Awl --
It seems to me not of people use these, as I rarely see them in a shop's tool holders/racks.
Seems to me they would offer the most economy ito total cutting edge, and are geometrically simpler than anything else. And thus would be a mainstay in the job shop.
Do they have a more specific use?
I can tell you one industrial use for them, and big-assed very thick 1+" round inserts (hole in center), at that:
The are used on "wheel-truing" machines in railroad repair shops, to re-face the very heavy wheels on railroad cars. These wheels are deceptively heavy, weighing in at 800+ lbs *each* (no axle, no hardware, just the wheel) on *small* lite-duty railroad cars.
The face of the wheel not only rides on the track (and can wind up with "flats", if the car is dragged along with the hand brakes left on), but is also where the brake pads are applied, which can leave grooves.
I forgot exactly the type of tool used to hold these inserts, but I remember seeing what seemed like hundreds of them mounted. The chips that come off weigh a good part of an ounce, and come off in a blue/black *hailstorm*. wow.... A person in the path of these chips for more than a few seconds could easily be killed, certainly permanently maimed. The noise is beyond deafening, shakes the body.
I *think* the tool that holds these inserts is itself a wheel, mebbe a foot in dia, which is why I seem to remember so many inserts mounted at once. The railroad wheel is slowly turned, while the inserted wheels spins very rapidly, probably moving transverse to the surface an inch or two.
The railroad car wheels are never removed for this process. The whole car (or even a whole multi-car "consist") is brought to special tracks, where a section drops out, exposing the wheels, and the true-ing business then comes up from underneath to start the cutting.
A very very expensive heavy piece of apparatus, all hydraulically moved/operated, except for the motors spinning the tool, which I think are like 25+ hp. The true-ing process itself is actually perty quick, a fraction of the time it takes to actually set the whole thing up.
That's the only time I've seen round inserts used to any great extent.
More than you wanted to know, I'm sure....