What Are the Differences in Nail Punches?

Standard Nail Punch

• A standard nail punch is designed to force a nail or pin further into its hole without marring the surface of the material that it is being driven into. Standard nail punch sets have tips with varying diameters, which allow the user to distribute force over the surface of the nail head if it is large, or to focus the strike on a small nail head without affecting the surrounding material.

Doming Nail Punch

• A doming nail punch, or a set of doming punches, is used to make spheres or other rounded spaces in metal. Its tip is made of a polished metal sphere, and it is used in conjunction with a matching curved hammering surface to pound the metal into a domed shape. Doming punches are used by many jewelry makers and are sometimes also called dapping punches.

Decorative Punch

• A nail punch with a tip that is shaped to imprint a design is called a decorative punch. This type of nail punch is used to decorate wood, metal or leather. It is driven into a surface solely to leave a decorative mark and these marks are repeated over the surface of the material to make a complete design.

Center Punch

• This tool is used to mark the intended center of a hole when drilling holes in precise locations. This is necessary because a drill will often allow the drill bit to move across a surface slightly if the hole is not started in a recessed point. This punch creates a dimple in the surface that is going to be drilled so the drill bit does not move.

Transfer Nail Punch

• This type of nail punch is different from all the others in that both ends have shaped tips. This tool is used to transfer the location of a point from one object to a similarly shaped object. For instance, if someone needed to make drill holes on a large curved object and those holes needed to match another complex object, using a transfer punch to line up the holes would be an efficient way of finding the correct locations to drill.