Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Ten Yen Project





I have a problem with rivets on jeans that aren't a) copper, and b) real burr rivets.  These days, I pretty much only wear Levi's 501 jeans.  I'm a big fan of the Levi's LVC 1947 501xx repros, which have real burr rivets, but I also dig the cheap off-the-rack 501's, which I like to alter to fit more like Dior Hommes (the lack of selvage denim being a plus in that I don't hesitate ripping open the side seam and taking an inch-and-a-half off the leg opening).  Besides altering the fit of 501's, I also rip out the fake press-on rivets and replace them with real burr rivets.  Three or four years ago, I got a pair of APC New Cure jeans because I dug the fit.  I hated the nickel rivets, however.  I wore them on a trip to Japan and upon returning, took the pocketful of copper ten yen coins I had accumulated and turned them into burrs to rivet them in place of the bad nickel rivets.  This involved chucking them in a metal lathe and milling them down to around 3/8" diameter.  Here's a few pics.  

I posted this project on superfuture several years ago.
 

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