Hole Punching
Below is the answer given by the AI, and it’s all there, but… reality is much simpler (and harder at the same time :). I will describe how I do it in real life:
- Copy the design onto leather. You want to be as precise as possible. I use the silver pen for leather.
- When punching the slits (or diamonds, or whatever shape), you will most likely be using a set of three tools. A single prong, a double, and a large size six prong. You use the tools (prongs) according to your design. The long six prong does straight lines (and also slight curves), and once the curve is too sharp we use the two-prong, which should allow us to do anything (including a perfectly spaced right angle)
- Absolute precision is also required 🙂 The nicer you can keep the prong on the marker line, the better. BUT… The most important… you want to keep the tool perfectly vertical from your leather, ie do not lean it in any direction.
Imagine that you are punching through a 4mm thick veg tanned harness leather. If you do not keep that tool straight, the bottom line will be a weird zigzag, instead of a neat line. It will mess with you later during stitching, and looks like crap.
- Pulling out the tool can be tricky also, especially on thick, stubborn harnmess leather. The prong needs to be pulled out also vertically, and not to the side. Not only that, it should be pulled out one hole at a time, starting from the front to back or vice versa.
Pro Tips:
- When my design consists only of straight lines, I do not bother to even cut it out as a template. Instead, I tape the sheet of paper onto leather, and pierce through exactly at the line intersections. Then I simply connect the punctures on leather and viola 🙂 there it is, much more precise than tracing the edge of paper
- Have a candle nearby, and occasionaly sink the teeth of the prongs into the wax. It helps with piercing through (even though the leather acts as a self sharpening tool)