What Tool Should I Use

[leathervan]

I am going to make a leather case and do double hand stiching. The leather is 8oz and I want to use a 4 or 6 prong chisel type tool to punch the holes for the stitching since there are a lot of holes that have to be made and it would take forever to use one punch on all those holes. The trouble is that the chisels I see advertised aren't for 8oz leather and the holes that they punch are too small for the stitching needles to enter easily. I need something that will punch fairly good size holes and do 4 or 6 holes at a time. Tandy has a 4 in 1 punch but it is only for 3 to 4oz leather. The one that I would want would be like the Tandy one but for 8oz or around that size. If no one makes such a chisel I suppose I will have to rig something up. Any ideas?

[electrathon]

Punch slits, not round holes. Round holes for round holes, flat holes are for flat lace.

A four slit punch is good, many more and the punch tends to get stuck and you can not pull it out of the leather.

Aaron

[Dwight]

I don't know what is available to you, . . . but one of the things I have to do occasionally is hand stitching (boo, . . . hiss, . . . ugh).

When I do, . . . I run it through my Boss sewing machine first, . . . without thread, . . . to make the holes, . . . make them perfectly perpendicular, . . . evenly spaced, . . . and it makes hand stitching go sooooooooooooooooooo much faster.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Hi Im Joe]

I don't know what is available to you, . . . but one of the things I have to do occasionally is hand stitching (boo, . . . hiss, . . . ugh).

When I do, . . . I run it through my Boss sewing machine first, . . . without thread, . . . to make the holes, . . . make them perfectly perpendicular, . . . evenly spaced, . . . and it makes hand stitching go sooooooooooooooooooo much faster.

May God bless,

Dwight

That's a great idea.

I was going to say if you have a drill press you could drill the holes.

[St8LineGunsmith]

That's a great idea.

I was going to say if you have a drill press you could drill the holes.

on thick projects that is what I use with a round awl blade on slow speed, then I will follow up with my stitching awl as i stitch to make the actual stitch hole.

[Dwight]

I have used the drill press in the past, . . . it, in my opinion, is a bad choice.

Why? Because on the bottom of the project, . . . there are always little leather goobers dangling from the holes.

If you are going to use a drill press, . . . put an awl blade in it, . . . unplug the machine, . . . and simply use it to make the holes, . . . WITHOUT turning it on.

Your holes will be MUCH prettier, . . . and your stitching will also reflect that.

The only time you can get really nice ROUND holes with a drill press is when you use a piece of metal tubing, . . . sharpened so it looks like a punch, . . . then you simply bore the tubing through the leather with the machine running, . . . it makes wonderful little holes. A regular drill bit was made for wood or metal, . . .

May God bless,

Dwight

Edited June 10, 2014 by Dwight

[Hi Im Joe]

I have used the drill press in the past, . . . it, in my opinion, is a bad choice.

Why? Because on the bottom of the project, . . . there are always little leather goobers dangling from the holes.

If you are going to use a drill press, . . . put an awl blade in it, . . . unplug the machine, . . . and simply use it to make the holes, . . . WITHOUT turning it on.

Your holes will be MUCH prettier, . . . and your stitching will also reflect that.

The only time you can get really nice ROUND holes with a drill press is when you use a piece of metal tubing, . . . sharpened so it looks like a punch, . . . then you simply bore the tubing through the leather with the machine running, . . . it makes wonderful little holes. A regular drill bit was made for wood or metal, . . .

May God bless,

Dwight

I agree its not the best solution. But for really thick leather it's do-able. I like your workarounds a lot!

[St8LineGunsmith]

the only reason I use a drill press is to make the inital hole then I follow up with a dimond awl blade works great for me a little slower having to make the holes twice but makes heavy projects easier to stitch up.