All About Pocket Knives

This was my great-uncle George's. He died at 90 in 1980. I have all his tools and he called it a "glover's awl". It's a little over 3 inches overall and has that cool little chuck that holds the replaceable point. I've used it some and its really nice to the hand. Thought someone may enjoy seeing it. J.O.

Very cool J.O.! I love old tools like this. When you need to sharpen the point you can remove it from the handle, put it in your drill press, and it's better than new in an instant! Happy 4th buddy!

Here is mine that I bought in the early 1980s when I was doing a lot of leather work. It would be call a stitching awl, to punch holes thru the thick leather for using the harness stitch. There are smaller profile awls to use for gloves and fine work, and larger awls like the one shown for use on harness and saddles. They probably haven't changed much in the hundreds of years of use prior to machine stitching.

herbva wrote: ↑Mon Jul 01, 2024 10:11 pm Very cool J.O.! I love old tools like this. When you need to sharpen the point you can remove it from the handle, put it in your drill press, and it's better than new in an instant! Happy 4th buddy!

You couldn't put it in the drill press to sharpen it because it is not round, but cuts a diamond shaped hole in the leather. Note the shape in my photo above. It is sharpened just like a knife blade on an Arkansas stone.

Awls are also used in other materials that require heavy thread. Sailors use them to repair sails. Except for maybe on the USS Constitution canvas sails are a thing of the past but the reinforced corners lines are attatached to on modern dacron sails can get pretty thick depending on the size of the sail. Awls are used on all sizes of sails.

Thanks all.
-I've sailed boats with leather gussets at the tack, head, and clew corners. Doubt if that's around much anymore.
-Didn't expect so many responses this quickly. Good to see the thread is so active. J.O'.