Speedy Stitcher 1125 SEW200-BRK Sewing Awl, One Size

As a beginner in the world of leatherworking, I have come to appreciate the incredible value and versatility of the Speedy Stitcher Sewing Awl. This tool has truly revolutionized my leather projects and has become an essential part of my toolkit. The Speedy Stitcher Sewing Awl is incredibly easy to use, even for someone new to leatherworking like myself. The design is intuitive, and the instructions provided were clear and concise. Within minutes, I was able to thread the needle and start stitching my leather projects with confidence. The stitching results I achieved with this tool are nothing short of impressive. The Speedy Stitcher Sewing Awl creates strong and durable stitches, ensuring that my leather items are built to last. Whether it's repairing a torn seam or creating new leather goods, this tool consistently delivers professional-looking results. What I find particularly remarkable about the Speedy Stitcher Sewing Awl is its versatility. It allows me to work with various leather thicknesses and textures, accommodating different project requirements. The sturdy construction of the tool gives me confidence in its durability, knowing it can handle the demands of my leatherworking ventures. In summary, the Speedy Stitcher Sewing Awl is an outstanding tool for any beginner leatherworker. Its user-friendly design, impressive stitching results, and versatility make it a must-have for anyone looking to delve into the world of leatherworking. I highly recommend this tool to fellow beginners who want to create high-quality leather projects with ease and confidence.

Bought this for my emergency supplies, along with a couple different color thread after watching my neighbor restitch a canvas bag where the stitching pulled out. Worked like a charm. Never know when it might come in handy. Great price. Seems like it's well made.

Works well and predictably for me. A cheap rip-off device had brittle needles that broke making the device useless. This name brand device was flawless when attaching thick rubber soles to a leather shoe sole on Sperry Topsiders. Wish the needles were longer, however they are sharp, maintain their sharpness and slice through thick rubber soles and leather soles. Waxed thread provides not as thick as dress shoe thread but is robust and adequate. Happy with purchase.

