Pardon my ignorance........

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I don't know a whole lot about the Neander tools. I was at a website this evening searching for a jacobs chuck for my lathe and stumbled into the hand tool section. They had some interesting "new" neander tools.


I realise a "gimlet" is used for drilling small holes but for what?....pinning mortise and tenon joints?

Thanks.

[John Packwood]

I belive it is used to make holes for screws or pins as you suggested. I have never used one. Same era as a brace and bit.

[Rick Markham]

Ken, yer in flat lander world...:D I was hoping you were gonna show us a new treddle lathe or something :p

The design of a gimlet is different from an auger. Once the tip is fed into wood there is no downward pressure required to drill the hole only the twisting action. Because of this when drilling a hole where your worried about an auger bit skittering around a bit before catching, a gimlet is excellent. There is little risk of splitting the wood, since there is little to no downward pressure required, the gimlet neatly shears the fibers of the wood and feeds itself in. Its also a useful tool if your trying to avoid drilling too deep. ;)

That's the best answer I can give ya, hopefully someone else will come along and give ya the "million dollar" answer your looking for! Jim? George? Where are ya?

[Don Dorn]

On Chris Swartz's "Forgotten Hand Tools" DVD, he used them to put a pilot hole at an angle on the underside of a shelf. Not only did he go in at a slight angle, he also angled it in so that the cut nails he drilled them for went in in a dovetail fashion. It was simply to prevent splitting the wood with the wedge of the cut nail.

I got the impression that he didn't think that the sun rose and set on them, but it was handy because the chuck of a drill couldn't get close enough to the work without the chuck getting in the way.

I used one once for putting the pilots in for hinges because it's very accurate, but really, I just use a hinge bit and my cordless as it's faster and just as accurate, but I can see it would be handy for hard to reach pilot holes.

[george wilson]

Gimlets were handy for drilling smallish holes to put a nail or screw in We have an unused "Gentleman's tool chest" in Williamsburg,which includes a scaled down jack plane of mahogany,a small tack hammer,a folding rule (which we copied for the folding rules Jon and I made for the Historic Area), a square,and a few gimlets.

I suppose the gimlets took up less space than a brace and bits,too.

[Andrew Gibson]

Would everyone stop talking about tools I don't have!...

Wait, there would be no myre SMC. Carry on.

[John Toigo]

I have a set of 3' augers with a matching gimlet. I believe the gimlet was used to start or locate holes for the augers. Since the auger is so long the gimlet is equal length.

Must be an ols electricians set eh?

[Leigh Betsch]

Gimlet, I thought that was a drink made of gin!
Or is a that a Gim Ginlet, hic...

[Gary Herrmann]

Careful Ken. The slope is just as strong for some as the vortex.

[David Weaver]

So, what's the connection with the term "gimlets" (the little hole starts) and gimlet bits?

What were gimlet bit used for traditionally? The former are easy to find. The latter, not so much.

Edit: never mind, found the answer. They both push the fibers aside instead of cutting at the end of the bit, and then cut with the sides of the bit as the taper gets fatter.

The only thing I know about the former is I saw a lot of them for sale when trying to find the gimlet brace bits. In fact, the only place I found any gimlet brace bits was on ebay, all from the same seller, and not all of them are in stellar condition. I suppose the odds of a bucket full of them showing up is pretty slim.

[paul cottingham]

Roy Underhill describes them as an unpleasant torture device. Does that help?

[Bill Houghton]

The only thing I know about the former is I saw a lot of them for sale when trying to find the gimlet brace bits. In fact, the only place I found any gimlet brace bits was on ebay, all from the same seller, and not all of them are in stellar condition. I suppose the odds of a bucket full of them showing up is pretty slim.

I guess you have to be in the right place. I find them from time to time at estate sales. Maybe, if I weren't gathering them for my own use, I'd be on deBay competing with that other seller.

[Andrae Covington]

So, what's the connection with the term "gimlets" (the little hole starts) and gimlet bits?

What were gimlet bit used for traditionally? The former are easy to find. The latter, not so much.

Edit: never mind, found the answer. They both push the fibers aside instead of cutting at the end of the bit, and then cut with the sides of the bit as the taper gets fatter.

The only thing I know about the former is I saw a lot of them for sale when trying to find the gimlet brace bits. In fact, the only place I found any gimlet brace bits was on ebay, all from the same seller, and not all of them are in stellar condition. I suppose the odds of a bucket full of them showing up is pretty slim.

