengths. Really more combinations that I think you can find anywhere else I've seen. They also have a lot of base metal and finishes available. I wonder how hard it would be to order more exotic combinations, given my difficulty in placing a very standard order. Price: Not bad. More than crappy Chinese steel, certainly, but not terrible. Solid brass small rapid rivets are about $0.25 each. Solid brass L20 snaps are roughly $.29 each. They do charge a few cents more for the nickel plated brass, and I imagine other metals/finishes are priced accordingly. They do offer brass or nickel plated steel for a fair bit less, although I didn't get prices. Again, not exactly cheap, but I think fair for quality brass made in the US of A. Long review, but I know others are interested in finding quality and/or domestic suppliers. I'll definitely give Rome my business when I'm due for my next resupply and hope that the service issues were an anomaly.

Going out of business sale - 1 large lot of solid brass hardware to include all the items shown in the attached picture and listed in the pdf file attached. I will sell the entire lot for $95 plus shipping, flat rate USPS $12.65. The lot is valued at current wholesale prices to be $187, plus shipping. Sorry, no international shipping. And, no separating the items. It must be sold all together. Take all or nothing. I accept Paypal. Send funds to BCL@ziplinkmail.com ********If someone can explain to me how to cut and paste the list into this editor I will gladly do it, however, I tried to cut and paste the list from Word, notepad and email, with no success. Also, I was not allowed to include the Word Doc file, for some reason. ???? But, it would allow me to include the PDF file??? Go figure. brass hdwr01.pdf

Just wondering where (besides Tandy) to hunt down some hardware. To be more specific...snaps and rivets. Line 24 snaps, glove snaps etc. I've looked online and unless I am an idiot (which is highly likely), I can't seem to find much! Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

Thanks to Nstarleather, I got my hands one some luscious Horween leather. Because I'm a newbie, I'm petrified of screwing up the nice big slabs I have and figured I'd start with something nice and small that would trim up the edges which would be waste material anyway. My guy has been making noise about a bracelet he can wear to work and I had been looking at mystery braids, so off I went. I think I'm on my fifth bracelet now, I might have a problem. First pic is of the latest one I made, nicely snug without cutting off circulation. I decided to play with punches a bit, I think I need to sharpen them because the edges are a bit fuzzy. This wasn't an ideal scrap so it looks a bit rough, but I like the idea of a pattern like that. I was on such a roll with mystery braiding that I decided to use up a scrap of thin veg tanned leather I had laying around and then spray it with two new colors of eco flow dye I had recently gotten. My guy is now clamoring for me to make a version of this for him. -_- I call it the joker bracelet for the colors used. My biggest annoyance is the snaps, I have some line 24 snaps in different colors but the shafts on them are so long that I had to take a jewelry saw to them to shorten them up and it still ended up deforming the cap a bit (just enough so I noticed). The other snaps I'm using are from Joann fabrics and while they're just the right length, the hardware that is used for the top/bottom bits come in this weird plastic clamshell thing that you hit with a mallet, and of course being plastic it snapped at the hinge so now I have to wince while having my fingers way too close to the mallet to hold everything together.

I have some vinyl that looks like thin leather that I would like to use snaps with. I have tried line 20 and 24 as well as glove snaps and I'm having all kinds of problems. I know the line 24 is meant for thicker leather but I want the look of the larger cap. I am a beginer so I don't know if the problems are from my technique or if these snaps do not work with thin material. The main problem is that it take a lot of fussing and hammering to set the snaps and mostly the results are bad. The posts are not deforming in a uniform way, and the snaps are not set tight or when I do get one tight it is difficult (and sometimes impossible) to snap them together. I have tried trimming the post length and I get mixed results. Should I use a different type of snap like segma/belt snaps?

Hi All, I am having a lot of recent issues setting some Line 20 Snaps with my hand held setters. I recently bought some Gun Metal Black snaps from Springfield Leather. I have had nothing but problems trying to set them by hand. All of my posts bend at sharp angles despite careful setting technique. The result is misaligned button snaps which do not function properly, look terrible, and have to be removed. This is marring up my projects and making me a crazy man. I compared these snaps against some nickel plated Tandy snaps I have. These Tandy snaps have been setting and functioning with zero issues. I believe I have found the problem: the Gun Metal Black snaps have 2 slits cut out of the base near the post. This means the post has different levels of support at different angles which is causing the post to bend to the side that is offering less support when setting pressure is applied. The results are these crooked snaps. See the side by side picture for comparison (slightly blurry sell phone picture, you;ve been warned ). The Gun Metal Snap is on the left, the Nickel Plated Tandy Snap is on the right: As much as I would like a snap setting press or tool, they are out of my price range. The alternative and easier option is to find some higher quality snaps. Can anyone recommend a source for or a specific brand of higher quality snaps in Gun Metal Gray or Black colorations? Specifically Line 20 and Line 24 varieties?

