How to Use A Strap End Cutter

This video is going to cover something extremely simple but we do have a couple of things I'd like to point out about it. What we're going to do is we're going to put a rounded end or a strap end on a piece of leather. To do this we need a mallet, we need a strap end punch, and our pounding board.

You notice that we use a rahide mallet and there's the word "good" written on one side. The reason for that is is that mallet is a great thing if you've got folded leather and you need to pound it to keep it folded before you sew it. You need a nice flat surface the side of the mallet that use you use for that. Your tool is not going to stay nice and flat so we mark one side good and never hit a tool with it and that makes the rawhide heads last twice as long. the reason you always use a mallet and not a steel striking implement like a hammer on a good tool like this is, these are welded. While we're talking in milliseconds there is a huge difference when the strike is done with a mallet versus a hammer. With a mallet the mallet absorbs part of the force and as a result it pushes the tool rather than banging the tool. The difference is that the banging is going to break the weld so your tool is going to last you anywhere between an hour and week, so you use a mallet all the time for this

All we want to do is just center the point on the center of the leather make sure the back is also lined up and grab the tool firmly, tip forward, and strike.

That is all there is to it.