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I'm seeking the advice of members who have experience of using strip knives/clicker dies for manufacturing small strap goods in the high dozens or low hundreds. I manufacture dog collars in a few standard sizes from two layers of waxed 2mm chrome-tan. At the moment my procedure is: Cut strips to final width using wooden strap cutter Mark all holes and lengths using a story stick and dividers Cut to length with knife and end punch Punch rivet and tongue holes using standard hole punches Skive turnback Glue Add buckle and rivet in place Machine stitch all round Add D-ring and rivet in place Punch buckle holes (The leather I use is through-dyed and the fibres quite tight so I don't edge finish in any way. Both I and my customers are happy with that.) With sales speeding up and trade enquiries coming in I'm looking at getting cutting dies made. The objectives are to reduce production time and eliminate errors caused by mismeasuring and operator error (strap cutter!). A further objective is to test the feasibility of this approach with a view to offering other products that cannot be made using a strap cutter and would be uneconomically slow to cut by hand. I've specced about a dozen dies before and been happy with all of them however I've never specced any that need very tight alignment between two different dies. My dilemma is this: can I reasonably expect the backer/lining die to cut a piece that matches perfectly with the top piece? This is in reference to outline and adjustment holes. If not I could spec the lining to be cut a little wider and longer than the top piece and trim the lining by hand once stitched together. Similarly, I could spec the die with adjustment holes only in the top piece and punch the holes through the lining manually. However both of these approaches still allow for operator error and will take some time, reducing the efficiency savings that using dies might bring. My main alternative plan is to spec some dies without cutting edges just punches in the relevant places. I will mount it into my fly press and use it to punch pre-cut strips held by an alignment jig. These dies will be long, involve several punch tubes, and I need to order them in several sizes so they represent a significant financial outlay. Any relevant advice will be greatly appreciated!