So after 6 months of lurking and studying here I have joined. I'm assembling tools and practicing stitching. My greatest trouble has been in the awl department. Thankfully many good posts here pointed me to a Bob Douglas blade and Barry King handle and they arrived this week. I also had a serendipity moment when I was handed down the antique C.S. Osborne punch you see her. I never knew my grandfather who was a cobbler in rural Alabama. Since my dad passed last year, mom has been going through his things. She found my granddad's leather punch. It was incredible to hold this tool that has been in our family and now to be taking up the craft that my grandfather made his living by.
