MoT's WDF

I see so many tools on Amazon on eBay for punching leather, and I'm sure so many of their reviews are fake. Help!

I would appreciate hearing any tips you have for adding holes to leather straps. Thank you!

Paging [mention]tennesseean_87[/mention]
This is in your wheelhouse!

I use a hollow punch that looks like this: The actual set I have is no longer available, but has .8mm, 1mm, 1.5mm, and 2mm punches. They have successfully put holes in many straps. Not quite as clean as the original holes, but I've had no problems with fraying or tearing. The downside is that the removed leather gets stuck in the hollow part of the punch and can be difficult to remove. You'll also need a sacrificial board to put under the strap. Punching enough to get through the leather will leave a decent divot in whatever surface is behind the strap. I don't have any experience with the rotary style punches.

Edited to add a photo. The top hole is the one I punched.

You don’t need to buy a dedicated punch if you own a drill. Drilling holes works just as well as punching them, maybe even better. Whenever I make a knife sheath or holster I drill the holes for the stitching rather than use a punch or awl.

Great thread - I'm interested as well in what tools others might recommend to ad a hole to an existing 3rd party strap.

Does anyone have suggestion or photo of the what the different punch sizes are like between 1, 1.5, 2mm? I'm trying to get an idea of what a standard punch size might be compared to what for example what a Hirsch strap hole size might be.

Wonder if [mention]trinhlemai[/mention] may be able to provide some suggestions on what she uses?

lightspire wrote: ↑Fri Dec 25, 2020 5:53 pm Great thread - I'm interested as well in what tools others might recommend to ad a hole to an existing 3rd party strap.

Does anyone have suggestion or photo of the what the different punch sizes are like between 1, 1.5, 2mm? I'm trying to get an idea of what a standard punch size might be compared to what for example what a Hirsch strap hole size might be.

Here are holes made with 1, 1.5, and 2mm punches in a cheap faux-leather strap. The 2mm punched hole is at the bottom. The pre-made holes in the strap measure 2mm. Disregard the fourth hole from the bottom. I was a little overzealous with the hammer.
In the interest of experimentation, I tried [mention]Elkins45[/mention]'s suggestion with a 5/64 drill bit. I'm a convert. Much cleaner than my punches. The drilled hole is at the top in this photo:
Drilling solves the divot problem with the punches, but still not quite as clean as the originals. Looking forward to hearing what the pro strap makers use.

Hello all!

I'm happy to share a bit of my knowledge.

With cheap tools (like the picture of [mention]Sussa[/mention] shared) their sharpness is poor.
So if you do not have experience in handling, the perforations will not be beautiful.

I think for the needs of non-professional use like strap maker-like me, you can refer to tools that cost from 5 USD and Archie brand is also a good suggestion.
If you want to experience more precision and professionalism, you can refer to the tool of famous brands such as KS - which I am using.

About the size of the holes, it depends on the size and shape of the tang/pin part of the buckle.
For me, I usually use a 2 mm tool for round holes.

Please feel free if y'all have any question

trinhlemai wrote: ↑Sun Dec 27, 2020 6:44 am Hello all!

I'm happy to share a bit of my knowledge.

With cheap tools (like the picture of @Sussa shared) their sharpness is poor.
So if you do not have experience in handling, the perforations will not be beautiful.

I think for the needs of non-professional use like strap maker-like me, you can refer to tools that cost from 5 USD and Archie brand is also a good suggestion.
If you want to experience more precision and professionalism, you can refer to the tool of famous brands such as KS - which I am using.

About the size of the holes, it depends on the size and shape of the tang/pin part of the buckle.
For me, I usually use a 2 mm tool for round holes.

Please feel free if y'all have any question

This advice gels completely with my own experience...using the cheap punches has rarely yielded what I would consider a passable hole. The other issue for me has been alignment, with the new hole slightly off centerline from the factory ones....any advice for this? It sucks b/c you cannot unsee it (or undo it) once it happens. How to get evenly spaced, aligned holes?

Thank you [mention]trinhlemai[/mention] for your help! To save ppl like me from having to google it, this appears to be KS' site:

https://ksbladepunch.com/

For $33 you can buy a single hole brass punch:
https://ksbladepunch.com/product/single ... unch-brass



Or you could invest in a single-hole strap punch that is $120 + $15 for each bit:
https://ksbladepunch.com/product/watch-strap-punch

Here is our experience with a 2mm punch from this $11 set (Owden brand) on Amazon (mallet not included, lol):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZFF143H/
Two new holes in a pigskin strap:

Thank you! These photos and links are very helpful.

Looking at the photos again, I wonder if it would work better to punch from the back instead of the front?

watchpalooza wrote: ↑Sun Dec 27, 2020 8:08 am

trinhlemai wrote: ↑Sun Dec 27, 2020 6:44 am Hello all!

I'm happy to share a bit of my knowledge.

With cheap tools (like the picture of @Sussa shared) their sharpness is poor.
So if you do not have experience in handling, the perforations will not be beautiful.

I think for the needs of non-professional use like strap maker-like me, you can refer to tools that cost from 5 USD and Archie brand is also a good suggestion.
If you want to experience more precision and professionalism, you can refer to the tool of famous brands such as KS - which I am using.

About the size of the holes, it depends on the size and shape of the tang/pin part of the buckle.
For me, I usually use a 2 mm tool for round holes.

Please feel free if y'all have any question

This advice gels completely with my own experience...using the cheap punches has rarely yielded what I would consider a passable hole. The other issue for me has been alignment, with the new hole slightly off centerline from the factory ones....any advice for this? It sucks b/c you cannot unsee it (or undo it) once it happens. How to get evenly spaced, aligned holes?

In the case for the holes to align, you can predetermine the position of the holes by marking a small, fuzzy spot on the strap, then you need to correct the positions if they are not already aligned.
Or you can make a paper pattern of strap and of course, have holes on the paper pattern. Then, you lay a paper pattern on the strap and the strap based on the paper pattern.

I hope this ways can help

trinhlemai wrote: ↑Thu Dec 31, 2020 5:08 am

watchpalooza wrote: ↑Sun Dec 27, 2020 8:08 am

trinhlemai wrote: ↑Sun Dec 27, 2020 6:44 am Hello all!

I'm happy to share a bit of my knowledge.

With cheap tools (like the picture of @Sussa shared) their sharpness is poor.
So if you do not have experience in handling, the perforations will not be beautiful.

I think for the needs of non-professional use like strap maker-like me, you can refer to tools that cost from 5 USD and Archie brand is also a good suggestion.
If you want to experience more precision and professionalism, you can refer to the tool of famous brands such as KS - which I am using.

About the size of the holes, it depends on the size and shape of the tang/pin part of the buckle.
For me, I usually use a 2 mm tool for round holes.

Please feel free if y'all have any question

This advice gels completely with my own experience...using the cheap punches has rarely yielded what I would consider a passable hole. The other issue for me has been alignment, with the new hole slightly off centerline from the factory ones....any advice for this? It sucks b/c you cannot unsee it (or undo it) once it happens. How to get evenly spaced, aligned holes?

In the case for the holes to align, you can predetermine the position of the holes by marking a small, fuzzy spot on the strap, then you need to correct the positions if they are not already aligned.
Or you can make a paper pattern of strap and of course, have holes on the paper pattern. Then, you lay a paper pattern on the strap and the strap based on the paper pattern.

I hope this ways can help

Thank you - that makes complete sense, yet somehow I never thought to do it.