51/176

An auger is a boring tool used in a variety of woodworking trades, such as carpentry, wheelwrighting and ship-building, to bore long deep holes. Shell augers have been used since Roman times and remained in common use until the development of the spiral auger. Part of the auger bores the bottom of the hole as the tool goes round and another part holds the shavings and discharges them when the tool is pulled out. This auger cuts holes which are 1.3cm in diameter. It has 'Coulson Brothers, Sheffield' inscribed on the handle, and was obtained by the donor from a master carpenter in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire.

1 shell auger; wood and metal; fair condition

Citation in publication [H. J. Massingham, 'Country Relics' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1939)] –' Its natural fellows are three shell-augers in three different sizes given to me by [the donor], for boring timber, especially in the beams and rafters of barn interiors, long before the centre-bit and the spiral-bit for use in the modern brace replaced them. The shell auger is without a point, so that a preliminary hole had to be cut in the wood by gouge and mallet. Nevertheless, the obsolete shell-auger had this advantage over its smarter successor, the screw-pointed auger: it kept true to line, whatever the slant in the grain of the wood; whereas the screw-points will insist, in Mr Rose's words ("The Village Carpenter"), "In following the direction of the grain, to the utter ruin of a central hold through any piece of wood." (p.65) [see also 51/55], MERL list / description [Massingham Collection, October 1989] – 'ACC. NO.: 51/176 // NAME: SHELL AUGER // NEG NO.: 35/20 // STORAGE: '

Sheffield

Wood, Metal