The Armour Archive

Hey Guys, long time lurker with few recent replies.

I was wondering if anyone has a suggestion for where to get nails or rivets in a brass color for doing a COP or Corrazina?

I usually cut down Roofing Nails for this type of project but this time I want to go Brass or gold colored to compliment the outer covering.

I would also appreciate a suggestion on Brass Rivets for attaching Latten Trim on the edges of some plates and Gauntlets. (faux latten really in the form of actual Brass.)

Rjleehy and rivetsonline have small rivets that should work.

A lot of people use quick rivets like those sold by Tandy.
Read the description carefully some are gilt or plated steel and prone to rust.
More so in high humidity areas like the east cost, or stored in an armour box.
A magnet will ID plate vs solid brass

You might have trouble finding brass nails or rivets with heads that are big enough for riveting on a CoP. I used copper roofing nails:

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/us ... late+Nails

For fastening latten bling, 1/8" dia brass rivets, 1/8" brazing rod for snipping flush rivets out of if your brass is thick enough, or brass escutcheon pins, which are just little brass nails the size of tacks.

Harry Marinakis wrote:You might have trouble finding brass nails or rivets with heads that are big enough for riveting on a CoP. I used copper roofing nails:

http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/us ... late+Nails

Thanks for the link Harry!

Awesome, added that page to my favorites. looks like they have those escutcheon pins too.

I wonder how hard it would be to plate those copper nails after installation without crapping up the velvet.

Thanks Harry.

Has anyone ever tried using brass tacks or upholstery nails? it doesnt seem like it would pein very well since the shafts are thin, but maybe they could be bent or curved over?

Morrisgunn wrote:I wonder how hard it would be to plate those copper nails after installation without crapping up the velvet.

After installation? Really? Don't expect that to happen. Can't use heat at that stage without burning the velvet away. Electroplating solutions are often acid baths.

Do you really feel like mechanically roughing each and every rivet head and then putting gold leaf there? If you do, you are nuttier than I am, Gunga Din.

Trouble with straight-up upholstery tacks is that while quite in the decorative spirit, they are actually two pieces pressed together and would come apart under hits. Ripping their little brass nails out of them and driving a steel tack through the hole they leave, that has worked, though perhaps it applies better to using shoemaker-tack methods and getting a hard anvil behind there to bend the points 180 degrees and back into plastic brig scales. Which only works with plastic scales that otherwise require a washer for backing anyhow. Metal scales, contrarily, have the washer function in them already, being stouter stuff and needing prepunched holes to get the nayles in.

Custom-made batches of brigandine nayles have been made up; I think most of the supply from the last such deal is completely distributed now and used up. Several armorers went in on that deal; they had to invest before ever they received. A proper brig-nail is something like a hefty carpet tack in the shaft, and does its own "push the weave open" step on its way into the previously drilled holes in the brig scales -- keeping the scale in place, pressfit the nayle into its hole with a soft mallet so it sticks there. Then the point is nippered off and the remaining stump upset by peining into the hole. Works pretty fast compared to what we otherwise must do. Get a scale row or two in, flip the brig over, nip off then pein all.

I still have my 5-pound box of brig nails...

Steve

Yeah for the plating I was thinking of one of those brush type plating setups.
They use a solution of salts with a neutral pH. Still I don't really think I'm skilled enough or patient enough to plate all of the nails without getting any solution on the covering.

I'm gonna test a nail or two to see if I can clip and pein them after plating the outside without messing up the coating. Be back with pics soon.

My attempts to plate a roofing nail have failed.
I sanded the top and heated it up until it turned color, then hit it fast with a brass brush I use only for plating stuff.
What I got was not a coating of brass. It was a thick dark blue brittle slag. Any ideas why that happened?
What are roofing nails made of? I heated it up with a simple mapp gas torch.

Roofing nails are made of heavily galvanized steel, sometimes aluminum, or copper. Which one you select depends on your desired properties, which are in general that steel is cheapest, aluminum very light in weight (you can really pile up weight on a roof, particularly in re-shingling -- three layers max, before you better strip 'em off and replace with a single new layer) and copper being very weather-resistant.