I just got pair of Starrett #1 - 5-1/2 carbide tipped nippers. They look
like this

http://www.pianorepairtools.com/images/P/WC-S.gif

Go there if you want new ones, I suppose.

The rivet sticks up from the surface on both sides about 1/16" or so and
is completely flat. The ones I got had a rough life and have far more
play than was acceptable due to the wear on the rivet. I ground it out
with a die grinder with a bit of fuss.

The form was as expected, a rivet with a washer-ish side peened over on
the other side with the connecting gap barely visible. They did a nice job
blending it all together. It was not easy to tell which side to grind away
at first. When I saw the gap I tried to break it out with an arbor press,
but that did nothing at all.

The shaft of old rivet was quite worn and had a weird staggered offset to
it. I machined a new one out of 1/2" 1018 round, and got a nice fit to the
jaws. Next step is get the washer side in place and make it look good. My
guess is the washer side should have a real tight fit and a radiused
outside face where you peen the shaft over for a solid fit.

My question is, how do I do this and not bind up the tool? There was no
shoulder or step on the original part to prevent the washer side from
being pressed against the jaw too hard. There were also no antirotation
type patterns like star shapes, cut-outs or anything like that. Was the
washer heat fit by chance? I can get this tool mostly up and running the
ugly way, buy really want to know what they did at the factory.

It's got to be similar magic to the joint in wire cutters of needle nose
pliers. Not really sure how how they get such a precise fit.

The only other part I broke was a screw for one cutter. It's a 6-40 thread
screw with a shoulder. Sort of a screwy item. If I jump in and make one of
those is 1018 ok or is there something better to get for medium+ strength
screws? I've made leaded steel screws and stuff like that, but none really
needed any strength. This screws is available from starrett, but I'm sort
of curious about how to just make it. The original one broke from being
stretched too much. It turned greyish white and the threads popped off.