Best Leathercraft Hardware

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Hardware is selected by the thickness of the stack it has to close, and getting that wrong is why so much of it pulls out later. A double cap rivet needs a post that ends between the two layers with almost nothing to spare, since too short and the cap never seats, too long and the post bends over inside and works loose within weeks. Assortments covering several post lengths in the six to twelve millimeter range are the sane way to buy, with cap diameter matched to strap width. Setting tools are not interchangeable, so a rivet wants its own concave die and an anvil that supports the cap without marking it, and a hand press starts paying for itself the moment you are doing more than a dozen at a time. Snaps are sized by line number, where the smaller line closes lightly on thin goods and the larger one gives the positive click a bag flap needs, and both arrive as four part sets whose setter has to match. Screw posts are the option to remember when a part should be replaceable, because a keeper or a watch strap held by a screw can be opened later with a driver and a drop of thread lock. Magnetic closures are rated by pull rather than diameter, and they need a washer behind them or they migrate through the lining.