Thin Awls

[billybopp]

I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever with my goodsjapan awls. They came sharp, and with a little work are REALLY sharp with a nice polish and seem to stay that way. I have recently used one of them to go through 3 layers of 10oz veg tan with surprisingly little effort.

Bill

[whitIL]

Thanks again for all the discussion and ideas about how I can make smaller holes so that I can make smaller stitches by hand. I learned a lot from the things that people suggested.

I ended up doing what WyomingSlick suggested. I got some #1 Glovers Needles (John James and Tandy seem to be about the same size). Eventually I will make a wood handle for the needle/awl, but right now my lathe has a bowl mounted that I'm not ready to unmount. Instead of a real handle, I put the glover's needle in a pin vise that I had sitting around. A wood handle would be better since every once in awhile the pin vise lets the needle slip back a little bit.

I'm including some pictures so people can see what I did, and I've included as much information about tools and threads as I have. I sewed a test piece with white thread to hold a magnet in place. Beside that I used the next smallest thread I have to sew a few stitches for comparison. I didn't have that thread in white, so the comparison is not as exact as I would like. I don't know much about the white thread, I got it in a leather store. It had no brand name. It is on a big spool and I think it must be intended for use on a leather sewing machine. I'm using it to sew by hand.

--Whit

[DavidL]

pin vice looks perfect for an awl handle. Made with wood would be best, especially for small stitching.

Some one with experience could reply, but a 1mm or 2mm round awl filed down into a oval shape might fit the bill?

Edited August 31, 2014 by DavidL