Ruined New Punch!

[Luke Hatley]

Here is what it did....... I use a 2 lb maul.... and dont even hammer too hard!

Yep......thought so...should have used an end grain block of wood "punch"

[ShortBBL]

What brand punch is it ?

CS OSBORNE

It wasn't terribly expensive but still..... hate to buy a new one every 3 or 4 holsters! ha ha

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

That can be fixed easy enough, but I would say either wrong material, or improper heat treating was used in the manufacture. You would think that CS would have it down by now, but hey seems everyone is cutting corners to keep profits up. Was it made in USA, or overseas?

At work I have made emergency punches out of unhardened steels to cut rubber, gaskets, etc that hold up fine when punching into the end of a 4x4.

To fix that punch, I would find a center punch, or other tool with a taper that will fit into the punch. Tap that in to iron out the dents, and get it round again. Then I would spin it in my lathe to true it up, and sharpen. Without a lathe,or knowing someone with one, a drill, or drill press could be substituted. As soft as that is a good file will reshape, then stone it smooth. Without a drill you can file it back into shape too. Flatten/straighten the edge then put the bevel on.

As an experiment I would heat to bright red, quench in some oil, polish with some sandpaper, then draw to a straw-to-purple, and re-quench. Most of my punches are hard to tough enough where a file has a hard time cutting. Of course they are more prone to chipping, but with proper backing they stay sharp for a long time.

[NCbyJon]

On 12/2/2010 at 7:41 PM, buffalobill plus Ed D said:

hey everyone this lead block sounds great, anywhere special to get on? what thickness ive been using a granite slab with the black rubber from tandy, and sometimes the punch does go right to the granite slab damaging the punch what a pain!!!

You can purchase lead ingots on Amazon for around 14$. 

[Spyros]

My whole bench is dressed with half inch HDPE (in white so I can see what I'm doing.  Black sounded like a good a idea but black leather disappears in it).  Never had any issues with HDPE, KS blades and punches going strong after a couple of years.

I did nearly destroy a nice round punch from Kevin Lee because I forgot I was on the anvil 

I did save it in the end but it took a lot of work turning it on the drill press and reshaping it with files and sandpaper.

Edited July 30, 2021 by Spyros