Hi everyone I'm new to leatherworking, having taken a couple of classes, and I am ready to strike out on my own with a pile of scrap leather I picked up and some basic tools. For the types of projects I want to make (simple cases and envelopes to start) I need closures and so I've been looking into picking up some snaps. And that's pretty much where my confusion starts. I downloaded the Ohio Travel Bag catalog so that I could see a wider variety of snap types (versus Tandy which seems to only have a few) and that was great for an overview but I can't really tell what the differences are or what application the snaps would be used for. Does anyone know of a primer anywhere that explains these snap types? Segma snaps Glove snaps - are these the same as Segma snaps? Belt snaps - are these basically glove snaps, but heavier duty? Line 20 and Line 24 snaps - these seem to be better for applications that need a stronger hold, but overkill (and possibly even hazardous to thinner leather) on more delicate projects - is this right? Parallel spring snaps - I can see that these have two little wires inside the socket. Are these different from glove/belt/Segma snaps? Any others I am leaving out? Is it possible to get an assortment of different types and sizes of snaps so I can try them out without breaking the bank, or am I pretty much stuck with buying each type of snap separately? Any guidance you could offer would be very much appreciated! I really want to get the right hardware as I go forward with this hobby.

I'm kind of stumped and would like some input. I'm making my first large back quiver based off a Tandy pattern I bought, and it calls for a pouch that gets folded at the corners with a zipper going up the center, something like this: The thing is, I don't particularly care for a zipper, it just doesn't suit my recurve bow and wooden arrows all that much. So what options do I have? I like the fact that it can be opened from the center, so I can grab whatever little things are in there. Should I make buttons and loops to hold the flap shut? Grommets and lace it? Something else I haven't thought of?

I have bought a building which had been operated as a leather shop. It has riveting machines, punch out machines, cutting machines, skiving machines, pretty much everything needed to manufacture horse halters, leashes. leads, etc. It has about 12 pieces of machinery, the rivet machines are by Thomson, the punch out machines are by Western, all the machinery It 1,000's of pieces of hardware (rivets, studs, caps, o-rings, d-rings, square rings, buckles in numerous sizes (brass and nickel plated),most made by a company called North &Judd. It also has 1,000's of pieces of hardward like snaps, latches, swivels, snap bolts, etc. And not to mention the 1,000's of pieces of inventory like chains for leashes, horse halters, dog collars, strips of leather which were never finished...well you get tthe idea. If anyone is interested in some of this, please let me know. We have just begun loading some of this stuff on eBay, but if someone in the business could use it, that would be better. Thank you.

Good morning. I have bought a building which had up until 3 years ago been operated as a leather shop. It has riveting machines, punch out machines, cutting machines, skiving machines, pretty much everything needed to manufacture horse halters, leashes. leads, etc. It not only has all the machinery, it has 1,000's of pieces of hardware (rivets, caps, o-rings, d-rings, square rings, buckles in numerous sizes (brass and nickel plated), most of the buckles, if not all, are made by a company called North & Judd. There is also 1,000's of pieces of hardward like snaps, latches, swivels, snap bolts, etc. And not to mention the 1,000's of pieces of inventory like chains for leashes, horse halters, dog collars, strips of leather which were never finished...well you get tthe idea. If anyone is interested in some of this, please let me know. We have just begun loading some of this stuff on eBay, but if someone in the business can use it that would be great. I am going to begin a Drop Box page with some of the pictures and will post an update shortly with that link. Thank you.

Does anyone have a line on custom copper rivets, steel snaps, or Chicago (sex) screws? I need some with my mark stamped in them. Thanks

HELP! what is going on here? Got some new snaps and when I put them in the anvil and start tapping to set it with my mallet, the cap gets this square shaped dent. Is it my anvil or what. Only thing i can think is the snaps arent true line 24 size and the indent in my anvil is a little small? it seems to fit like its supposed to. Take a look at the pictures and let me know what you think. Thanks

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a supplier for solid brass rivets - double capped, in a variety of sizes (both in brass finish and nickle-over-brass) I'm also looking for the 10mm glove snaps Tandy sells - they got rid of a lot of their bulk packages, and the price for 10 snaps is ridiculous. I've already checked Weaver (who surprisingly only seem to sell copper rivets and rhinestone ones), Brettuns Village, Zack White, Ohio Travel Bag, and a few others - but I'm having a hard time finding what I'm looking for. Any suggestions? I've found the glove snaps on alibaba.com, but my faith in them is pretty low since they are made of iron - which will likely rust. If it helps - I have a business number and am eligible for wholesale pricing. If anyone would be willing to share where they buy their rivets from (I have a rivet press, if that helps) I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks Victoria

Hello. Relatively new to the forum and leather working. I did look around a bit for an answer but couldn't really find what I want to know... I've been using line 20 and 24 snaps and have only used the anvil/hand setter tool that you have to strike with a hammer. I am looking to buy one of the handheld plier type setters to try. I've seen a few different ones at craft stores ( Michaels, Joanne fabrics) and have read reviews on some and just wondering if anyone has used one they prefer. Or are they any good for leather? Most I'm sure are made more for fabric projects. I appreciate your help, thanks in advance !

Hi ~ I am having difficulty setting my snaps and rivets: when I hit the setter with the mallet, the socket/stud nearly always crumples diagonally, instead of compacting straight down into the cap/eyelet. I am using an anvil underneath and using the correct size setter for my line 20 snaps too. I've even used a mirror to make sure that I'm hitting the setter straight on and not from an angle. Is there a technique for swinging the mallet? Setter suggestions? I'd greatly appreciate your advice... Thanks!

Hi my friends, I took advantage of purchasing the Tandy craftool press while it was on sale this month. I've been wanting to buy one for years and the price seemed better this month. I made up a quick lasered tool holder that keeps all the dies I bought very handy. I am sure one could be easily be made out of wood or other materials. What do you guys do? I am open for good ideas. Thanks, Joyce~ DIES_STAND.pdf