Aluminium Template with Awl

This a Guide and Awl for use with a Punching Sewing Cradle.  It is made to go with the standard punching cradle I build.  The holes are spaced 1/4″ apart. The punching awl is .050 thick and is meant to make a hole for a #18 sewing needle.  I did a lot of research on what is generally used and the #18 needle seemed to be the “standard”.  The awl is about .003″ to .005″ larger than the needle (it seems there is no standard as to how thick needles are).

The guide is 15″ long overall
Drilled holes length is 11-1/4″ (matches my punching cradle)

Guide and Awl for Punching Cradle

Notice:  Cradle is not included

Note on use of this punching guide

One note on using a guide when you want evenly spaced holes top and bottom:  I always wondered, using a guide like this, how you get the top and bottom (head and tail) holes evenly spaced from the top and bottom of the signature.  In talking to a very experienced binding teacher in Texas, she said that the old school binders didn’t do the bottom hole equal to the top.  The reason was that if you got a signature upside down, the holes wouldn’t line up and you would catch your error.  So you start punching from the top and wherever the last hole ends up, is where you stop.

To mark which holes you want, you can either use a felt tip marker on tape next to the holes or just tape over the holes you don’t want to use.

If you want top and bottom holes evenly spaced, you can put a shim between the stop of the cradle and the guide to create this even spacing.

Other related equipment

The punching sewing cradle is available here.
A smaller version for miniature books is available here.

Larger and smaller sizes of this guide and awl for punching sewing cradle use are available upon request. Let me know via the contact form.

Purchase this Guide and Awl for Punching Cradle – $55

Note:   Cradle not included.  This is for the guide and awl only.

Purchase and take delivery of this guide and awl by following the steps on the purchase page. Customized sewing punching cradles are available too. Send your special requirements through the contact page and I will get back to you.