I have that awl or it’s knock and on my first repairs years ago did use it. Maybe I’m just older now but I still had too much trouble pushing that awl needle through—even after tapering the tip on the grinding wheel. Of course with it you can duplicate the exact stitching. Now I found a hint I think from Brandt about just using a single thread back and forth (through three holes back one skip forward and repeat) that keeps the same crossings diagonally—which is important to have the tire have proper shape. In the end it was quicker for me. Maybe I just did not have the right awl needles.
This is not time consuming for me as I collect all my flats (about one a year) and do the whole bunch at once during down times. All this talk about repairs could put people off on tubies! And out of four tires saved three and that works out to a nice sum to save.