Shortly after I made my copy of Scott Grandstaff’s perfect handle birdcage awl,
I found 3 more junk perfect handle screwdrivers for almost nothing, and bought
them for the purpose of making more awls.

I learned something while doing this. It is quite difficult to do the grinding
on a bench grinder. I used a cheapie Horror Fright disc grinder on the shaping
part while the screwdrivers were held fast in my vise. This makes the main part
of the grinding go a lot faster. Then I went to the bench grinder for the final
grinding. By the way, the flats on the blade are the reference surfaces to grind
the other 2 sides square. Adjust the tool rest to get a square grind while you
hold the flat on the tool rest.

Of course, the grinding process ruins the temper of the tool, so I had to re-
harden and temper each one.

Making the scales: I learned that a piece of white paper held on the handle and
rubbed with a dirty finger gives me a good pattern. I cut out the papers and
glued them to the wood for the scales. When dry, I cut the scales out on the
bandsaw. Then used my stationary disc sander to grind them to fit. They are
still flat at this point. Now I epoxy one in place, then drill the holes. Now I
epoxy the other one and drill the remaining holes in the other scale. It’s easy
to lose the hole location if you put both scales on at once.

Now to the vise to hold the tool while I rasp off what isn’t needed, then sand
and polish. The last thing I do is put in the cutlery rivets. See the picture:

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er182014?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Of course I do not need 4 of these tools. I plan to use 3 of them for gifts,
provided I can find some people I like well enough to give them to. :>)