I recall reading a question on a website along the lines 'How do I sharpen an awl'. Here I provide an unusual answer which has provided with me with a new tool ~ and it has nothing to do with sharpening.
I was doing some work in a room at home with a hard-tiled floor The awl rolled off the shelf I was working at and ~ as is the way ~ landed point first on the floor. A few days earlier I had been making an Arkwright book ~ for which some adjustments required poking and pushing with a blunt awl. I used a knitting needle ~ a fair substitute. Now, after a few moments with a diamond sharpening stone I have my own blunt awl.
As serendipity has it I have also found a use for this newfound tool.
The main feature of the Arkwright Book enables pages to be added [112566]. To do this the leather straps need to be prised out of their covers at one end. This loosening needs to be shuffled through the threads ~ an ideal instrument for this is a blunt awl.