I started my business in 1978 and for the next 10 years, I cut everything by hand. I was so far behind in y orders and working myself to death, so in 1988 I bought a clicker and had 3/4" steel rule dies made for some of the more popular holster patterns I had in my catalog. It saved me so much time, it was unbelievable. My steel rule dies have all had hundreds if not thousands of strikes without a single failure. I don't think I've had to stone any of them more that once or twice in 35 years of use. In 1988, my clicker cost me $5500.00 shipped to Montana from Texas and the holster dies were generally in the $90 to $105.00 range.