zuludog Report post Posted June 14, 2017 Probably like a lot of people I began leatherworking with a Tandy Starter Set, which included the 4-in-1 awl. I quickly realised that this wasn't very satisfactory as the blade kept slipping in the haft, no matter how I tried to tighten the locking collar; and I couldn't seem to get the blade very sharp, which I put down to my inexperience. I mounted the round blade in a fixed haft and that works well enough; after all there's not much you can do wrong with a round/scratch awl So I got a fixed blade saddler's awl from Bowstock. I believe the blade is actually by Tandy, the same as their fixed blade awl. I also bought, mounted, and sharpened a John James saddler's awl blade. Which leaves me with the two leaf blades left over from the 4-in-1 awl, and what to do with them. The two fixed blade awls do everything I need, so the easiest would be to just forget the Tandy blades, but I wondered - can they be turned into anything decent? I have some spare hafts, and if I worked on the Tandy blades with an oilstone and a strop for say half an hour a night over a couple of weeks would it be worth persevering? Or are they of such poor quality that nothing useful can be made from them? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
