Hold The Blevins Buckles With New Rivets

How To Turn Your Blevins Buckles - Page 4

This article shows you how to remove the Blevins buckles on a saddle, turn the buckles over, and put them back on (turning the Blevins buckles over is one way to keep excess stirrup leather from hanging down in front of the stirrups). The previous page covered turning the Blevins buckles over. This is page 4 of 4, and covers putting in new rivets.

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Step #4 - Put In New Rivets

From the back side of the Blevins buckle (the side without the metal posts) push in new rivets.

Insert new copper rivets into the stirrup leather and Blevins buckle

Turn the stirrup leather over. You should now see the new rivets sticking up through the stirrup leather.

Place burrs over the posts of the rivets.

Place one of the holes in the copper rivet and burr setter over one of the posts, then hit the copper rivet and burr setter with a hammer. This will drive the burr down to the bottom of the post. Do this to all of the rivets.

In the photo to the right we have already done the rivet on the lower left, we're in the process of doing the one one the lower right, and we still need to do the one at the top.

Using the copper rivet and burr setter tool to drive the burrs down to the bottom of the posts

After the burrs have been driven down to the bottom of the posts, look closely at how much post is sticking up above the burr. You only want approximately 1/8" of post. If the posts are much longer than that, snip them off to the proper length.

Now put the concave depression in the end of the copper rivet and burr setter tool over one of the posts and hit the tool solidly with a hammer. This is called "peening." Peening will evenly depress, or peen, the end of the post down over the burr, securing the rivet. Strike the tool several times, moving it slightly from side to side each time. Do this for all of the rivets.

When finished, you can also gently hit the newly peened ends directly with a hammer if you think you need to flatten them further. Do NOT overly flatten the peened ends. You want them nicely domed, not flush with the burrs.