Sharpen an awl?

[fredk]

Like this;

[Sheilajeanne]

No, not ON the business end, but BESIDE it, pressing down on the leather as you pull the chisel out. You only do this after you've made the holes.

Fred also uses his 'block of blocks' underneath the leather, to protect the tines of his chisels.

Edit: ah, I see Fred's picture explains it very well!  Fred, do you have the plastic there when you're punching with the chisels? That would certainly speed things up! Where did you get the plastic?

Edited April 1, 2022 by Sheilajeanne

[MtlBiker]

5 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

No, not ON the business end, but BESIDE it, pressing down on the leather as you pull the chisel out. You only do this after you've made the holes.

Fred also uses his 'block of blocks' underneath the leather, to protect the tines of his chisels.

Edit: ah, I see Fred's picture explains it very well!  Fred, do you have the plastic there when you're punching with the chisels? That would certainly speed things up! Where did you get the plastic?

I see now!  It's used on the top (not the business end which pokes through on the other side).  Okay.  Got it.  And Fred's picture helped also.  Sorry for being so dense, but you threw with the way you said it (or the way I understood).  This is a pretty good idea!  Thank you for the patience to make sure I was understanding.

I too would love to have one of those acrylic things Fred is using.

 

[fredk]

I newked that picture off ebay. My acrylic one isn't as nice. I just made a couple of saw cuts in a scrap piece of acrylic I had handy and removed the bit between the cuts to give the slot. The one in the photo is one you can buy out of China for about £3 / $3.50-ish

The way I tend to do my hole making, with either type of punch, is to hold the working end, the hole punching end, with my left hand, the side of my hand pressing on the leather and fingers holding the punch tight to the leather. Mallet in my right hand. The plastic thingy is under the side of my left hand, so I slide it forwards beside the punch as I pull the punch out of the leather with my left fingers, rotating my hand at the wrist, I can keep the plastic on the leather pressing down

Kinda hard to explain. After doing it a few times it becomes easy and automatic. I can sort of walk the punch along a line quite quickly this way - punch, pull out, slide along using the plastic as a slider,  punch, pull out, slide along  and so on

[MtlBiker]

@Fredk and @Sheilajeanne - I just found that Ivan Leathercraft sells that acrylic gizmo.  I was ordering some punches from them and came across it.  Acrylic Chisel Aid

I just added one to my order.  I'll believe it when I see it, but they said it would deliver in 2-7 days via expedited (FREE!) shipping.  And that's from Hong Kong to Canada.

[Sheilajeanne]

WOW! Thanks, MtlBiker! Excessive shipping costs are the main reason I don't order many things outside of Canada.

[MtlBiker]

38 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

WOW! Thanks, MtlBiker! Excessive shipping costs are the main reason I don't order many things outside of Canada.

I'm SO with you on that!  Companies in the US often think of Canada as some very far off country and charge crazy prices for shipping.  But just to be clear about this particular IVAN order, I'm not sure if shipping is always free or it was free in this case because I ordered a bunch of stuff and the total cost was over $200 US.

[fredk]

Here is my plastic pull-out thingy. Made from a scrap piece of acrylic, its 3mm thick by 6cm wide and 8cm long, the slot is about 4mm wide and 5cm long. I think it took me about 1/2 hour to make

Boring, innit?

[fredk]

1 hour ago, MtlBiker said:

I'm SO with you on that!  Companies in the US often think of Canada as some very far off country and charge crazy prices for shipping.  But just to be clear about this particular IVAN order, I'm not sure if shipping is always free or it was free in this case because I ordered a bunch of stuff and the total cost was over $200 US.

That

[Spyros]

So back to sharpening an awl, don't let me discourage you because I'm just sick and tired of sharpening after doing it for woodworking tools every day for years.  I just hate sharpening and I avoid it like the plague.

However I do have a couple of flat awls, and although I use them extremely rarely they do need sharpening once every few months.  So here's my half-arse, bored to death method:  I take a small piece of 600 grit sandpaper, fold it tight around the sharp edge with my thumb and index finger, and pull the awl backwards and out a few times.  That's it, that's all I'm good for.  It's not *really* sharpening it but it does something, so there's that.

If it gets really bad I just order a couple of new tips from kemovancraft on etsy.  I did try to touch it up on my tormek-type wet wheel but it's too easy to make the slightest wrong move and then it's a dart.  The problem with the awl blade is that the damn thing is just too small and that makes it extremely unforgiving to sharpening errors....

On 4/9/2022 at 5:30 AM, fredk said:

That

I think free int'l DHL is for over $100.  They have some Horween leather lately and some good goat liners so it's easy to get over that.

Edited April 21, 2022 by Spyros