Where to buy hardware?

[ba_hiker]

I've had a few bolt snaps from a variety of sources that were imperfect. The reality is today almost all of this type thing is made in China, and everybody is well served to inspect the bolt snaps they plan to use before they get in the water.

It is possible (though a bit hard) to find british made ones. These are much better. You can tell the difference by looking at the slider gizmo. Most of the chineese ones have a grove in the slide for the body to fit into and this is sensitive to molding problems.

The british ones appear to be swaged sround the slider. No grove, just the thumb button and the round barrel and the swaging adapts to the molding problems. I have only found them in marine bronze and they are NOT cheap.

Note stainless sliding on stainless 'galls' and will gum up eventually. Bronze is 'self lubricating' and dosen't gall. this hardly seems to make a difference on the cheaper snaps.

 

[ti325v]

You have brought up something that drives me INSANE..No contact numbers except !-800...No email addresses. I live and work in S.E. Asia, and often cannot call 1-800. WTF ? You must have a number that is not 1-800. It blows my mind the number of people who cannot believe just because you are an American, you do not live in the states !

 

[gsk3]

Back to the OP's original question, I love Piranha for this sort of thing. They have plenty of non-compliant hardware, but if you look closely almost everything you need is somewhere in their hardware section. Bolt-snaps, tri-glides, d-rings, and (quite good) spring straps.

 

[HenrikBP]

Did you notice the last post was in Jan 2007 ... maybe not worth getting that upset by a 3+ year old thread ...?

You have brought up something that drives me INSANE..No contact numbers except !-800...No email addresses. I live and work in S.E. Asia, and often cannot call 1-800. WTF ? You must have a number that is not 1-800. It blows my mind the number of people who cannot believe just because you are an American, you do not live in the states !