The Armour Archive

just wondering does anyone make there own leahter tools specifically slot punchs((for the tongues of buckles? from what i've seen it looks do able but thought i'd check first though
cheers
tom

um,
ive made my own half circle knife before, It sucked and the blade kept dulling even on 5oz leather! for all the effort you put into making the tools its better to just buy them, are you an experienced leatherworker? mabye we could discuss armouring styles and such. also i know the al stohlman brand tools seem very expensive ( if youve ever heard of them) but i have alsmot the full set and they are a great investment, they have a lifetime guranteee and they are excellent quality tools!

good luck!
joker aka mike

I have made some round punches for cutting larger circles with various successes. Asides from keeping an edge on them, they are made from hollow pipe so there is no even striking surface on the top. I could have tried to make them over using pipe with a threaded end and added a screw on cap. I ended up getting a set of rubber gasket punches with changeable heads up to 2’5 inches wide for $10 at HF. A set of bag punches (the buckle tongue slot punch) in about 3 sizes is something you will use for almost every project so it is worth the investment. I have a few Al Stohlman tools I got on clearance ($100 list price for a bag punch is insane), I did not know about the guaranty. The newer al stohlman tools are made in china and not as good as they used to be, if they were any better. For the same reason I picked up a set of 50 craftool tooling stamps that had a sales slip from 1963 in the box at a flee market. And I weed out the newer ones from other lots I got on e-bay. Some time in about the mid seventies they subcontracted there tools out and they are not as good, less good every year.

I did make a certian kind of punch for installing studs by getting screw drivers from goodwill in the widths of the studs and grinding them down to make two points that matched the prongs on the studs

Belmtho, the bag punch, the kind made like a short length of pipe, is cheap. Cheapity cheep cheep cheep. If you build one, you'll probably build it more expensively out of higher-carbon steel -- a tool for the professional beltmaker, in short. These look like mutant bulb planters -- a vertical handle forking to hold a narrow-conical collar whose bottom end is the cutting edge.

I've heard tell of people forgetting that pipe-type bag punches should be emptied out every so often, and splitting the barrels unexpectedly on a hammerstroke after not noticing they were having to hammer harder and harder to get the punch through the leather; suddenly the thing would collapse under the hammer, strewing scores of leather chads across the work. Doubtless disconcerting -- what this is is literally a burst pipe, like if it froze in a bitter winter.

The bag punches as you describe aren't worth the time to make. The leather factory and Weaver's are where I got a few of mine. I picked up a few older Osborne punches at a flea market a week ago...$1 each, now that was a deal!

I usually only make tools that I know don't exist commercially, like half rounds and punches (more like clickers) for special purpose cut outs. I made a "spade" shaped cutter from a pipe once, it worked for as long as it needed to, but like everyone else, I gave up on it.

Tip on making round "head" knives... use high carbon tool steel, or leaf spring steel, it lasts much longer.