George Barnsley saddler's awl

[ScottEnglish]

Hi.

I intend buying a saddler's awl from Geo. Barnsley & Sons in the UK where I live. Which length would best suit saddle stitching together two layers of about 2mm thick vegetable tanned leather with 1mm Ritza tiger thread? The awl blade lengths are 1.75", 2", 2.25", 2.5", 2.75", and 3".

Thanks.

Scott

[battlemunky]

I tend to like my awls a bit longer than they need to be and I sew up to maybe 9/10 mm at its thickest. I like around a 2.25" which allows for a bit of leather at the ferule to prevent marring if I am working with thick leather and bottom it out.

[ScottEnglish]

Thanks battlemunky.

[zuludog]

I'd say get a 2,25" or a 2,5" blade ; that will give you plenty of length to knock into the haft - which you will have to buy of course

You will also need to sharpen & polish the blade as it is only the expensive custom awls that you can use straight out of the box - there are several YT videos about mounting & sharpening an awl

Just one thing - the usual way to mount the blade is to hold it in a vice and then knock down the haft onto it, but you need to pad the steel jaws with something slightly softer so you will not scratch or damage the awl blade. 

Copper coins are often suggested for this, but British 'copper' coins are no longer all copper, they are copper plated steel, so use something else, like  aluminium or hard plastic

Edited May 24, 2022 by zuludog

[Tugadude]

To each his/her own, but I prefer my awls on the short side personally.  Two layers of 2mm won't require a very long awl.  As far as the coins thing, if the U.K. is anything like the U.S., while many coins are merely plated copper there are still lots of older ones in circulation which are pure copper.  Use those.

[fredk]

A. British 'coppers' were bronze which is quite hard

b. Current 'coppers' are bronze coated iron 

c. you need to go back to pre-2000 coins to get pure bronze 'coppers'. Anything of that age are either in collections or has been gathered in by the Royal Mint

d. I drilled a small pilot hole in the handle, then heated the end of the awl blade and made it burn its way into the handle

e. I prefer shorter blades too

[ScottEnglish]

Thanks zuludog. I had forgotten some of the awl length will be lost within the handle. Good job you mentioned that!

Thanks Tugadude for sharing your experience.

Thanks fredk. Your way of fitting an awl to its handle is much like the traditional way of fitting a file to its handle.

 

[fredk]

3 hours ago, ScottEnglish said:

Thanks zuludog. I had forgotten some of the awl length will be lost within the handle. Good job you mentioned that!

That reminded me; last time I got some awl blades they were longer than the stated length. The seller was quoting the useable length, not the overall length which included some for going into the handle. eg I bought 1.75 inch and got ones over 2.3 inch

[zuludog]

They are not very expensive, you could buy a couple and see what you think; say 2" & 2,5". similarly the beech wood hafts are only £2-49 each, and I prefer pale wood anyway. Or contact Barnsley to check for the exact length

Saddlers Awl | George Barnsley and Sons

Edited May 25, 2022 by zuludog

[fredk]

I bought my awl handles in a hardware shop. As file handles. 50p each.