There more than a few ways to attach metal with one of those methods being riveting. Hopefully you will find this topic…well…riveting.
What is a rivet: A mechanical fastener intended to be mostly permanent. A rivet is a short metal pin for holding two or more pieces of metal together. The typical rivet has a head, shank, and tail.
A typical riveting process involves heating a rivet, placing it in a hole through two pieces of metal, upsetting the tail of the rivet to expand the tail into a second head.
Riveting Videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mbAgLEEKtg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVjS1DsqYvo
You’ve probably seen rivets on an old steel bridge.
Sky scrapers, ships, bridges, even early submarines were built using rivets. Sometimes a lot of rivets.
Rivets come in many sizes and many specific tasks (how about copper rivets in blue jeans). There are flush mounted rivets, blind rivets (pop-rivets, Oscar rivets, drive rivets), semi-tubular rivets. Today structural steel construction has replaced the use of rivets with high-strength bolts and welding.
Today the blacksmith still uses rivets as a method of joining metal together. Rivets may also be used as a decorative design element. Don’t forget that most tongs are riveted together.
Although most rivets use round shanks a blacksmith can think outside of this constraint and make rivets and holes of any shape. Square or rectangular holes and rivets can be achieved by a blacksmith (there are structural considerations). A mortise and tenon joint can effectively be locked in placed by upsetting the protruding tenon like a rivet.
Technique things to remember: For non-moving joints, the pieces being joined must be tightly fit together and the rivet must be upset enough to contact the pieces being joined.