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Post by longtrail on Jun 12, 2008 14:11:36 GMT -5
Shady Bill's question about securing tacks to leather got me to wondering just what tacked items I had in my accoutrement chest, and just how were the tacks secured? In this first photo, the wide belt on the left, has its tacks secured in by two pieces of metal that are extended through the leather and then bent over to secure. The narrowest belt as well as the rest of my leather tacked items, the tack is cut off beyond the leather and then the end slightly mushroomed. It doesn't seem like that alone would be sufficient to secure the tacks for this long, and none of the tacks had been lost. I made the pine knot war club. We went to a rendezvous on the slopes of Mount Hood and the whole area we were camped in had trees with the same disease. I took home about 15 clubs to work on. I got the horse mirror on trade once. When I have a leather NA dress I wear it tied to my belt along with other FOOFRA !!!!!! The tobacco cutting board is moose horn w/tacks around the edge. This photo shows the backs and how the tacks do not appear to be bent over, but mushroomed down.
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Post by Buckskin Billy on Jun 12, 2008 22:36:32 GMT -5
wow those are cool . i think i'm going to buy a small punch set at the hardware store tommorrow and try to mushroom the heads with a punch. thanks for the pictures
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Post by GW on Jun 12, 2008 23:25:18 GMT -5
Billy - here's some how-to tack info that I've posted before/elsewhere, hopefull this explains it all - any questions fire away....... To do it properly it is best/easiest to have a piece of brass flatstock say 2-3" wide by 3/4-1" thick by at least 8" long (the wider and longer the better) to use as an anvil, a double thick piece of the rubber poundo board or similar, a light weight ball pein hammer, and a pair of end cutters ground so that the face is flat. Lay out your pattern - I just sketch the lines in with either a red mini ball pen or a soft lead pencil. For spacing I put in a few of the major points and then eye ball to fill in the pattern. Once the pattern is layed out use a leather awl to start the hole - BTW the leather needs to be a GOOD grade of veg tan and although I have used thinner I recommend it be least harness weight, 8/10 or 10/12 oz with a nice tight grain. Drive in three of four tacks at a time and then turn the piece over with the heads on your brass "anvil" - the anvil should be mounted on a heavy piece of wood or layed over a nice firm piece of poundo board. This cuts down on noise and also keeps it in place. Take your end cutters and clip the shank off flush with the surface of the leather. Then using the flat face of the hammer tap LIGHTLY on the shank until you flatten out the center ridge left by the cutters. Then using the ball end tap a few times to flare the end of the shank and drive it slightly below the surface. Run your hand over the piece and make sure the shank is not poking out. Turn the piece over and make sure the tack heads feel solid - no matter how careful you are some shanks will want to bend side wise - if they do yank em out and do it over. Still no matter what over time and with much uses some tacks will pop out - most original pieces are missing a few tacks here and there so it just makes the piece more authentic! This sounds more complicated than it is and it goes pretty fast once you get the rhythm - but on the belts there can be between 400-600 tacks depending on the size so no matter what it is time consuming. Personally I am starting to use the solid brass tacks for this type, not only is more historically documented for this type work, from what info I have garnered steel shank tacks weren't used until some time around 1870 or so, and even after that the solid brass was the most used. They are expensive but well worth the extra cost. Also lost tacks are common on tacked leather goods, see the original in the first pic on the left, which, to me, implies that they were not normally bent/clinched (pulling a clinched tack out usually tears the crap out of the leather). In most cases the sheaths I examined were also glued using some form of hide glue. Again in my experience when using tacks the leather needs to be good and firm - soft leather just doesn't cut it . The solid brass square shank tacks are also much grippier than the smooth steel ones. Here's an original using solid brass (shank and head) square shank tacks, - (they are still available from www.thetrunkshoppe.com - not cheap but the only source I've been able to find for them and for the so inclined the only historically documented tack for pre-1870 usage): And here's one of mine - an 1870's model - using the commonly available steel shank/solid brass head tacks (which historically can be dated to the early 1870's) and here's the front side........ as always other's mileage may vary..........
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Post by redthunder on Jun 13, 2008 2:01:38 GMT -5
LT, great tacked stuff, like the sheaths.,
Grey Wolf, your 1870's model is a beauty.,
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Post by longtrail on Jun 13, 2008 11:12:34 GMT -5
Nice tacked sheath. Really like the copper cones. I use to have six large sheets of copper. By large I mean twin bed size. I worked for a boys school in Idaho, and the nutcase that ran the school had copper sheets below the mattresses of some of the most misbehaving boys. Hed' go into the basement and do some frankenstein crap with an electronic emitter and think it was effecting the boys behavior for the better. Ya, the place folded. But I got the copper. Just potlatched most of them and sold the rest. Wish I had them now.......so it goes eh? I found some copper cones on line. Is there vermillion on the sheath? Rt. thanks.
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Post by Buckskin Billy on Jun 13, 2008 11:53:55 GMT -5
wow thanks so much grey wolf. that explains alot. i'll be rereading that many times to make sure i got it all. i see what you mean by how expensive those real brass tacks are. i checked out that web site, some mighty fine work on there. i really like your knife sheath you posted to. i've been to your web site many times and really enjoy it. in fact one of your holsters on your site is what gave me the idea. thanks again for your help
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Post by longtrail on Jun 13, 2008 12:01:48 GMT -5
Forgot to thank you for the very informative article. dlt
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Post by redthunder on Jun 14, 2008 1:08:18 GMT -5
found a old nice tacked sheath and knife from Chicago Field Museum.,
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