Punching Holes

[ShortBBL]

I have a few hole punching questions.

What's your favorite weight hammer and type of hammer for punching holes for belts etc? I got a few new punches today and I used my light weight, ugly cheap yellow mallet from Tandy, that I use for tooling (laugh) and wow... it took some pounding! I'm guessing with the right tool it will be much easier/faster/cleaner!

Another thing. When I was pounding, I had my leather sitting on a cutting board, the hard plastic type from walmart or wherever. The back of the leather would get the nice dimple effect, which is less than desired! Where do you punch holes so the back of the leather won't show marks from what it sat on?

Finally, if you make a lot of the same size belts, do any of you make up some type of Jig for marking holes? If so, can you show what you came up with?

I want to use the oval holes for gun belts, but I can tell it is gonna take some slow going to get them to look perfect. Man... it sucks trying to be a perfectionist when ya aint perfect!

[dirtclod]

I use a 22 ounce maul to drive my punch's with. As far as the dimples put a file folder, piece of a creral , cracker box under your leather. You can make a dye out of a piece of leather the same as your belt. Be sure to add the enough lenght for the tail along with your holes.

[Drac]

heavy rubber mallet (heavy enough so that on 4-5oz vegtan leather all I gotta do is drop the head onto the punch from a few inches and it punches the hole for me).

no one's gonna notice dimples on the underside of the belt/strap/whatever unless you're stitching 2 pieces together back to back so that it's smooth on both sides in which case use either the cereal box or black hard rubber poundo mat.

make a template out of poster board with your holes punched in it. lay that on top of your strap, place hole punch in the template hole and press the hole punch to the leather to make an impression. remove the posterboard, punch holes in leather. do NOT punch your holes with the template sitting on the leather coz you'll make the holes in the template larger since the hole punch tapers and then your template holes will be off.

[ShortBBL]

Perfect suggestions guys, thanks!

I was thinking of making an oak board jig but it would have taken a LOT of work. I think the way you've mentioned will be just great, and much easier to make!!

[wareagle]

For punching the different holes in a leather belt or holster I grab my BMF hammer (48 oz brass-headed dead-blow) as far as the dimpling from my cutting board I have a smooth poly board picked up a a flea market for a dollar 11X17, I would use the above mentioned methods to avoid transferring the pattern.

for belt hole pattern I use a template made out of thin plexiglass to set the position of the holes works for any belt size as it is just the tip and buckle ends.

Edited July 24, 2010 by wareagle

[pete]

I took a 1 1/2" strip of a plastic milk jug, drew a line down the center, and punched 5 holes right down the line. I punched 5 because I like 2 on each side of the center hole in belts.

they are 3/4" apart.

[ferret]

I've tried making a few templates but keep messing them up. In the end I bought a cheap belt from a charity shop and use that as a template.

[ShortBBL]

Good ideas by all! I am going to make a PDF file template in CorelDraw and will post it when I get it exactly as I like. Then I can print a new one when needed. With my printer, I can print on card-stock and it will be pretty stiff. I will then punch all the holes out and use it as a guide... not for punching all the way thru leather, but for marking and then moving the guide to punch. We'll see how that works!

The milk carton is a good idea too.... and thin plexi.... lots of good ways to go about this project!

Thanks!