Which Leather Awl Do You Need?

You can never have too many awls. In my studio, I have around a dozen awls of various types. Some of them I have because of the design and the way they look, and others do specialized jobs. Which leather sewing awl you choose depends on what you are making, and I will cover some common uses and scenarios.

What is a Leather Awl

To simplify, I’ll divide awls into two broad categories: round and diamond. The latter has a number of different variations, from proper diamond shapes, to smooth-shaped blades, to thin, almost flat blades, but they all serve the same purpose: making holes for stitching leather. There is also a speed stitcher for making a lock stitch, which is a different animal altogether. I’ll assume that if you’re on this site, you’re primarily doing a saddle stitch. In this post, I’ll focus on just diamond-type awls and the different types. In another post, I’ll cover round awls.

Suit the Awl to the Stitch

Leathercrafters primarily use their sewing awls in combination with their pricking irons. Your irons create a specific stitch hole size and your awl should match this width. Smaller-spaced irons like 9 SPI / 3mm spacing have smaller width teeth, and you typically use them for smaller or more refined items. These finer seams are often set closer to the edge, 1/8” or 3mm. Your awl should be suitably narrow so that it doesn’t make it wider when you put it through the hole. A more significant hole risks connecting to the edge and creating a cut.

On a straight awl blade, measure the width of the blade and check that width against your pricking iron holes. Some awls blades start narrow and taper wider to some degree. A tapered awl is fine if the taper width does not exceed the stitch hole width at depth. For example, if you are sewing a wallet with two layers of 1.4mm Chevre, your tapered awl will insert to a depth of 2.8mm at a minimum (1.4mm layers x2).

Wider stitch spacing can offer more latitude because you set the stitches further from the edge. So if you set 6SPI stitch marks 5/32” (4mm) from the edge and your awl opens the holes further, you have some margin of safety. A wider stitch often pairs with using thicker leather, so using a longer, wider awl blade works well in this case. A wider blade provides more strength for going through thicker layers.

My work usually goes no wider than 3.8mm stitch spacing (7 SPI). Accordingly, I opt for awl blades between 1-2 mm wide. I rarely exceed total thicknesses of 12mm (1/2”), and most of my awl blades are between 19mm (3/4”) and 25mm (1”).

A General Leather Sewing Awl

If you use pricking or stitching irons, your holes are already marked or punched through. Your sewing awl needs only to open the hole or continue it through, so it needs only to be sharp at the tip.

When you sharpen the sides to the point where they can cut the leather… well, they will cut the leather. This means making the hole a little bigger at best and cutting through the edge at worst. I like to leave the sides of the awl dull and just sharpen the first millimeter or two to a cutting edge. The rest should be polished to slip through the stitch hole easily.

I prefer my awl with a slightly rounded tip. A pointed diamond tip tends to stick itself into everything, while rounding the tip slightly helps the awl not get caught in things. There have been long days where, in my weariness, I have accidentally grazed the leather with my awl. A round point, though still sharp, can prevent a mark where a diamond point surely would have scratched a line.

To learn how to sharpen your sewing awl, check out our course Refining Your Technique. The course shows you how to sharpen the front of the awl in addition to sizing the width to match your pricking irons.

Specialty Awl: Long Awl

There are times when you need an awl with a longer stick-out. That is the distance the awl blade protrudes from the handle. This kind of awl comes up a lot for our saddle makers. Sewing through the cantle binding is a pretty thick area on the saddle. I’m not a saddlemaker, but I come at it from years of talking to customers who are.

They prefer a long awl blade to get through, and it needs to be relatively narrow. Given that the leather is thick, I’m told people regularly snap this blade from wiggling it too much or just the wear and tear of driving it through an inch or more of leather.  We stock long, narrow awl blades for this very reason. The most common request I receive is a 1 1/8” to 1 1/4” (28-32mm) stick out.

Specialty Awl: Soft Awl

Nigel Armitage first turned me on to the idea of a soft awl, which is a sewing awl with blunted edges like a harness needle. If you punch through the leather with your pricking irons, you don’t need to cut the leather any further. A soft awl ensures you only open the holes rather than cut new ones. I use a shorter 19mm (3/4”) blade stick-out on my soft awl. Anything I’ve pre-punched will be no longer than 1/2”, and a short blade means less distance pulling it in and out and thus faster work.

Specialty Awl: Curved Awl

Curved awls are used for shoemaking and box-making. You use a curved awl when sewing a butted seam where the leather is edge to edge, like on the side of a leather cylinder. Few manufacturers make good curved awls, so the modern workaround is to pre-punch holes through and then use straight needles or curve your needles.

Get the Awl That You Need

We make our leather sewing awls and can customize them to fit the uses I described in this post. I designed the handles with leatherworkers in mind and how one actually uses them day-to-day.