For stitching on heavy fabrics, an automatic awl is a must-have. Scratch awls can be used to make marks, to create holes for fasteners or grommets, to hold fabric in place, and more.

Perfect for making creases, smoothing fabric, adhesive, welding tape, and more. A silicone hand roller can save your wrist and finger strength throughout a long day working with stiff fabric.

Used to secure fabric or canvas when sewing or making a pattern, T pins are sturdy enough to hold thick fabric and multiple layers of fabric in place without doing any damage.

While it could easily be argued that a pneumatic stapler is not a hand tool, the fact that you need your hands to use it coupled with the reality that furniture upholstering is nearly impossible without it demands its inclusion here. While an electric staple gun or manual stapler can be used when upholstering a chair or reupholstering a couch, there’s a lot of room for error because those tools require so much muscle and force to utilize in furniture upholstering. An air-powered tool increases precision, while saving your hand, wrist, elbow, shoulders, and back. When you’re selecting a pneumatic stapler, be sure to choose one that feels natural in your hand with a weight that won’t become cumbersome across a day of work.

Designed to be used with DOT® Durable™ Fasteners, the #169N Phillips Head Screwdriver works for both plastic and metal applications.

If your fabrication work involves sheet metal, such as with awnings, a hand notcher will make it possible to create an arch.

Almost indistinguishable from an ice pick to the untrained eye, a regulator’s sturdy steel point comes in handy as a tucking tool when trying to secure upholstery fabric and get it to lay flat. An essential furniture upholstery tool, if you're in need of one, C.S. Osborne's regulators are well-made and inexpensive.

This hole cutter tool can create precise holes in your fabric for fasteners, washers, and grommets. Use with a mallet or dead blow hammer to create holes in outdoor fabric, furniture upholstery cloth, marine canvas, metal tubing, and more.

A urethane cutting pad or block will protect your work bench or table while you’re working with fabric. It will also increase the longevity of your punches, hole cutters, and dies.

While you can use a hacksaw, a portable tubing cutter will make an easier and a cleaner cut in aluminum or stainless steel.

For fabrication and upholstery jobs that require stretching leather, canvas, or jute webbing across frames, these stretching pliers are invaluable.

Soft-faced dead blow hammers like these are used with grommet dies for hand installation. Rawhide mallets can also work.

Tack hammers are, in general, highly useful in securing upholstery fabric to frames with tacks. They become even more useful when magnetized, improving tack placement accuracy.

This bench-mounted mulit-duty hand press uses dies and a lever to set grommets and fasteners.

Setting dies make working with grommets a breeze. Use with a hammer or a grommet press tool.

A high-quality hand press will incorporate many of the same features of bench and foot presses but in a much smaller, more portable, and lower priced tool.

These Pres-N-Snap® setting tools work with different dies to install grommets and fasteners. Use it as a hand tool, or mount it to a bench to reduce hand strain.

The thick, heavy-duty blades on these Wiss® shears make it possible to cut through tough materials and multiple layers of fabric. They come in the 10-¼” length, which makes a cut 4-¾” long, or the 12-¼” length, which makes a cut 6-⅛” long.

High-quality and durable, these 10-½” German-made pinking shears will help to minimize fabric fraying along cuts.

Thread nippers make accessing and trimming excess pieces of thread in hard-to-reach places a breeze, provided they are sharp (and sharpened regularly). These thread nippers by Clauss feature a quick action spring return and an ergonomic design and built-in thumb rest, making them remarkably easy and efficient to use.

Fabrication work can be hard on your hands. A pair of ergonomic shears can help ease strain. Designed with a larger bottom ring that allows all four fingers or three gloved fingers to fit inside it comfortably, these shears allow you to use your whole hand when cutting, which adds cutting leverage and reduces wrist strain.

When you need to make cuts of almost surgical precision in fabrication and upholstery work, Kretzer trim shears are the right tool for the job. These trim shears can be used with the right or left hand and feature a curved blade for even, perfect cuts. They come in a 10” length or a 12” length.

While not a pair of scissors or shears, the electric hot knife is, nevertheless, an essential cutting tool for the fabricator and upholsterer. Designed to cut and then seal the edges of synthetic fabric, the hot knife can simplify the process of cutting large pieces of fabric with precision.

While it’s technically an upholstery supply more than an upholstery tool, Seamstick’s usefulness in fabrication is unparalleled. Use it to baste hems in place before sewing for drapery, marine applications, shade sails, sun sails, and more.

Also called “spit pencils,” these pencils make it easy to see your marks on a wide variety of fabrics. They also come right off with water and a cloth.