This posts lists suppliers of shoemaking-specific awls, particularly curved inseaming, outseaming, and heeling awls and the like, who sell in or ship to the United States.
Feel free to edit this wiki post to add more sources, make corrections, or add notes!
George Barnsley & Sons
https://www.georgebarnsleyandsons.co.uk
carréducker
https://www.carreducker.com/
- based in London, but ships to the US
- Barnsley awls
Hale & Co.
https://haleandco.com/
- based in USA
- various brands, lots of new old stock
Rocky Mountain Leather
https://www.rmleathersupply.com
ShoeMakerCraft
https://shop.shoemakercraft.com/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/shoemakercraft
- based in Germany, but ships to the US
- lots of old stock German blades: King, Rasche, Maeder
- Awls Page
Sorrell Notions and Findings
https://sorrellnotionsandfindings.com/
Starko Tools
https://starkotools.com/
- based in Ukraine, but ships to the USA
- somewhat unusual made-to-order system: place an order online, then pay when it is finished, prior to shipment
- Starko makes its own awl hafts, but sometimes stocks old King and similar blades
- Sewing Tools Page
Thornapple River Boots
(715) 532 - 6301
<thornappleriverboots.com> — as of 2024-08-31T07:00:00Z, no longer working
Dick Anderson in Wisconsin makes gorgeous hand turned hafts and inseam/outseam/peg awls from stock tool steel. Also makes the famous blue inseaming jacks and Frommer pattern crimp boards, among other shoemaking tools.
He’s not great with email and his website doesn’t really work but just call him up at 7155326301 and he’s always happy to take care of you.
@thenewreligion, thanks for the edit!
I’d heard of Thorn Apple River, but assumed they were no longer going, as the website isn’t. Can I just call him up sometime during the week and ask about awls?
For sure, may have to call a couple times to catch him by the phone. You can email him too he just usually responds by asking for your number so he can give you a call. Its all slow speed with him but he does great work. He made about 1k of stuff for me and refused payment until it arrived and I could inspect it, then i had to remind him i needed to pay him, and he had me mail him a check haha
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Called Dick Anderson today. He asked for my e-mail over the phone so he could send me his flyer with product information. He did mention that his prices have gone up a bit since it was prepared.
He also asked a few questions about my hands and needs. More specifically, he asked for my general glove size and tried to get a sense of whether to make the pommel of the haft wider or narrower.
For blades, he mentioned his Number 2 is mostly what people use for inseaming. His Number 3 is more curved and may work better for whip stitching shanks.
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Two awls came in from Dick Anderson today, one number 2 inseamer, one number 3 whipstitcher. Here they are on inch grids:
Both points are “duckbill” style, with broad, concave knife edges:
You can’t really see it in the photos, but they’re stamped “2” and “3” on the shanks of the blades, down toward the ferrules.
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Meet Dick today at the boot roundup. Swell guy in person too. Reminds me maybe I’ll grab a #3 to try out as well. I picked up a couple of his diamond tip pegging awls to try out
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You’re at the roundup. I’d love to be there!
To my untrained eye, Dick’s #3 very much looks like a scaled-up #2. It’s fundamentally the same design, just beefier. I haven’t whipped any waists in yet. That might be just the ticket.
We’ve been trading thoughts about fact, fiction, theory, and wood pegs. I’ve definitely read more than once that there’s some benefit to square pegs in round holes. But at the same time, I’m not surprised that Dick has square pegging awls. I’ve seen them from Barnsley and some defunct German awl makers.
In his Western Packers, Frommer wrote that:
- historically, pegging awls were square, both in hand tools and in early American pegging machines
- for looks, there’s no beating the neatness and alignment you can get using a square awl to line up the edges of square pegs
-
I can’t argue with the theory of a “square peg in a round hole,” but I think it applies to wood far better than leather.
- took to modifying his own pegging awls so they’re mostly round, but go square down the shank, where they penetrate the surface of the outsole, so he could pierce with a mostly round spike but still clock the pegs at the surface
- square awl blades do have the drawback that you can’t twist them out without stressing the blade and reaming out holes
@thenewreligion, I seem to remember that you have one of Frommer’s pull-on-boot books. I’ve got Western Packers. For anyone wondering if the books are worth the price, I’d say unequivocally yes. Randee Frommer, his widow, was still selling them when I e-mailed her this March of 2024.
Yes i got all his books. If nothing else large swaths in packers are repeated from the western boot book and its nice to have it in color print format since i only have a pdf of the latter.
Someone else who was buying Dick’s awls said the same thing, gives you more control over the rotation of the peg
That being said Lisa uses round holes and her pegs all look perfect. So maybe in 30 years when I’m good enough i can switch back 
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