Rivetting bone to wood to antler best approach?

[stuckinthemud]

Morning.  I need to re-enforce a decorated tiller by running a solid rivet through a 1/4 inch bone plate overlay then a 2 inch thick apple wood handle and 1/16 antler overlay. I have a stout wire nail I intend grinding to size. What's the best approach, maybe epoxy the nail in then peen the end, or not to glue it , just peen it, or heat the nail in boiling water and warm-peen it or ??
Thanks in advance
Andrew

[Pat B]

Andrew, is the steel pin necessary for strength or could you do the same with a wood dowel? You could line your pieces up, drill the necessary holes, epoxy all the pieces and assemble with the dowels to align them then clamp.
 I've used 1/8" brass rod for knife handles and after epoxying peened the brass rod. By peening the brass rod not only round over the ends but the brass rod compresses and swells inside the added pieces.  Trying to make the steel swell without bending it or cracking the bone, wood and/or antler might be a problem.

[stuckinthemud]

Hi Pat, unfortunately the pin is needed for strength to resist substantial compressive force, I was thinking of going soft and avoiding swelling the pin too much , more sort of burring the end as it domes over, maybe drilling the hole fractionally over size and countersinking ?

[DC]

I'm not following you. What is a decorated tiller?

[Mesophilic]

I'm having a hard time getting a visual on the project.  Where are the stresses going to come from in the finished piece?  If there's going to be stresses wanting to pull the pieces apart then I'd definitely consider peening.  But if the forces are just lateral then I'd skip it and epoxy the pins in place, not worth the risk of cracking your materials.

If you do peen a taper reamer would be the way to go, you want sort of an hour glass shape, just less pronounced.  A counter sink is too much and just on the surface.   Your pins will swell deep down inside of the materials your working with.  May not even crack right away but a week later as things settle in, or down the road with humidity changes.

[stuckinthemud]

I am trying to replicate a medieval crossbow.  A very common feature of these is a rivet that runs top to bottom through the stock immediately behind the bow-lath. I have been in contact with the Royal Armouries museum who were brilliant but confirmed no body knows how this was done !! No one actually knows what it does but presumably it prevents the bow collapsing the tiller into the bridle hole.