Stacked Leather Handle Tracing Awl

[Oldtoolsniper]

I wanted a long nosed tracing tool for marking or scribing around objects to make patterns. It's made from stuff I had on hand and was no longer serviceable in its present condition.

I used:

A practice tooled belt from an eBay auction

A size A Starrett pin vise that was in two pieces

A brass compression fitting from some plumbing project long since forgotten

A broken eyed John James needle

A piece sawed from a broken solid brass hinge

A 6x32 brass screw from a lamp fixture

Epoxy

It was a fun and challenging way to make a tool and learn some new things about leather. I used up a bunch of stuff that was basically going to the trash so I'm pleased at how well it came out.

I have a box of these belts from different sources, word of warning here, one of the belts came from a heavy smoker and it wasn't bad to work with until I started sanding down the stacked leather to get my final shape, it just reeked like a moldy ashtray, it was disgusting so I tossed it. If it smells like cigarettes when it's whole it won't be to bad, start sanding it and the bouquet will intensify 20 fold.

I used epoxy rather than Weldbond contact cement to hold the leather washers together because the shaft on the pin vise is round and I didn't want the handle to rotate.

The leather washers were cut from a tooled belt, I just clamped them until they were dry and as you can see from the edges the tooling in the belt did not cause an issue in the final product.

[kiwican]

Thats really cool man

[Rohn]

That is a neat looking tool. I wonder how super gluing those leather pieces would work and turning it all on a lathe? I have made stacked leather pens that way.

[DavidL]

Great job. You must have hands much larger than mine.

Reminds me of the spinning tops that I see when I visited malaysia.

[Oldtoolsniper]

That is a neat looking tool. I wonder how super gluing those leather pieces would work and turning it all on a lathe? I have made stacked leather pens that way.

Rohn,

I turn pens as well and I thought about that but I wasn't sure if it would allow the leather to rotate around the shaft. The other consideration was the tooling on the leather, I figured the epoxy would fill any voids and the super clue would not. After doing it I don't think they were any voids after compressing the leather in the clamp.

I started it on the lathe but I did not have a good way to chuck it and the shaft on the pin vise was already in two pieces so it came apart on me. I re-epoxied it and then turned it with a drill against my 1x30 belt sander.

The finish is just sanding it to 400 grit and then beeswax on a buffing wheel.