During recent comparison shopping for hooked jerk needles, I ran into “SHANHAITONGWAN”, a brand of shoe tools and supplies listed on Amazon.
On top of some really niche tools, like crab-style shank lasters, they’ve a ton of different awl blade and complete awl products listed, none as cheap as the other no-name imported options on Amazon. The blades are often sold in multi-packs, all of one model or a variety of models, with or without hafts.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09HGFWHXY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A9Y0LF4UN8TBH&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/SHANHAITONGWAN-Leather-Shoemaker-Cobbler-picture/dp/B0CZQ3F3TF
https://www.amazon.com/SHANHAITONGWAN-Leather-Shoemaker-Cobbler-Stitching/dp/B0CZSNN4FH
They’re not being fulfilled by Amazon, and the shipping estimates for me in Oakland are about two weeks out, so they may be shipping direct from abroad, perhaps China or Taiwan.
The listings aren’t as complete as they could be, and some of the translations seem just a tad off. But I was able to pull together an overview table of their jerk needle model numbers on shoemaking.wiki.
I found one report of a maker on Reddit saying the awls he bought have proved very tough, but needed initial polishing work out of the package. Sounds a bit like C.S. Osborne—industrial tools sold primarily to workers and factories, rather than consumer hobbyists.
They also have inseaming awls without hooks, but I haven’t done any work organizing model information on those yet. It does strike me that their inseaming awls look an awful lot like the fancy one I got from Rocky Mountain and immediately snapped. Rocky Mountain said they can’t provide replacement blades. Perhaps they came from SHANHAITONGWAN in the first place.
I’m looking forward to a long-term monogamous relationship with the awls I’ve got coming from Dick Anderson and @customboots. But I found it really intersting looking at the variety of shapes available from this source. My hope, leaning on suspicion, is that someone is listing the output of a Chinese supplier to Chinese shoemaking factories for the odd consumer sale in the USA.