Alternative source for a leather punch?

[Father Bill]

Good day all!

For years, I had a marvellous leather punch which made four evenly-spaced round holes. When we moved back to the city, I couldn't find it and purchased the tool shown in the picture from Tandy.

Leather punch 2014-06-11 001.jpg

Sadly, it has proven most unsatisfactory - after some really light use, it is now so dull that it won't even punch 3 oz leather. Further, the holes are a tad smaller than my old wonderful tool used to make.

Now Tandy have shown absolute integrity and are shipping me a new one with no argument whatever so it's hard to grepse, but of course it's the same tool and I fear that it will shortly prove useless as the other one.

Can you leatherworkers point me to another source where I might have better luck?

Bill+

[Leatherneck Donald]

I got a larger center punch from Sears and put it on the grinding wheel to square up the punch, and use that for making stitch holes. it's only one hole at a time, but makes a nice one

[artificer]

Hey Padre- Part of the issue may be Tandy's rather shoddy metal quality.

You might be able to find the punch heads from a different source, and select a larger size of punch to boot.

Check HERE to see if they have what you need.

ith:

[Father Bill]

Thanks a million, Scott; I'll keep that one for a follow up in the very near future!

[GrainReaper]

I Cryo treat all my edged tools, helps amazingly in the department of holding an edge, I have cheap kitchen knives that are insanely sharp and since treating stay that way for quite a long time

[KevinKeith]

I Cryo treat all my edged tools

Cryo-treating metal is a method employed to remove retained austenite and untempered martensite from the microstructure. It doesn't actually remove it - it transforms it to a more stable, less brittle form. Just a little tip from your friendly neighborhood heat-treater! We usually do that anywhere from -150*F to -300*F but in this case, if you've access to a deep freeze, that should work well enough.

[MNlad]

Part of the issue may be Tandy's rather shoddy metal quality.

Sadly, I've found the same to be true, and have about a dozen of their punches that don't cut it (pun intended). It seems their one piece punches are made of sterner stuff than the punch sets with a single shaft and multiple size punch tips.

[Aussie_Don]

Cryo-treating metal is a method employed to remove retained austenite and untempered martensite from the microstructure. It doesn't actually remove it - it transforms it to a more stable, less brittle form. Just a little tip from your friendly neighborhood heat-treater! We usually do that anywhere from -150*F to -300*F but in this case, if you've access to a deep freeze, that should work well enough.

How do you achieve -100-200C?

I think that I may have some answers -- correct me if I've
got it wrong. -78C can be achieved with a dry ice and acetone
bath - close to -100C and as it happens, liquid nitrogen will
do -200C near enough (Actually -195C)

From what Wikipedia says, it sounds like LN2 is the only
real option and that the -20C that you'd get in a freezer
really wouldn't do much -- but if you do cryo-treatment,
I'd be interested in the how and also what might be worth
treating.

And apologies to Father Bill whose thread is being semi-hijacked
here. (Easier to beg forgiveness than to ask permission)

Thanks,

-Don

[Father Bill]

No apologies whatever - I'm busy learning how to address my problem and most appreciative!

P.S. - how about absolution?

[KevinKeith]

Okay - if Padre Bill really doesn't mind the semi-jack, I'll go ahead with it....
(otherwise, please delete the post and I'll get with Don via PM)

The short answer is, being in the commercial heat treating business, we have a cryo furnace that refrigerates through the use of liquid nitrogen.
As far as what's worth treating, there are several applications. In fact, in several cases, the difference in higher-priced, premium goods vs. entry-level price points is the heat treating. Brake rotors are a good example. When it's time for new brakes, I buy $30 rotors, cryo treat them, and voila - instant premium parts!
For the firearms enthusiasts out there - most high end shotgun/riflemakers cryo treat the barrels to increase accuracy and precision.
One thing to keep in mind is that when treating metal (like many other things), you can really only work with what's there. What I mean is, different materials are developed with different alloys to have certain charactaristics and mechanical properties. Which brings me to what I think is the heart of Fr. Bill's problem - that tool is probably not much more than pot metal. I doubt it is a craftsman's tool built to withstand the constant impact of a hammer, rather a hobbyist's tool to survive a handful of uses. No offense to Tandy or their product; it's probably done exactly what it was designed to do as long as it was designed to do it. It's just sad that quality, long lasting tools are difficult for the hobbyist to procure for reasonable coinage!