I stumbled across this tool--the Speedy Stitcher Sewing Awl--and read so many positive reviews that I decided to try it out. It seems like an ideal tool to keep aboard a sailboat for on-the-water emergency sail repairs. Although I haven't used it to repair any sails yet, I tested it out on other projects. For instance, I used it to sew visible stitching marks in my anchor rope at 20' intervals so I can easily know how much anchor rode I'm feeding out while anchoring. I sewed a few test stitches in a couple of pieces of 1/8" thick leather scrap. And I tried sewing a couple of pieces of very light material (like T-shirt fabric). First, the needles are impressively sharp and the line is very heavy duty. It works great for thick/substantial materials like rope and leather. The standard needle and thread are overkill for light materials, however, such as thin cotton--partly because the needle head is so large (i.e., makes a large hole that stretches/tears light fabric), and partly because the line/thread is so heavy it causes the material to bunch and ruffle. A smaller "fine sewing" needle can be purchased separately, and I would recommend getting it for sewing projects that involve light to normal weight fabrics. For heavier materials like heavy canvas, leather (i.e., repairs to shoes, heavy canvas tents/bags/sails, straps on heavy duty wilderness packs, etc.), this tool comes ready for the job and seems well up to the task. Second, the Speedy Stitcher is relatively simple to use--once you figure it out, which may take awhile. Essentially, a thread leads down from a bobbin in the handle, out through the side of the handle, around a tensioning post, up through the chuck, to the head of the needle. When you begin sewing, you pull out all the thread length you'll need to complete your repair. To sew, you (1) push the needle all the way through your materials, (2) pull the needle back out partway to create a loop in the thread that lays alongside the needle, (3) pass the tail of the thread through that loop and snug it up as you extract the needle to create a lock stitch--just like a sewing machine. When you finish, cut the thread and tie a square knot to finish off and secure the stitch. It helps that the needle is very sharp and the thread is hefty and stiff, making it easier to handle than a much thinner, more supple thread would be, and dispelling any worries about breaking the thread as you tension a stitch or tie a finishing knot. It's plenty strong, though how "speedy" you're able to sew will depend on your manual dexterity and how cavalier you feel about working with such a sharp needle. I sew quite slowly to ensure nice, even stitches and to avoid stabbing myself. The tool itself is great, given an appropriately suited task. The main shortcoming here is the lackluster instructions. While adequate to figure out how the device operates, they are not particularly well illustrated. The illustration for setting up the device to sew is limited to a single picture that looks like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy--with thick, fuzzy lines that make it difficult to see precisely how the thread should be led out of the handle, through the chuck, and up to the needle head. You'll be able to figure it out, but you'll be baffled when the instructions tell you to "Continue thread along handle groove and through ferrule hole as illustrated" (If you know what a ferrule is, you'll be fine, but it's strange not to label it or otherwise mark it in the picture). Then you're told "Place needle in threaded post making sure that grooves in needle and threaded post are in alignment with each other." (If you examine the actual tool carefully, you'll figure it out, but if you think the picture is going to help you... well, I hope you enjoy squinting at fuzzy and indistinct lines and feeling unsure.) To be clear, this isn't a deal breaker and I've seen worse instructions, but it's strange to me that someone can make such a nice tool and apparently realized an illustration might be helpful with its setup, yet DIDN'T think it was necessary to make that illustration sufficiently large (and labeled) to make it truly useful. As it turns out, there is a diagram that defines the parts of the tool for those who wonder what "chuck", "ferrule", or "tension post" means. However, in a cardinal sin of technical writing, they are identified in a separate illustration on a separate page than the written instructions that actually use those terms. Besides the fact that parts diagram is small and lost in the busy look of the title page, there is no standard cross-referencing system (letter annotations) to call your attention to the diagram's existence in any way. Maybe I'm nit-picking because I was a professional technical writer, and perhaps other people won't see it as a major annoyance. But a clearer illustration could've saved me five minutes of confusion and timid assembly. Since this is the kind of tool that people probably use once then put away for a long time, I suspect they'll need the instructions every time they use it--and go through the same, initially baffling process of setting up the tool to prepare to sew. If you're going to illustrate it at all, why not do it right? By contrast, the three other illustrations showing the sewing process are fairly accessible. They suffer from the same fuzziness, but the simpler nature of what they're illustrating (the three stages of making a stitch) makes them easier to comprehend. Even so, you'll still have to try sewing a thing or two before you really "get" how it works. Another quibble: The steps to make a stitch start with the setup as step number one. That's strange, since you don't need to set up the tool after every stitch! I'm sure reasonable people will realize this, but it again illustrates the sense that the instructions aren't really polished. They feel more like an afterthought someone didn't quite have enough time to refine and organize fully. All in all, a great tool that I certainly recommend for people who want an effective, compact sewing tool for in-the-field heavy duty repairs to tents, packs, sails, saddles, shoes, etc. I deducted one star because of the lackluster instructions (which could be much clearer with a few simple tweaks) and because the tool does not include the fine needle or fine thread. I suspect many folks will want to sew materials that need them. Yet, it appears you must purchase the needle separately--for nearly the same price of the entire tool. That will annoy some people greatly if the included standard needle and thread prove too large for their purposes.

This worked great to stitch up a few holes in our leather couch that our dog unfortunately chewed. Very easy to use. Even my husband used it.

Excellent quality, very affordable price for an extremely useful tool

This tool was to replace one I got while in the Navy, 40+ years ago. The original never wore out, I just lent it to someone and it never came back. The quality of the new one is 90% as good as the original, with some of the metal parts simply being a smidgen lighter weight but which I believe will last just fine. For me, this is a tool I might go a year or two between uses but then use 2-3 times in a single week... that's just how your odd jobs come along sometimes. You can really make a nice and quality repair to a host of different products with this tool and if you ever run out of thread in the middle of a project, just get some dental floss and finish the job, the stitcher works just fine with floss as a replacement until you can buy another spool of waxed string. Good tool at a fair price, anyone can use it and with a little practice get very good results with one. Watch a you tube video if your trying yours for the first time and the instruction manual seems confusing.

It works great but I'm only giving it 3 stars because the kit is terrible. I thought the kit was good because it came with three colors and lots of thread. But there's only one bobbin included with the kit and it comes loaded for tan and I needed black. So I had to unload the bobbin and wind up the black, not an easy job. To make things worse they give you a very flimsy plastic bobbin, very cheap. Also the three colors are not on an inner core so they want to fly apart and I know they will tangle in the long run. So I had to order a three pack of metal bobbins and will have to reload these. If made in America companies want to complete with China they need to keep their quality up.