Best Leatherworking Awl (2026): Three Tools That Share One Name

Three tools, three jobs

A scratch awl has a round, tapering point. It scribes lines on leather, marks where holes will go, aligns hardware, and pierces a round hole when you need one. It is a marking and piercing tool and it is the one most people already own without realising it is not a stitching tool.

A sewing awl has a hollow handle holding a spool of waxed thread and a needle with an eye near the point. You push it through, it carries thread to the far side, and you form a lock stitch. It effectively makes hand-stitching a one-tool operation, which is why it lives in repair kits for canvas, harness, packs and boots. It is fast, it is strong, and the stitch it makes is not the flat saddle stitch that fine leatherwork wants.

A diamond stitching awl has a flat, diamond-sectioned blade. Pushed through, it makes an angled slit rather than a round hole. Two threads then pass through that slit from opposite sides, and the slit closes back around them.

That is what makes a proper saddle stitch look the way it does: the stitches sit at a consistent slant because the holes themselves are slanted, and the leather grips the thread instead of leaving a loose round hole that lets it work back and forth.

Round holes are the giveaway of work punched with a nail or a scratch awl. They look wrong and they wear loose.

Sharpening, waxing and pushing it straight

Awls arrive blunt. This is the thing nobody tells beginners. A new diamond awl is ground but not polished, and pushing it through leather takes real force, wanders off line and tears the fibres rather than parting them.

Polishing it is not optional. Work the four faces on progressively finer abrasive, then strop on leather loaded with polishing compound until they are mirror bright. A properly finished awl goes through 8oz leather under hand pressure with a soft push, and the difference is not subtle.

Keep the diamond shape. Sharpen the flats evenly. Rounding the edges turns a diamond awl into an expensive scratch awl.

Wax the blade. Drag it through beeswax or a block of paraffin every few holes. Leather grips steel hard, and wax roughly halves the effort while stopping the awl binding on withdrawal.

Push straight and consistent. Hold the awl perpendicular to the leather with the blade aligned to your stitch line, and push with the arm rather than twisting the wrist. Rocking or levering to enlarge a hole bends the blade, and a bent awl will not go back to true.

Use a stitching pony. Both hands are needed, and holding the work in your knees means poor angles and hurried stitches.

Mark first, then pierce. Wheel or prick-iron your stitch spacing so the holes are even. An awl freehand gives wandering stitches however good the tool is.

Making the stitches look right

Mark the line first. A wing divider or a creaser scribes a line a consistent distance from the edge, and stitching to that line is most of what makes work look professional.

Space the holes evenly. A stitching wheel or a pricking iron sets the spacing. Even, slightly slanted marks are what the awl then follows.

Keep the awl at one angle. The slant of your stitches is the slant of your awl. Changing it halfway through a seam is immediately visible.

Saddle stitch, do not machine-imitate. Two needles on one thread, passing through each hole from opposite sides. It is slower than a machine and stronger, because a broken stitch does not unravel the seam the way a lock stitch does.

Cast or twist consistently. Whichever way you pass the second needle, do it the same way every time or the stitches will not sit uniformly.

Pull with even tension. Too loose and stitches sit proud; too tight and the leather puckers between them.

Finish by back-stitching two or three holes and trimming close, then tapping the seam flat with a mallet. The tapping is what settles the thread into the leather and makes the line look crisp.