The SAK Pioneer awl is useless.

In an urban setting (or in a rural setting, for that matter) the awl works great for removing things like goatsheads, broken glass, broken sandburrs, etc. from your bicycle tyres. :)
 
22-rimfire said:
Like you, I don't have a lot of use for the awl on a SAK, but it comes in handy from time to time. But I'm generally glad it's there and available.

The reason I brought back this thread on the AWL utility was > Yesterday, I had enough of my pants sliding down and decided to create another belt hole in my leather belt. You see, I am sort of an in between size... 33 waist and most all non-dress pants are not offered with a 33 inch waist. So, it's always "34's" and they're loose, ALWAYS. I bought a hole cutting tool the right diameter to pound though a leather belt to create a nice sharp edged belt belt buckle hole.... The AWL was out unless it was an emergency as I've done this before creating a pretty ragged hole. Enter the drill bit.... worked perfectly. Why had I never thought of this before? Maybe some of you have been in the same boat??
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The awl alone makes a decent hole in a belt. It takes a little patience but the awl can make a nice neat hole in a belt.
 
It is an odd little tool. I watched a vid on sewing with it and filled for future reference. I've used it for some of the things mentioned here as well.

I have a Tinker and recently got a Trekker. It has a similar awl but minus the sewing hole so that's odd.

The Tinker goes with me no matter what else does unless I take the Trekker.

Chuck Norris uses it as a toothpick because he has an alox.
 
deltaboy said:
True but you don't generally have a drill with you!
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Hiking no, but I generally have a small 12 volt lithium in my truck most of the time. Have several actually as they work very well for the little stuff and a lot of things that would surprise you in terms of power. The old NiCad 12 volts are dogs. I find that I need to open up HVAC units from time to time and the little drill works perfectly for them.
 
22-rimfire said:
Hiking no, but I generally have a small 12 volt lithium in my truck most of the time. Have several actually as they work very well for the little stuff and a lot of things that would surprise you in terms of power. The old NiCad 12 volts are dogs. I find that I need to open up HVAC units from time to time and the little drill works perfectly for them.
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One awl use that I haven't seen mentioned is scraping dried glue out of mortises or dowel holes; I am frequently asked to repair furniture (mostly old chairs), which usually have to be disassembled. The holes which the dowels fit into must have the old dried glue scraped from them before gluing back together. Redrilling with a power drill, using a little tube of rolled up sandpaper, or scraping are three options for removing this old glue. Scraping with the awl on my Alox Electrician is the most efficient and doesn't chance making the hole oversize like drilling. This awl, when the edge is kept sharp, seems like it was born to scrape. You need to apply a little leverage to force the awl edge against the side of the hole, so don't think the mid-handle awl like on the Tinker would be as efficient.
 
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