62/153

A gimlet is a tool used to bore small holes in wood as pilot holes for nails and screws. This gimlet was used by a saddler and cobbler in Yattendon, Berkshire, who had worked there from 1901 until the early 1960s.

1 gimlet: wood; metal

Letter, Miss F. Palmer to Mr Higgs, 2nd May 1962 - 'Our village Saddler + cobbler Mr Burnham has just died. He had had the shop here since 1901 and his father was also a saddler in Reading...', MERL ‘Associated information’ form – [55/156] – ‘A gimlet may be described as a small auger, but it differs from the auger in that it only requires a hand to turn it. These small tools are of great antiquity, being known to the Romans – terebra antiqua. The gimlet differs from the bradawl in that it cuts a hole in wood rather than squeezing the fibres of the wood as the bradawl does. Generally the blade of the gimlet like the shell auger is concave with sharpened edges, and in addition to the down piercing of the lower part of the tool, its sides also widen the boring. More recent gimlets generally factory made ones show blades conspicuously twisted into sharpened spirals, while unlike the unsharpened spirals of the spiral auger, some cut the hole to its full diameter after where they stop cutting.’

1901 - 1962

Wood, Metal