Rivet for effect.

No fighter practice this weekend because our Marshall friend who usually runs practices for us caught the intestinal bug that's been going around.  Oh well... Hopefully I'll get to test my new gear next weekend.  Get well soon, Mike!  (And not just because I want to have practice, honest ;)

Anyway, for the first post after the weekend break, I thought I'd start off small.  About the size of a rivet to be exact.  Rivets make the rockin', armor world go round but most folks probably don't give them a lot of thought unless they're trying to bash one closed.  (To tell the truth, I didn't either when I just started out.)

Recently, I've just tried an enhancing technique with rivets that I've been wanting to do for some time now.  I was starting to put together my gorget the other day and all I really had left were the aluminum, truss-head rivets (large, round, slightly convex head) that I used when constructing my brigandine.  "I'll just use these" says I.  When I put one of the rivets in place to see how it looked against the steel, it was rather plain looking.  Just then, an idea suddenly appeared as a tiny speck on the vacant horizons of my mind.  It was running at top speed and screaming at the top of it's lungs, trying desperately to make itself known before I lifted my hammer. "Why don't you file a design into the rivet?" it said, panting and wheezing before it collapsed upon the dusty mental landscape.

"What a splendid idea" I thought, and so that's just what I did!  Here's how:

I started by clamping an aluminum, truss-head rivet in a pair of vice grips.  Next, I grab my triangular file and begin to score a line across the rivet head trying very carefully to stay in the center.

This being done, I then turn the rivet approximately 90° and repeat the process.  There should now be a cross mark on the top of the rivet head.

Next, I file lines in between the cross marks, slicing it like a piece of pie.

Now, here's the last bit that I think makes it look really neat:  On the outer edge of the rivet head, using the line I've already filed as a guide, I turn my file at a sharp angle, almost vertical so that's it's parallel to the rivet shaft, and make a little notch.  The end result kind of looks like a flower or pinwheel.

You can see here that I haven't filed all my lines equal angles/distances to one another.  In my mind though, that's OK because that's what gives it that pinwheel kind of look.  The last thing I do is give it a pass on my buffing wheel that I keep loaded with 80 grit Satin Glo though regular sand paper would probably do the trick just as well.  Below is a picture of what the finished product will look like on my gorget.

That's all for tonight, friends.  Happy riveting!