Augers and gimlets are tools used to bore holes in wood. They consist of a metal bit that digs out wood when it is rotated, and a handle, usually wood, mounted on the far end that is turned by hand. The primary difference between augers and gimlets is size: augers require two hands to turn, while gimlets need only one hand.
Man with an Auger, by Albrecht Dürer, ca 1496, via Wikimedia Commons
The augers I'll write about here are woodworking tools used by themselves, sometimes called T-augers because the handles are set perpendicular to the shaft. I will cover woodworking auger bits, which are used with a brace or drill, in a future post. Other types of augers include earth augers, grain augers, coal augers, mine augers, and ice augers, but the Tison Tool Barn does not have any examples of those types of augers.
Besides boring holes for pegs, or more recently, bolts, augers are also used to remove much of the waste wood from rectangular holes, such as mortises. Gimlets are often used for pre-drilling nail and screw holes. A woodworker would need a set of augers and gimlets in various sizes. As the handles are fixed, the woodworker would also need a lot of storage space.
Besides boring holes for pegs, or more recently, bolts, augers are also used to remove much of the waste wood from rectangular holes, such as mortises. Gimlets are often used for pre-drilling nail and screw holes. A woodworker would need a set of augers and gimlets in various sizes. As the handles are fixed, the woodworker would also need a lot of storage space.
Early augers were of the spoon, pod, or shell type, with a half cylinder forming the cutting part, tapering to a rounded point on the end, on a shaft extending to the handle. Spoon augers are known from more than a thousand years ago, and perhaps were used as long ago as classical times (2,000 or so years ago). The Viking-age Mästermyr chest that I mentioned last week held a number of spoon augers.
Spoon auger. Photo by Jens Mohr, via Wikimedia.
Spoon augers require a starting hole, made by a chisel or other cutting tool. Another disadvantage of spoon augers is that chips and shavings accumulate in the hole, and the auger has to be periodically withdrawn to clear the hole. The Tison Tool Barn does not hold any examples of plain spoon augers. It does have an auger, shown below, that appears to be a twisted spoon auger with a conical screw point, also known as a gimlet point. The screw point, which is found on all of the augers and gimlets in the Tison Tool Barn, allows the auger to start its own hole, and helps pull the auger into the wood as it is cutting a hole. This auger bores a hole 1/2 inch in diameter. The shaft is 7 inches long and the handle is 8 1/2 inches across.
Photo by Donald Albury.
Spoon augers were eventually replaced by twist or screw augers. A screw auger has the form of an Archimedes' screw, with a helical surface extending about one-half of the length of the auger. The bottom of the helix has a cutting edge which shaves wood from the bottom of the hole as the auger is turned. The helical surface lifts the waste wood up and out of the hole. A typical screw auger, as in the detail view below, has a conical screw point on the end, which helps center the auger as the hole is started, and draws the auger into the wood. It also has spurs at the outside edge of the cutting blade to cut wood fibers and permit the shavings to be lifted up without tearing the wood. The screw auger may have been invented in the 18th century, but did not come into wide use until the 19th century. The conical screw point, or gimlet point, on an auger was patented in 1809.
Photo by Donald Albury.
The Tison Tool Barn has several screw augers, shown below. They bore holes that range from 9/16 inch to 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
Photos by Donald Albury.
The Tison Tool Barn also has several gimlets, shown below. All of the gimlets in the Tool Barn are of the spoon or twisted spoon type and have conical screw points like those on the screw augers in the Tool Barn. They bore holes that range from 3/32 to 3/8 inch in diameter.
Photos by Donald Albury.
I have not found a comprehensive history of augers and gimlets on the Internet, but a few short bits of information are at:
Augers, Gimlets, and Braces, at Colonial Williamsburg
The Mästermyr Find, page 13
Auger, in Encyclopedia Britannica
Spoon auger - a carpenter's tool (BBC)
Another source (for information about all sorts of old hand tools) is:
Walsh, Peter C., Woodworking Tools 1600-1900, Smithsonian Institution. The e-book version is downloadable for free from Project Gutenberg. Information about augers is found starting at location 515.
Augers, Gimlets, and Braces, at Colonial Williamsburg
The Mästermyr Find, page 13
Auger, in Encyclopedia Britannica
Spoon auger - a carpenter's tool (BBC)
Another source (for information about all sorts of old hand tools) is:
Walsh, Peter C., Woodworking Tools 1600-1900, Smithsonian Institution. The e-book version is downloadable for free from Project Gutenberg. Information about augers is found starting at location 515.
RSS Feed
