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Five Reasons a Hot Nail Makes a Gap, Not a Hole (and What Takes the Hole Out)
What I worked out after thirty years of making my own belt holes, from the comment section under the video that taught me how.
Told in his own words.
For about thirty years I made my own belt holes with a nail heated on the stove. Last spring I wrecked a belt I actually liked.
I went looking for the right way to do it, which is a strange order to do things in. What I found was the comment section under the video I had learned the nail trick from. A great many people were in there, and almost all of them were me. Heat the nail over the burner. Use an ice pick. Use a kitchen knife.
Underneath those, in the replies, a smaller group wrote the other half. "I ruined my belt, don't recommend."
I read about forty of the comments before I noticed that not one of us had ever asked what the nail actually does to the leather. These are the five things I wish somebody had told me before that evening.
One. A hot nail does not take anything out of the leather.
A hot nail shoves the leather sideways and out of the way, and the leather stays there, bunched up around the rim, holding the shape until it decides not to. A knife parts the leather. A drill tears at it and leaves the fibers standing up. None of those takes anything out.
A hole is what you have left when a round piece comes out and is gone. I had spent thirty years making the other thing and calling it by the same name.
Two. The edge tells you what happened.
Hold a belt made that way under a kitchen light. The edge is furry. The hole is a little oval. It sits pulled to one side, because a nail follows the grain and not the pencil mark.
The people in the thread said the same thing in their own words. "you've butchered it, dude. It doesn't look clean at all." "mine belt got torn." One man drew the line exactly: "The screwdriver makes an ugly hole, I wouldn't go that route unless I was really desperate, lol!"
Almost everybody in that comment section knew where the line was. We all thought we were on the right side of it.
The oval hole is still in the belt I wrecked. It will be there for as long as I own the belt, two along from four that look like they came from the factory, and I see it every morning.
So if the nail, the knife and the drill never take anything out, what does?
Three. A real hole needs a tool that takes a round piece out.
The fix was never a better nail. It was a different kind of cut, one that removes a small round piece and lets it fall away instead of pushing the leather aside. The nail pushes the leather out of the way. This cut takes a piece out of it.
The tool that does it is a hole puncher, and the one I bought is the Leathos Hole Puncher, which cuts by spinning instead of striking. You hold it over the mark and press straight down onto a cutting mat, and the tip turns as it goes.
I did my first hole at the same kitchen counter where I had ruined the belt. There was a short, clean sound, like a hole punch through paper, and a little round disc of leather sitting on the mat. That disc is the whole difference.
Four. It turns as it cuts, so nothing gets hit.
The Spring-Spin-Cut action converts the downward pressure of your hand into a controlled cutting motion. The tip rotates and works its way around the edge of the hole, so the cut happens progressively instead of all in one impact. The body is brass, the handle is hardwood, and a spring brings it back between presses.
Leather is made of densely interwoven fibers that hold up best when they are cut cleanly rather than crushed, and cleaner cuts help reduce the deformation you get from high-impact punching. It wants a cutting mat or something firm underneath, every time.
People who use it say it in fewer words than I can. "punched a few holes with ease in a leather belt, just to try it out, Very Impressed with it." "Found the toughest piece of leather I thought, two punches later I had a perfect whole. Now I can fix my leather belt. I am excited!!"
Five. It is one tool for the straps in the house, not a one-belt fix.
Belts were only where I started. People who use it write that they use it for "custom leather collars", "Dog collars" and "Watch straps", and one wrote "Using it at work, to make quick 'new belt holes' for our Resi's when they go up/down in sizes. Very nifty." I have done my other belts since, a watch strap, two bag straps, and the dog's collar, which was one press on the mat, same as the belt.
It has limits and I would rather say so. It did not fix the oval hole in my belt. A hole that is already wrong stays wrong. The tool only takes the next one out properly.
The catch, in the words of the people who asked
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There are special leather punches for each size hole. But it's too expensive for just 1 hole!
There are special leather punches for each size hole. But it's too expensive for just 1 hole!
That was my objection too. Somebody in a different thread answered it better than I could: "You could always get a leather hole puncher to punch a few more holes in it if you continue to lose wieght. They are cheaper than a new belt." The belt I was about to replace had cost more than the tool.
I was debating on cutting my new leather belt but i was afraid i was gonna ruin it.
I was debating on cutting my new leather belt but i was afraid i was gonna ruin it.
I felt the same. What helped was that you do not swing anything. You hold it on the mark, press straight down, and the tip is where the hole lands. I marked the place first, the way I always had. The mark is still yours to get right.
Just use the hot nail, heat it and drive it!
Just use the hot nail, heat it and drive it!
It will mostly be fine, and I said that to myself for thirty years. Even the people who swear by it put the limit in writing: "Heated nail from a torch, only yelds a good, reliably sized and positionned hole if I'm setting it up in a press though".
The hole punch is kind of specialized, most people probably don't have those.
The hole punch is kind of specialized, most people probably don't have those.
They do not, and neither did I. I am not a leather guy. I do not have a workbench. I own a drill because everybody owns a drill. What I own is belts.
What if it is not what it looks like?
What if it is not what it looks like?
There is a thirty day money back guarantee, so finding out whether your holes have been gaps this whole time costs you nothing except finding out. It makes round holes only, and it needs a cutting mat or something firm underneath. I would want to know both before I bought anything.
If you are the one heating a nail on the stove
Delivery is free, and the thirty day money back guarantee is there if the holes turn out to be fine the way they were.
If you are the one heating a nail on the stove for a belt you actually like, I would just go and look at it.
