The rivet plays a major role in our day to day lives. Going unnoticed it serves as the backbone of many everyday things. Surely most people have owned a pair of denim jeans. Did the lining of you jean pocket ever tear or rip? Most likely not. The button that held it together was a rivet. No other single item in our lives is as integral and anonymous.

A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Because there is effectively a head on each end of an installed rivet, it can support tension and shear loads better than other connecting devices. In contrast, bolts and screws are better suited for on and off use as temporary tension applications.

Rivets are used for everything from small, intricate balance staffs for wrist watches to holding up the largest buildings on earth. Metal rivets are one of the original ways to mount eyeglasses and sunglasses. It is a simple assembly mount, but very effective and durable.

Since the creation of the spectacles (reading devices) the most common serviced or breaking point has been the temple arms. Around 1921 in New York, an American dreamer who was looking to leave his mark, John Oknianski, patented a hinge using the pin rivet system in an effort to reinforce the spectacle frame construction. With this new invention came great success and soon after he founded Standard Optical Manufacturing which became the go-to supplier of hinges and hardware for American optical frame industry giants such as AO, B&L .

The Oknianski Hinge was used on the famed styles like the Bradford, Fairway and Saratoga. Even the Wayfarer was originally produced with his Pin Rivet hinge, until the style left the US in 1999.