Splitting Eyelets

[Terrorbl]

Hoping to tap into some knowledge here in sheaths:
I can't seem to set an S-61 eyelet without it splitting (90% of them). My first thought was the dies(they're the USA Knifemaker ones) however it doesn't happen in the same spot. I marked the position where a split occured on the male die with a Sharpy then went through 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions but there wasn't a pattern to where the splits were occuring. As far as other trouble shooting: checked alignment on the dies, cleaned and polished the dies, tried letting the anvil on my arbor float, lubricating the male die, rotate the eyelet while compressing, snug down the bolts on the vertical arm(?) of my arbor, go slow and smooth as possible, hand setting using the dies and a polyurethane mallet, and even ordered a new batch of eyelets. Those showed up this week so I tried a couple out on two pieces of 5 oz leather and they both split. I put 8 in two pieces of .093 boltaron and 5 of those split
What's weird is with the S-66 eyelets I only get about one in ten or so that splits. Not only that but I can put an S-66 in the die by itself and compress/roll it all the way down on itself without splitting. Side by side I don't see any difference between the two other than height. It seems like there may be a little bit of wobble with the 61's when it sits on the female die compared to 66's.
Any ideas???

 

[J. ROSA]

I had the same problem and i can't really tell you the solution. Problem went away with switching eylets to another vendor's. Weird thing is that I had no trouble with the majority of the eyelets from the first vendor until that last batch where at least one in every sheath I made split... Since switching vendors no problems. I tried a little oil on the eyelets and still got a few splits. So if you figure it out and I missed something please tell me.

 

[Justin Presson]

I first got my kydex stuff I split every eyelet and it ended up being a bad batch from knifekits.com I contacted them and they sent me new ones and have only had one split since.

 

[EdCaffreyMS]

A lot of the splittng issue has to do with quality control of the company producing the eyelets. I was having the same issue for a while....and started measuring each eyelet. I found that within the same batch, some of the eyelets vary in length by as much as .030" (longer)......those are always the ones that split. I took the time to sit down and measure my entire supply of eyelets....those that were longer then average got seperated out (seemed to be about one out of every 5-6).

I'm just taking a educated guess here, but if the eyelets are made in China, I suspect that is the issue..... they are not known for their fine tolerances or quality control.

 

[BossDog]

I have been seeing this just come up lately. We have been working with Siska and they tell us nothing has changed on their end. We have exchanged several test batches. I am also working on testing with our machinist and we are looking at a couple things. I am also working on a developing a new supplier and will be testing those hopefully this coming week.

 

[Terrorbl]

Thanks for all the input. Just got off the phone a bit ago, customer service is great. I think I went through more than half the bag trying different things just to be sure it wasn't user error. One thing I didn't try was heating the eyelets but it was 98 in my garage yesterday so I figured that was covered.

edit: EdCaffreyMS in my searching I did find one place were a few people said that if there was too much eyelet material to compress/too long that would cause splits but none of the S66 eyelets were splitting when I used them on the same two boltaron sheets I was testing with. They just had a larger roll when done. It makes sense - compressing past the point of rolling is going to damage it, but I was sure to not over compress them.

 

[J. ROSA]

In consideration of Ed's post I was getting more splits when using hand setters vs an arbor press and had the grind rivets down some with the hand setter to compensate. Shouldn't have to do that with a press but I'm thinking that was probably the issue I had. Thanks for your attention to detail and customer service in providing quality products Tracy. It really says a lot.