Gary.... a /32 punch tapped thru the eye. DON't go banging the punch thinking its a one swat thing and open eye, they'll break. And open only large enough to slip a blade in place. When the blade is in place I use a regular pliers to gently close the eye up. Don't try to close it all at once again, the metal is brittle, so just pinch and test to see if the blade can be slid abck thru the opened eye. If it cannot come out, you're good enough. Using hooks from the package I average about three baits out of five hooks. Also, its not like I am going to make 100 of these things. The three I have finished will be enough for next season unless some big pike show up again.
I tried to remove the temper in the hook metal by heating the eyes red hot, letting them cool naturally and then opening the eyes up but the heating furthered the brittleness of the hook metal.
The blades were done using powder paint and the powder paint airbrush. I did up a bunch of white ones thinking that since the white chatter baits have been super productive locally for the last three years the blade should be white. HOWEVER, everyone locally tells me now that silver blades on the white chatters are the way to go. I'll just get some more blades for when these baits are gone.