Newbie Making Leather Washers

[Sumguy]

Hi,

I'm a noob to leather and am trying to start off by working on a project for my bicycle. What I'm trying to make are leather rings with an inside diameter of 20mm, outside diameter of 32mm. I saw a DIY project online where they've done this.

So I've bought some leather and a set of punches. The difficulty is that I think I've bought too thick a piece of leather - I bought 6 to 7 oz veg tanned. My punch is not going through very cleanly. (the original DIY project used leather off an old couch found out in the garbage - I'm cheap but not that cheap)

So my question is would dampening the leather.make the punching holes go easier? I need to make 90 of these 'washers' so I want it to go as easy as can be. It doesn't matter too much it the leather hardens or the finish is impacted - when complete you'd just see the edges.

I've also sharpened the punches as they weren't as sharp as my carving tools.

thx in advance

[Ferg]

Handle the leather as you would for tempering, ready to carve. Makes the punching holes almost fun. LOL

ferg

[Sumguy]

50 years...

I'm enough of a newbie that you've lost me already. Can you expand on what you mean?

thx

[Troy I]

Wet the leather---then let it dry till it starts to return to its original color, then punch your holes. Make sure you are doing this on a solid surface with no give to it. This is what I do and it makes cutting with a punch much easier.

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

Dry silicone spray works good on my clicker dies that aren't as sharp as they should be. I imagine it would help on your punches too. The stuff is hard to find. The last time I got some, I had to special order so I got 2 cans. Beeswax works too. take your punch and push it into a cake of beeswax. I use that a lot on my drive punches. The new punches sure aren't the same quality as the old ones. Old punches that are sharp and polished are a pleasure to use.

[Ed in Tx]

I think Big Sioux may have hit on the problem with the comment about the punches. I tried using crappy punches from Tandy and about pulled my hair out, I finally got wise and bought some high quality punches and with the better punches I can punch thru pretty much anything without much effort. Bruce Johnson has all sorts of punches on his web site, the ones I have bought have worked like a charm. SLC also sells punches from Osborne and they work great as well.

[Sumguy]

Thanks all,

I sharpened the punches with a diamond hone then a 1000x waterstone. That improved things and I was able to punch what I needed out in an hour. I now have 80 discs 32mm in diameter. Next up is to punch out the middle portion. Hopefully punching the inner hole will be even easier - I am cutting less leather this go round.

Have to agree with the comment on the tools - my set, which cost $25 on amazon, isn't great. The centre punch set screw won't hold and the punches were very dull. But even with what I've invested in tools and leather I will still be saving close to $80. And I still have close to 5 square feet of leather for my next project.

[johnv474]

If you need help centering the holes, buy a metal washer the size you need as a guide.

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

Great idea Johnv474! I can't believe I have never thought of that before. Makes me feel really stupid! Been doing leatherwork since I was 10 or 11 years old and I'm going to be 48 in August. I was helping my son make a knife handle today out of stacked leather pieces and some of my holes weren't perfectly centered. We are never too old or to experienced to learn. Have a great day!

[Luke Hatley]

Rub the inside of the Punches with Parafine it helps a lot...

[Sumguy]

Thanks everyone,

I got all the work done and mounted on the bike. I've very happy with the end results (pic below). A couple of learnings - my punches had a centre punch but it seemed to get off centre, that made the discs not 100% symmetrical. I would have also used 4-5 oz leather instead of the heavier 6-7 oz that I bought. While I would have needed more discs cutting them out would have been easier and I'd likely get a better result too.

I've done an initial sanding to take the sharp edges off. I'll wait another week and let the weather a bit/get rained on/absorb some sweat and do a final sanding. I don't want them perfectly smooth as I want some grip.

Next project is a top tube protector - it will give me some practice sewing with an awl. Better to learn on a rough and ready runabout bike instead of my wife's cell phone sleeve.