All About Our Eyelets

Find out how to make this great copper mesh frame!

Matte Black

Silver

Copper

Brass

Extra Long Eyelet Specifications:

1/8" and 3/16" Short Eyelet Specifications
Coming Soon

Eyelets 101:

Place the Eyelet in a 1/8" hole (or 3/16" if you bought the larger eyelets) with the flared part on the front of the work (book cover, leather, whatever).

Place the nubby at the end of the Better Eyelet Tool into the back side of the eyelet. You can use a bench block as a surface or just do it on a stack of paper (or scrap leather) on your table).

Hit the back of the eyelet tool with a hammer. This isn't so much about force as it is about gently flaring the back of the eyelet. It usually takes about 3 blows.

Gently hit the eyelet directly on the back. This will make the final fold on the flare so that it won't scratch up your paper.

That's it. If you've done it right, the eyelet will be flared on both the front and the back and will still be round and not scratched up.

Vera Latimer 8/03
12 needles, 12 signatures
Paper by Galen Barry
Vera made this book in a class taught by Christine Cox

Troubleshooting

Q. Why isn't my eyelet round anymore?
A. You didn't have the eyelet tool seated in the hole in the eyelet and you probably hit the eyelet too hard.

Q. The front of my eyelet is all scratched up. What went wrong?
A. Use a stack of paper or a piece of leather under your work so that the eyelet doesn't come into contact with anything rough.

Q. My eyelet split or was really hard to bend over. Can I prevent this?
A. Try installing the eyelet with 3 or 4 gentle blows rather than 1 or 2 power blows. It gives the metal a chance to stretch rather than breaking.
A. The eyelet was too long for the thickness of the material you're eyeleting. Our Extra Long Eyelets work best on materials about 1/8" thick. Use shorter eyelets for thinner materials.

Q. My eyelet is flat on the front. Did I hit it too hard?
A. You hit the eyelet way too hard and/or didn't have protection under the front of the eyelet. Sometimes I flatten eyelets on purpose. It gives them a more industrial look, which works better with some designs.

We used this flattened eyelet on the Copper Frame Project and we show you how.

Q. I drilled a 1/8" hole but I can't get the eyelet to go through it.
A. Here's a neat trick: put the eyelet on an awl, then put the awl through the hole and push. The eyelet will snap through the hole easily.

Yancey Gillies 8/03
12 needles, 12 signatures
Yancey made this book in a class taught by Christine Cox

• Our Extra Long Eyelets are solid brass underneath so they can be oxidized or torched, even the silver ones (a very rare and beautiful thing). 
• To torch them, hold them on the end of an Awl and use a light duty blow torch like our Mini Blow Torch. Be sure to dip the awl in water to cool it off too. We torched this eyelet with our Mini Blow Torch. It came out a really nice gunmetal gray that matches our Snaps!
  
• You can also change their color by oxidizing them in our Oxidizing Solution. 
• Our eyelets are the longest around so they fit through thick leather and through book board. 
• They don't split (under normal usage and using our Better Eyelet Tools, of course) and the plating doesn't chip off.
  
  Christine Cox 8/03
  12 needles, 12 signatures