Alright, I have a project that I'm working on and would like some insight. My Aunt is sewing me up some civil war style pants and I thought it would be cool to make up some custom steel buttons for them. Has anybody done this before, and what would be a good way to do it?

I made a button a few weeks ago for a shooting bag! The way I found to do it was to take a hole saw the size i needed WITHOUT the pilot bit. Clamp the steel down to a drill press table and drill your plugs. Next file the edges nice and clean. Find a carrage bolt with a big enough head that you can pein the plug on to to get the dome shape you want. Then solder a cotter key on the back so you can sew it to your pants!

Good luck


Trimmer

You could also take the steel disk, and take a punch about 1/4 or 1/2 inch less in diameter, and sink the center in, so you get that nice raised rim that some buttons have, then dress the edges and drill your holes. Cool project!

Pattern-welded material?

hey, thanks for the ideas so far they are great i'm going to have to head out to the shop and play around with the idea until I get what I want.
- Thanks again - Travis

A little easier and possibly safer than cutting plugs with a hole saw might be to start with a length of round rod of the appropriate diameter. Drill two holes in the end of the rod, with the rod mounted safely in a drill-press vise, for the button holes. Then cut off some slices of the rod to create your buttons. Place the buttons, one at a time, in your bowl swage or on top of a piece of lumber and smack with a ballpean hammer to dome the buttons, finish sand the edges and add any desired decorations.

Personally, I prefer mother-of-pearl buttons on my pants because they don't tend to heat up when standing near a fire, especially in the area of the pant's fly. :D

Perhaps you should look at how they were made in the civil war (US Civil war I presume and not the Spanish, English, etc) That way if you ever wanted to use them in a Civil War era demo they would be spot on!

Now just for buttons in general mosaic damascus with your initials would be a nice touch---though pay attention to what UnicornForge has written. I have been greatly amused by folks wearing Levi 501's coming out of the cold and standing too close to the wood stove...

Here are some pics of what I came up with. Some were done with a hole saw and some were done by cutting thin slices from the end of a bar. I peened around the edges and put in some chisel marks through the center to decorate them a bit then slightly dished them. Thanks again for the Ideas
- Travis

Which of the two methods worked better or faster for you?

Here are some pics of what I came up with. Some were done with a hole saw and some were done by cutting thin slices from the end of a bar.....- Travis

The hole saw was not too bad of a method but I liked slicing the end of the bar personally. If you have a metalworking bandsaw or a tool like it i'm sure it would be the much faster way.