Phase box rivets

Alexandra Greathead <mcard.pro.kew [at] gtnet__gov__uk> asked on behalf of
Brian Thomas, Conservation Department, Public Record Office, Kew:

>The Conservation department of the Public Record Office at Kew
>is currently looking for suitable rivets for use as catches in
>making phase boxes.  The steel nickled finish type do not meet
>our specifications.  Does anyone know of a supplier of either
>brass or nylon rivets.

I have never heard of nylon rivets, but the Ransom Center at UT
Austin for years has settled on Tandy Leather in the USA as a main
supplier of brass rivets. It turns out that Tandy has a division in
the UK, and the Austin store gave me this information:

    Pearce Tandy Leather Craft Ltd.
    Billing Park (NN3 9BG)
    Northampton (0604) UK
    407-117

And apparently the  description/stock number for the brass rivets we
buy is the same in both the UK and US Tandy catalogue: "Rapid Rivets
(LARGE), stock # 1275".

We have tried many other brass rivets, and even though these Tandy
Rivets are still the best I know of at this moment, they are clearly
not making rivets like they used to 11 years ago.

George Leake
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
Conservation Department
UT Austin

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 10:54
                 Distributed: Friday, December 6, 1996
                       Message Id: cdl-10-54-004
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