Snaps, Rivets, Posts, Studs, Ligne, Oh My!

[Artimus]

Again, I'm new to leather work. I was about to start playing with / practicing snaps and rivets. Jeez, there's no single place that I've found that even explains it all in easy to follow ways.

After two days of researching, I've figured out a little.

But isn't there somewhere out there that explains the different types of snaps and rivets?

And the sizes (i.e. line 20, line 24) and which size goes with which size of leather (oz or mm)?

And the different lengths of the posts.

And which snaps are good for which applications. (i.e. Line 20 with ___ size post for ___ oz leather).

And what's up with that title for the sizing, "Line" (this is answered below)

It seems like it'd be an easy chart to create. It's got to be out there somewhere.

For the fun of it, during my research I discovered the answer to the "Line" question.

From Wikipedia -

The ligne (from the French word meaning "line") is a unit of length that was in use prior to the French adoption of the metric system in the late 18th century, and is still used by French and Swiss wristwatch makers to measure the size of a watch movement.

In the 9th century the term ligne came into use among German button makers, where it was used to measure the diameter of buttons. The consensus definition was that a ligne was the measurement of a round wick, folded flat. In this sense it measures ¹⁄₄₀ of an inch, but not exactly, for there were several inches in the kingdoms and petty states of Germany at that time. Such a measurement became the American measurement called "line," being one-fortieth of the US-customary inch. Its use was again to measure buttons, and was probably introduced by German immigrants.

The ligne system is in some instances still in use for buttons or snap buttons, where the size number of the button refers to ligne.

[Northmount]

Nice bit of research. Now "line" makes a little more sense to me. I've always had a selection of snaps, so just grabbed the one that looked the best for the article I was fixing or making.

There are some other posts in the last couple months about setting snaps and how long the post should be so it doesn't bend over and collapse, making a crooked mess. Do a search, should be easy to find if you limit the search to a couple months.

CTG

[Artimus]

Thanks, Northmount!