I bought a handful (the brace bits) on ebay a while back, but haven't tried them out yet. I think two or three are the same size, so it certainly wasn't a graduated set... different manufacturers at any rate. The teensy one is about 1/16".

Larry Williams, in his video on side-escapement planes, used a gimlet bit in a brace to start the mortise for the wedge. The advantage he seemed to tout was being able to drill an angled hole (can be difficult with auger bits) and do some steering along the way. By the way I think he talked about how to make your own.

[Tony Shea]

I beleive as has been said before they are just a tool designed to make pilot holes by hand in tight spaces. They can be very accurate especially when using some sort of guide block to start them with and very easy to twist due to the threaded tips. I own a few sizes and use them a lot. Much more handy than a cordless with that awful metal chuck spinning so close to my finished work.

Honestly I got the idea of their use from Chris Schwarz and use them ever since. Cheap and very handy tool.

[John Toigo]

Andrae - two of the bits in the picture have a notch so I assume they all do? Those are for the older style brace which has a spring clip retainer instead of a chck with jaws. Those are a bit unusual.

[Andrae Covington]

Andrae - two of the bits in the picture have a notch so I assume they all do? Those are for the older style brace which has a spring clip retainer instead of a chck with jaws. Those are a bit unusual.

Ah, thanks for the info! I wondered about the notches. Only those two have them, along with a small spoon/shell bit that I didn't include in the photos.

That's what I love about this place. Always learning something new. Or something old, as the case may be.

[Bill Houghton]

Interestingly, gimlets for augers came in sizes of 32nds, as opposed to the 16ths that were common steps for auger bit sizes. Somewhere on one of the fora, someone posted a list of the basic kit for lighthouse maintenance from about the turn of the last century, and it included small gimlets for an auger, covering the sizes down around 1/4" and smaller.

[harry strasil]

Duh, gimlets were easy for the Blacksmith to make, compared to an auger or twist drill.

[David Keller NC]

Andrae is correct - the principal advantage of a gimlet bit over a jenning's patent auger bit (the "modern" type with a lead screw and a twist-fluted shank) is that you can easily bore small holes at an angle. This is probably why gimlet bits were and are still being made. They share this attribute with shell bits, but they have an advantage over that older design - shell bits start by going around in a circle rather than entering the wood where the point of the bit is placed. That makes precisely locating a hole quite difficult.

One note - gimlets will split wood much more so than a fluted jennings or irwin pattern auger bit because they largely push the wood aside rather than cutting out a circle. Nevertheless, they are really handy for making small nail, tack and screw holes and I use them all the time when I'm not close enough to the end of a board to make splitting a big risk.

Lee valley sells a modern set of gimlets for not much money. I have them and they're OK, but because the handles are just a bent over section of the wire shank, they're downright uncomfortable to use when doing more than a few holes. For that reason, the traditional wooden egg handle or t-handle gimlets are much preferred if you can find them.

[Jerome Bias]

Thanks for that clear and concise description.

[Adam Cherubini]

i believe there are many different types of gimlets. Those shown above, I believe to be called "Swiss pattern". They don't have a lead screw.

The other 3 common types are the wire gimlets that Lee Valley sells, twist gimlets and shell gimlets. The wire gimlets don't work much better that brad awls in my opinion. Twist gimlets are okay. They are 19th c types predominantly. Shell gimlets are more common of the 18th c. Instead of a lead screw followed by a twisted auger like part, they have lead screws followed by a shell like bit. These are the easiest to sharpen and in my opinion, cut the best holes.

I believe gimlets were used to make small holes in lieu of a brace bit (which must have been a somewhat expensive tool.) Augers were probably not available in most of the 18th c.

Adam

[Adam Cherubini]

In use, I have found gimlets helpful for mounting drawer locks. These are typically fitted after the drawers are together. I drill the hole for the key and the fastener holes typically from the back of the drawer front.

I can't get a brace and bit in there typically and if I could, I couldn't swing it. I don't think an electric drill motor would fair better.

I've not seen traditional shell or twist gimlets small enough for the nails I use. It
s possible these were designed for larger nails like those joiners or carpenters might use. I use bradawls for the tiny holes for the tiny nails I use to hold moldings on.

I don't use a lot of wood screws in my furniture, tho they aren't uncommon. So I guess my use of gimlets is pretty limited to miscellaneous work and the attachment of hardware (drawer pulls and locks). The advantage of a gimlet over a brace bit for me is the convenience and one handed, no need to clamp the project, operation.

Adam