: My S&G Night Heron build is nearing the time for me to attach some deck
: hardware. Now, I've looked at Maroske fittings, the Redfish soft pad eyes
: (http://www.redfishkayak.com/softpadeyes.htm), stainless wire loops
: (http://www.thomassondesign.com/building/tips_from_builders/simple_deck_hardware.aspx)
: and screwed in hardware and I'm tempted to try one or two of each to give
: them all a go, but something else came to mind. What about rivets? The
: commercial kayaks seem to use them. Anyone got any opinions on these.
: Again, I think I'll just give it a try and see what happens. Aluminum is
: tempting because it's so light.

The rivits should be all stainless and requires usually a hydrallic rivit puller to set them (assuming pop-rivits). Also setting them properly will usually crush most woods used in kayaks, works ok with fiberglass that has a fairly high compression strength. The reason it's used on commercial kayaks is it's a fast way, though not the best way, to attach hardware.

Bill H.

Bill H.