If you've ever hand stitched your leather, you know the benefit of a good stitch awl. Here's a photo of my selection of awls at this time.
From left to right:
Before listing them there are a couple points (no pun intended) to mention. NO WAY will I use an awl that takes a lot of force to penetrate. I use a diamond awl for stitching. I
always work over the tips to be a long taper with a sharp point that will go through leather with ease. I strop them now & then and keep a cake of beeswax handy to stick them in if they start to drag when stitching.
1) Vergez-Blanchard 38mm diamond awl. This is my go-to and has been for a number of years. I like it because the brass bezel is narrow, .295 " diameter or therabouts. It's small and fits nicely into the palm of my hand. There is absolutely no finish on the wood so it doesn't take any effort to grip.
2) This is the newest one as of yesterday. The handle I made (the toilet plunger handle is now a few inches shorter) with a similar bezel diameter to the V-B. It has a CS Osborne #43 tip in it that I pulled out of an Osborne awl because the handle was too big and it never got used. There are times when I need a longer awl so this fills that need.
3) This is one was made for times when a larger hole is required. The tip is probably half again bigger across than the V-B. I kind of copied the Tandy handle shape but mistakenly made the bezel the same diameter as a Tandy one.
4) A Tandy awl and the first diamond awl I every had. The tip is too short to be useful for anything but I keep it around for sentimental reasons, I guess.
5) A round awl for those times when a round one is needed for something. I recently got this one from Amazon. It's a WUTA brand and feels like a good quality item for the price. Time will tell how 'quality' it is. The bezel is also narrow, like the V-B one. It has flats on two sides of the wood but they're a bit small to be very useful. It still rolls away when I set it down. Maybe I'll sand them flatter one of these days.
Just for size reference, here is a photo that compares the first two awls and the Osborne handle. That Osborne awl rolled around the work bench like a bowling pin. I never knew where it was going to be when I wanted to reach for it.
