Dies, life expectancy?

[Neibelungen]

Definately deliberate voids for piercing.

It could be a practice piece for an apprentice that broke partway through or (more likely) a broken shaving die made to refine a poor or damaged cut left by a previous piercing die.


Usually the base piece is hardened and the cutting punches are roughed close to shape but left soft, so they can be inserted and the hard base used to shave them a few thou and the rest cut back closer.

The actual punching pins are fairly easy to damage being so small so aren't always hardened as much as they need a degree of flexability to resist the forces, but not too much they deflect.

That's possibly what happened in this case as the top edge of the cushion would receive a lot of stress pushing against because of the angleing of the cutting action.