Where To Find Hardware...!

[lokko21]

Hello guys, I want to make my own scratch awls and probably skiving knife, and I want to know if someone knows where to find the hardware to hold the awl or skiving balder to the wood, the brass parts, hopefully you guys know what I mean, I found some awl scratch kit, but is not really what I want....

Thanks in advanced.

[TinkerTailor]

Mcmaster-carr should have most of what you need. The part that holds it in is sometimes called a pin vise.

[zuludog]

The (usually) brass clamp that holds interchangeable blades in an awl is called a chuck or a collet. Personally I have not found them much good as they never seem to grip tightly enough, and the blades keep slipping. No doubt others will tell you that theirs are wonderful. and they have no such trouble. They tend to be expensive.

Interchangeable blades sound good, but you usually find you need to stop just when you've got a smooth rythm of work going, to fiddle about changing blades

A solution is to have two or more such awls, which rather defeats the purpose

Fixed blade awls are cheaper, cheap enough to have almost as many as you want permanently set up with blades. In Britain you can get an awl handle for about £3, say $4-50

I have a couple of those in different styles. I also got my local woodcarving & woodturning club to make a couple of awl handles to my size & design. The strengthening band around the narrow part where the blade is attached is called a ferrule. I use copper central heating pipe, with an outside diameter of 15mm

Drill a narrow hole into the awl handle, narrower than the blade, Mount the blade in a vice, and tap on the handle. Use two copper coins to prevent the blade being scratched by the steel of the vice jaws

For a sewing awl you will almost certainly have to go to a commercial supplier, but you can make a scratch/round awl blade from almost anything - a very stiff piece of wire; a thick needle; an old dart head. Have a browse round your house, garage, or workshop, you're bound to find something. My first scratch awl used the axle from one of my son's broken toy cars; it was surprisingly strong and good. Just sharpen the point however you can - bench grinder, files, oilstone, and so on

Having said that, you can buy a scratch awl fairly cheaply, about £5 in Britain

I made my skiving knife from an old decorator's filling knife, but a good one with a forged blade. Cleaned it up, shaped & sharpened, and it works well.

I had a cheap & nasty block plane which was fiddly to adjust, and I never used it, so I dumped it, but kept the blade, which was quite good. One day I might get round to making a Japanese style leather knife out of it. You can use those knives for cutting on the push stroke, the pull stroke, and for skiving

I have thought now and again that if you got an old 1"/25mm wood chisel from a seconhand stall and fitted a palm or hand use handle to it, that would make a reasonable skiving knife

Hope this gives you some ideas. Surf YouTube, and use your imagination

Edited February 10, 2016 by zuludog

[lokko21]

Thank you guys, so many possibilities..

[zuludog]

You can make leatherworking knives from various odds 'n' ends and some imagination

I have a small cooks/vegetable knife in carbon steel, and no longer use it in the kitchen, so I now use it as a general purpose - cum - clicker knife

Old hacksaw blades make good knives, but you will have to do the initial shaping and sharpening on a bench grinder as the steel is so hard. After that you can sharpen & maintain them by hand like any other knife

Besides the common 10mm wide blades, see if you can get the wider industrial blades

Japanese style knives like a kiridashi are simple styles, you should be able to make your own copy

The key to good leatherwork is to get your tools absolutely sharp, whether home made or purchased. Oil-, water-, or diamond- stones; wet & dry paper is cheaper; and you should be able to make your own strop. There is loads of information on sharpening on this forum and YouTube

Be careful though as this can get addictive. You might find yourself hoarding all sorts of bits of steel, rusty old tools, broken kitchen utensils, worn out files and so on.

[TinkerTailor]

Be careful though as this can get addictive. You might find yourself hoarding all sorts of bits of steel, rusty old tools, broken kitchen utensils, worn out files and so on.

I found a 10lb handful of 6"-12" long tool steel rods and square stock in the bottom of a toolbox in an antique store. Some had tips ground as lathe tools and had the telltale setscrew marks. Paid 2 dollars for it. My girlfriend thought it was strange that the only thing I bought was rusty steel, ....though she is used to it........To me it was the most valuable thing in that overpriced kitschy shop.