Slot punching question

[LJRoss]

Hi. I was wondering if anyone knew the answer to the rear appearance of slot punching. The leather "blows" out there on the underside unless we put a bit of plastic beneath when punching . Any info would be appreciated. Thank you. 

[fredk]

Sharp hole punch, Sharpen it and it will cut cleaner. A blunt punch is not cutting the leather cleanly

[toxo]

You should also be punching on a semi hard board. Not hard enough to blunt your punch obviously.

[Rahere]

Very thick leather can do that regardless of how sharp the punch is, mind you. It can be covered by turning the leather over and punching from the rear, as long as the holes aren't on the diagonal. For that, you'd have to counterpunch each hole individually with an awl..

In explosives terms, a camouflet is going on, the material doesn't just cut and push to the side, the wedge shape on the teeth pushes some ahead, and this causes the blow-out. Punching lightly in the other direchion from the rear pushes the "bruised" material back into the softer flesh side in the middle.

[alpha2]

I punch over a plastic cutting board. Since the punch is still cutting when it goes through the leather, the blow out is negligible. It will still "LOOK" different, as the punch is tapered. The higher on the taper the leather is when you finish the punch, the more beveled in appearance the hole will be.