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Im going to use this post to both say hello, new here and ask for some opinions and suggestions on my vest. Years back i did some leather crafting, cutting dying rivets, hand stitching, belts, wrist bands, boot straps nothing at all epic but not 100% green. So i came and joined to get some feedback on a leather biker motorcycle type vintage vest i have, i was in the music entertainment biz and have a show the vest is for, think mad max, zombie apocalyptic type thing, not all nice and new looking. Its well used weatherd which is what i wanted i hit it with lexol, and its nice but it has a couple holes about the size of your finger tip not a problem for the look i wanted but i dont want them to enlarge, They appear like drops of something caustic ate the holes, the edges are tatted raggedy and for lack of a better term seem rotten if i pick at the rought tatters it disintegrates, but the leather around them seem sound, a bit weird to me what ciuld have caused this. My first idea was take thin scrap leather and from the back of the hole one easy to get to the other not so much glue it on with something like shoe goo that wont get hard and will keep the hole from growing if stressed, but will still look like a hole. So if the hole is say dime sized how big should my backing patch be? im assuming you guys have better options and any opinions what caused weird holes like these, Many thanks cheers b

Any tips on how to properly line up inside and outside pieces for saddle stitching holes using diamond point chisels? I am having a dickens of a time lining up the saddle stitching holes i make with a diamond chisel on the front of my card case or wallet with the holes i punch in the inside pieces. I have tried using the BRL precut templates which come with hole marks but none of my diamond chisels match the spacing and doing a project with a one hole chisel seems crazy. Last time i had the holes on the outside piece going in one direction and the holes on the card case inside pieces going in the opposite direction. (A shame because I spent a lot of time tooling some sumo wrestlers.) I can't afford a drill press or anything like that. Any ideas and pointers will be most welcome. Thanks !

I saw this clip on Youtube. Jump ahead to see the idea at 2:55-3:30. I wonder if this is really practical. If it works it may make fast work of holes vs punching.

I'm new to this craft, just trying some Tandy kits. The holes in the lining in the kits never matches the holes in the leather. I have been careful to make sure I am not stretching the leather when tooling. Is there something I am doing wrong? Anyone have a solution? Thanks.