Can Leather Dies Be Hammered In?

[DavidL]

I remember seeing in a video a worker hammer in a die with a rubber mallet. Will that give a perfect cut every time? or will it be hard to control the die from slipping and ruin a piece of leather? Also if hammering the die in with a rawhide/rubber mallet will the blade stay sharp for a long time and will the die keep its shape.

If this is not feasible what are the alternatives for a clicker that

a) i can potentially make myself

inexpensive(300 or less)

c)

14:51 will something like this work?

[Northmount]

A dead blow hammer works better than a mallet, there is no (or less) bounce so you don't get a small shadow impression as well. With a dead blow hammer, if you didn't hit hard enough the first time, you can usually reposition the stamp by feeling where the stamp settles into the impression, then hit it again. If one side is light, you are tilting your stamp. So tilt it the other way and hit it again. Warning, on thin leather, you can cut right through the leather if you hit it too hard or too may times. Do some trial runs on scrap so you can see what it does.

Also do a search for arbor presses here. There are lots of threads and good info.

Tom

[DavidL]

A dead blow hammer works better than a mallet, there is no (or less) bounce so you don't get a small shadow impression as well. With a dead blow hammer, if you didn't hit hard enough the first time, you can usually reposition the stamp by feeling where the stamp settles into the impression, then hit it again. If one side is light, you are tilting your stamp. So tilt it the other way and hit it again. Warning, on thin leather, you can cut right through the leather if you hit it too hard or too may times. Do some trial runs on scrap so you can see what it does.

Also do a search for arbor presses here. There are lots of threads and good info.

Tom

will this work on cutting dies too?

[Northmount]

Sorry I had stamps on my mind instead of dies.

There are mallet dies available. I've seen a few posts about them here. If you do a search, you will find them. They are of heavier construction.

Tom

[DavidL]

Confused at the arbour presses and how they work to cut the dies. I can't seem to find any info on this. The press i see on harbour freight has a small metal rod. Does it include a plate to put onto the press so that it can go over the entire die, or does the press put pressure on the metal pieces that are inside the die. Any help would be great.

[Andrew Chee]

The answer is "not well". You may be able to use a mallet on a small die but even then, you'll have all sorts of problems with the die bouncing. The harbor freight presses don't really have enough pressure and only acts on a small area. Your cheapest solution is to go with the shop press thing that some people on this site uses.

Andrew

[DavidL]

still out of my reach by a far bit. Anyone get away with using an arbor press with an attachment plate on the rod or use the press with a die with a backing to it - can't remember the name but the back of the die is a solid rubber sheet. I heard it is possible to use a press but can't spend cash on it unless it will work for sure.